The new auction website challenging Trade Me, Wheedle, has been picked apart since it opened for business this week, but new security problems may mean it's a danger to sellers.
The site crashed regularly on opening day and was seen as trying to replicate Trade Me, but these became minor issues once it was revealed by twitter user @ruatara that it was possible to buy any item on Wheedle for any price you want. That is because it is possible to go into the site and change prices.
In a conversation with tech writer Ben Gracewood (@nzben) @ruatara said:
"Yes really, view and edit any auctions pricing. just login, view the target auction, then go to /Search/EditPrice."
Gracewood followed this up and discovered it was true, causing an avalanche of calls for Wheedle to be closed immediately.
NBR has also reportedly tried and successfully lowered the price on an auction by $1 and then put it back to its original price.
This security lapse follows the discovery that Wheedle is apparently storing passwords in plain text, unencrypted. Many New Zealand website developers are shocked by this and are, again, calling for Wheedle to shut up shop until these issues are addressed.
Given the chances that consumers could be hurt in the pocket and potentially have personal information exposed by buying or selling items on Wheedle, Consumer NZ recommends people stick with Trade Me until Wheedle can confirm that the issues are fixed.
In the meantime Wheedle is down for maintenance, again.作者: Naati 时间: 2012-10-2 23:26:15