My Etsy Shop Got Hacked

My Etsy shop got hacked, and it took me 8 days to get it back. I learned a lot throughout the whole process and will share my experience with you. If your shop has been hacked, but Etys’s customer support keeps telling you to wait for the “specialists” to get back to you, don’t wait any longer. I was in the same helpless situation as you for 8 days! Breath deep, stay calm and let’s get your shop back!

This is an article about how my Etsy shop got hacked and what action steps I took to get it back.

 

Quick Intro to myself and how my Etsy shop got hacked

My name’s Jennifer and I started my digital printables shop PrintableForPlanners 3 years ago. On Sep 10th I suddenly wasn’t able to log back into my shop. I quickly found out that my email address to my Etsy shop had been deleted and didn’t exist anymore. Later I was able to log back in again with the same email address but couldn’t access my shop anymore. My account was swapped with someone else’s account named “Mary”.

 

Contacting Etsy’s Customer Support for 7 days straight with no help!

I sent Etsy a hacking report and also immediately contacted Etsy’s customer support. Etsy was fast to follow up with me and confirmed that my shop had been hacked and that someone else had logged in as me, as well as changed the email address, password and Paypal address connected to my shop. My two-factor authenticator was on, so the hackers must have had access to my email account and password!

Etsy’s customer support assured me that they had received my report and that they would look into it and get back to me as quickly as possible.

I asked them if there was anything we could do in the meantime, such as freezing my shop and stopping all activities until the issue had been resolved, however, Etsy support kept saying there wasn’t anything they could do and that they couldn’t freeze the shop (even though it was very obvious that suspicious activities were going on).

The next day I still wasn’t able to get back to my shop and still hadn’t heard back from Etsy.

So I got back with Etsy’s chat customer support for a follow up and continued doing that for 7 days straight at least once a day in hope someone would finally kick out the hackers and look into my case. All I got from them was that my ticket was in the queue and the “specialists” would take a look and get back to me soon.

 

Alerting my customers!

In the meantime I alerted my customers through social media that something was wrong with my shop and that no one should place any orders. I also asked for anyone who was browsing on Etsy to quickly stop by my shop and leave a report on the front page in hope that would alert Etsy as well. My customers and flowers were very kind and many did leave a review. However, nothing helped..

 

My debit card information got stolen by the hackers!

On the 5th day, on Sep 15th I suddenly got an email from Paypal of a transaction. That is when I found out that my Paypal had been reconnected to my shop. On that day I received all my revenues from orders placed on Sep 15th. I thought Etsy had finally fixed my issue but I was wrong. What really happened was that the hackers tried to pay my Etsy fees using my Paypal account. Well that didn’t work for them..

Then 2 days later on Sep 17th I was alerted by my bank that an unauthorized transaction of 346 USD had been made on my debit card. So now the hackers also were able to get to my debit card information! I alerted the bank, froze the card and disputed that transaction.

At this point I was very frustrated! Not only with the hackers but also with Etsy’s poor and slow Customer support and security team! For 7 days straight I was at risk of:

• My personal/bank Informations being stolen
• The hackers downloading and reselling my digital products somewhere else
• The hackers possibly deleting over 1000s of my listings
• Informations of customers who just placed an order being stolen
• Changes being made to my shop

 

How I got my shop back with Etsy’s Security Team

I spent hours researching Etsy’s forum and found a post that had been posted by another Etsy shop owner, who had the same hacking issue as I did. She was able to fix her issue within minutes. I followed her method and basically did what she did to get the shop back.

Here are the 3 action steps I took to get my shop back:

• I filed a BBB, Better Business Bureau complaint against Etsy. You can click here to file one as well.
• I filed a report on FBI IC3, the Internet Crime Complaint Center against Etsy and the hacker. (If you know the hacker’s Paypal address and name, add those informations to the report as well. Get a family member or friend to purchase an item so you can at least see to which Paypal account the money is going)
• I sent Etsy a lengthy email, attaching both BBB and FBI IC3 documents. I threatened to go public with my hacked Etsy account story with one of the United States biggest news publishers (New York times). I also mentioned an attorney would be in contact soon if this issue wouldn’t get solved.

Step 1. Filing a complaint with the BBB against Etsy

I went to the BBB’s website and filed a report against Etsy. If you haven’t yet, I would suggest you do this as well. Make sure you have a copy of your complaint, which you later can send to Etsy.

Step 2. Filing a report with the FBI IC3, Internet Crime Complaint Center

Next, I went on to the IC3 and filed a report about my shop being hacked. My mother was kind enough to place an order to my shop, so she could see who the hacker was on the Paypal Receipt. I used the name and email on the hacker’s Paypal receipt and gave that information to the IC3. I also added Etsy to the report. I explained my whole situation, as well as how poorly my case has been handled.

If you file a report at IC3, make sure to save the report’s document as well so you can show it to Etsy.

Step 3. Filing a report with your local Police Station or Cyber Unit

Etsy solved my issue before I was able to file an additional report at the local Police Station, but if you can, I suggest you report your hacked account to the police. Make sure you get a copy of your complaint to show to Etsy.

Step 4. Contacting Etsy and sending all documents in an Email or through Etsy’s Chat Support

After I filed all my reports I started writing a lengthy email to Etsy. You can also do this through Etsy’s Chat Customer Support. But since I was on a private email thread between a customer support employee and her advisor, I decided to write an email instead. I had planned to contact them through customer support chat if they wouldn’t reply to my email.

Here is an outline of my email I sent to Etsy. I mentioned following:

• I mentioned I had filed a report with the BBB and the IC3. I attached both my complaint documents below.
• I mentioned I would visit the local police office in the morning and file an additional report against Etsy and the hacker.
• I also mentioned that I knew who the hackers were and mentioned the name and Paypal address of the hacker, I found out through a purchase placed by my mother.
• I mentioned that I had contacted one of US’ biggest news publishers and sent them my story about my hacked account and how poor my experience with Etsy’s customer support and security team was.
• I also told them that I would get an attorney involved if this wouldn’t get solved and that I already had contacted my attorney about this.
• I explained to them my whole situation and how helpless I felt and how disappointed I was in Etsy’s way of solving an issue like this.
• Lastly, I confirmed my identity by adding my full name and home address. Since I was traveling in the United States while my shop got hacked, I also added a copy of my flight ticket in case this email would get flagged due to my IP Address.

 

I got my shop back the next morning

After I sent them my email at midnight, I finally received an email from Etsy’s Security Team the next morning, 9am. They confirmed that they had reconnected my Paypal account back to my shop, as well as changed the email address of my shop back to mine. Then all I had to do was reset my password and I was back in! Yay!

After 8 days, I was able to get my shop back. This should have been handled much faster. No shop owner whose account has been hacked should be waiting days or even weeks to get their Etsy shop back while watching a criminal commit his crime. This has to be fixed!

 

Conclusion

A hacked business is a big problem that needs to be addressed immediately. Etsy’s current procedure is ineffective, and they clearly need a better solution. What would have helped is if Etsy’s Chat Customer support had enough authority to temporarily freeze the shop and stop any suspicious activities until they got to work on the case. If no one could access the shop, and no purchases could be made, then no one would be at risk of getting their private information stolen by hackers. There are countless other shop owners on Etsy’s forum who all are sharing the exact same experience. It took weeks to get their shop back if they even were able to.

It is heartbreaking and scary. I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy. You can always reach out to me on Etsy if your shop has been hacked and if you have questions. I will be happy to help you out as best as I can. You’re not alone in this. If I was able to get my shop back, then you can too! You can also join Planify Pro’s Facebook group whether you are a subscriber or not and let us know about your hacked shop. Many will be happy to help report your shop!

Always remember to keep a 2-factor authenticator on your Etsy shop activated, as well as one on the email account that is linked to your Etsy shop. If you get your shop back, be sure to change all your passwords and enable two-step verification everywhere.

Good luck, Jennifer

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