eBay Temporarily Disables Community Direct Messages to Fight Scams
eBay temporarily disabled the feature after an increase in phishing scams through community direct messages, which often use account verification requests and 24-hour deadlines to induce users to click links.
What are the key facts?
- 1September 1, 2026
- 2eBay community boards
- 3Phishing direct messages
What happened?
eBay notified sellers that it had detected an increase in phishing scam direct messages on the community section, community.ebay.com, and had therefore decided to temporarily disable community direct messages. The scams primarily target community users and sellers, with senders impersonating platform security teams or other official representatives.
The notice said some scam messages claim to concern account security verification, ask recipients to click external links and create urgency with countdowns such as “complete verification within 24 hours.” These messages may direct users to unofficial pages where they are asked to submit account login information or other security verification details.
eBay’s measure targets the community direct-message channel, which the platform has temporarily closed to reduce the spread of suspicious messages. When handling account security, transactions or platform notifications, sellers need to distinguish messages from community users from notices issued through eBay’s official channels.
What does this mean for cross-border sellers?
eBay’s closure of community direct messages shows that seller-account security risks now extend from email to internal platform communications. Highest-priority action: this week, establish a uniform official-notification verification process for your team, cross-checking every security alert through Seller Hub or an official customer-service channel before taking action.