Some criminals attempt to defraud people on eBay by illegally gaining access to member accounts and setting up fraudulent listings in that person’s name. Most often they obtain the member's user ID and password using a 'phishing' email.

By checking whether a seller is using one of their usual computers, we can better identify and stop this kind of fraudulent activity.

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When you sign in to your eBay account, we generate a unique ID that identifies the computer you've used to connect to eBay. This unique ID is stored on your computer using cookies and Flash objects so that the next time you visit eBay, we're able to confirm that you're using the same computer.

This unique ID is encrypted and doesn't include any contact information, such as your email address or details of your eBay transactions. We'll only use this information for Identity Confirmation.

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We know that many people use more than one computer to access their eBay accounts, so at first we will be noting all the computers you use for buying and selling on eBay without requiring additional verification for different computers.

Later this year, if you list an item using a different computer, we will request some additional verification to confirm that it's really you listing the item. We'll lead you through a simple process where we make an automated call to a phone number on your account and give you a PIN that you need to enter on an eBay page. If you can't go through that process, we'll ask you to contact Customer Support.

To help identity confirmation work quickly for you, we recommend that you take these steps:

Check that your personal information is current. We might need to confirm the information on your account, such as your telephone number or address. We also highly recommend that you provide us with a secondary phone number (for example a mobile number for when you are on the go).

Review your secret question. Make sure the secret question and answer you have on file is easy for you to remember and difficult for others to guess.

Note: We treat your phone number and other personal information in accordance with our Privacy Policy. We use standard industry practices, including encryption, passwords and physical security, to protect your personal information against unauthorised access and disclosure.

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You can delete Flash objects, or prevent the use of them on your computer, however we don't recommend that you do this. If you delete or disable Flash objects, we won't be able to recognise the computers you use frequently, and we may need to request additional verification from you at certain times.

If you'd like to change your cookie settings, get help with managing Flash objects.

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Much of our work is accomplished behind the scenes, but we also take very public actions to help prevent account theft. Recently these have included masking all bidder IDs on auction-style listings, locking dormant accounts, as well as our work with Yahoo! and other domains to block email from unauthenticated addresses.

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