Custom-built botnet steals eBay accounts

It's unknown what the identity thieves have done with stolen eBay log-ons. One eBay user, however, may have offered up a possibility Tuesday in a .

"I woke up this morning to a nightmare," wrote a Texas-based book collector identified on his blog only as Sam Houston. "Someone in England hacked into my personal eBay data and changed it to reflect a completely fraudulent identity with an English mailing address. That person than proceeded to send out at least 25 e-mails to individuals in the U.K. who are trying to sell Sony laptop computers on the site. He offered them more than they are asking for the laptops and wanted them mailed to him as soon as possible."

According to the blogger, the attacker has also compromised his PayPal account and tried to pay for the 25 notebooks using funds from the checking account linked to PayPal.

EBay did not reply to a request for comment Monday night.