Hacking; Drawbacks of Depop highlighted due to online shopping

By Kayley Hardiman

Since lockdown first began in March there has been a huge increase in online shopping. This has been a huge draw for people to look for products on the popular shopping app Depop. However, with any online shopping app, there can be problems for shoppers such as hacking.

One Irish Depop user, Clodagh McGinley was recently hacked on Depop by another user who made a fake listing for an iPhone.Clodagh divulged what happened to her account:

“I logged into PayPal to see that someone had opened a dispute against me for scamming them and that they were demanding £500.

I was bewildered & honestly pretty frightened by the whole thing! After a few phone calls and emails, I was able to process a refund for the girl who’d paid the £500.”

Clodagh says she was lucky that the other girl was understanding of the situation as they both realised they had been victims of hacking. She was disappointed by the lack of help from Depop and will not be using the app again.

Hacking: Illegal access to accounts

The craziest aspect of Clodagh’s story is that she didn’t discover that she had been hacked until 2 weeks later as she had deleted the Depop app on her phone. It was only when Clodagh logged into Depop and saw that someone had sent her £500 but had also opened a dispute against her that she realised what had happened.

Clodagh said “unfortunately the hacker was still able to access my account because deleting the app doesn’t delete your data etc. Their security is appalling to the point of non-existent.”

Clodagh’s story highlights the importance of having different passwords for your accounts to prevent hacking:

“The hacker hoped they’d be able to take the money from my PayPal, but thankfully I used different passwords for Depop & PayPal – if they’d been able to take the money, I’d have been £500 out of pocket having to refund the girl who’d bought the ‘iPhone’! I never saw the money going in as I’d only really check my PayPal if I was about to buy something.”

Clodagh had not used Depop much apart from some browsing in the last two years but really liked Depop before she experienced hacking for the first time:

“I’d had nothing but good experience with it! This is the first time anything like this has ever happened to me, it was a shock to the system! The worst part is that when I logged onto twitter & searched ‘Depop hacked’, *multiple* people had gone through the exact same thing as me!”

Another Depop user, Clare Bray, was also a victim of hacking on the shopping app. Clare bought a phone on Depop and once she had transferred the money the seller stopped replying.

Clare asked some of her friends to message the seller who replied and said she was still selling the phone but had since blocked Clare.

“I reported it to Depop, and they said there was no more they could do as it was a bank transfer. They didn’t even disable the account or take down the advert. I have been to the guards since and it is currently under investigation”, Clare says.

A Depop spokesperson issued the following statement in response to this:

“The safety of our community is Depop’s foremost priority. We take every single report of misuse and fraudulent behaviour on our platform extremely seriously.

Hearing about these experiences is always tough for us, and we’re committed to doing everything we can to reduce the risk of these situations happening again in the future”.

In Clare’s case, this fraudulent purchase was the result of an out-of-app transaction. Once we received the report and all the requested information, we banned @irwinsarse for fraudulent activity.

Out-of-app transactions, meaning the purchase was transacted via ‘out-of-app’ payment methods such as a direct bank transfer, Venmo or direct PayPal payments, etc, are explicitly prohibited on Depop and against our rules as you are not covered by any buyer or seller protection.

We consistently communicate this to our community and reinforce that the only safe way to purchase is on the Depop app or website via the buy button.”

Prepared by Patrick O’Brien

About the author

Kayley holds a degree in Journalism and New Media from the University of Limerick. She is from Westmeath and has previously worked as a Reporter for the Westmeath Independent and as a Researcher for Clare FM.

She loves modern dance, pop culture, and Netflix. She also enjoys feature writing and is interested in fashion, the arts, education, and current affairs. Kayley is currently freelancing for various outlets and is a Social Media Manager for Meadowfield Farm.

Twitter: @kkhardiman

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