A charge from EBAY O* on your statement

A line like EBAY O*25-13498-28339 WWW.EBAY.COM SAN JOSE CA is an order on eBay.⁶ The twelve digits after O* are the eBay order number. eBay gives every purchase a 12-digit order number and says you will need it “if you ever need to speak to us or your seller about a purchase.”¹ Unlike most statement names, this one hands you the key to the order.

What it looks like on a real statement

The State of Delaware publishes every purchase its employees make on state cards, with the merchant name as the bank received it. On 15 October 2026 it had 782 lines from eBay. Since 2022 nearly all of them are one form: EBAY O* and twelve digits in groups of two, five and five, 571 lines from October 2019 to September 2026.⁵

The change in the table is eBay taking over its own payments from PayPal. eBay says that “during 2021, we completed the migration of eBay’s managed payments in all markets.”⁷ In Delaware’s records the first EBAY O* line is dated 16 October 2019, the last line naming a seller through PayPal is dated 4 June 2021, and after that PayPal shows up only as PAYPAL *EBAY US, the last time in October 2022.⁵

Delaware’s records drop the town. A water district’s bank statement in California shows the full line: EBAY O*25-13498-28339 WWW.EBAY.COM SAN JOSE CA for $21.16 on 31 August 2025, and on the same day EBAY O*26-13496-77075 SAN JOSE CA for $30.56.⁶ eBay’s head office is in San Jose, California.⁷ Some banks print eBay O* in lower case; it is the same thing.

The number tells you roughly when

The middle five digits have only gone up. In Delaware’s records they run from about 4000 in late 2019 to about 15000 in 2026:⁵

Lines posted elsewhere fit the same pattern. A person who said they had never had an eBay account posted three charges in August 2024 with middle groups 11790, 11809 and 11862.⁸ The water district’s August 2025 lines have 13496 and 13498.⁶ The pattern is our reading of these records, not something eBay has published. It is useful for one thing: if the number on your statement belongs to a different year from the charge date, it was probably copied or mistyped. In a thread from about 2023 on eBay’s community forum, someone posted a $22.31 charge as Ebay O*09557-72440, with only ten digits; one reply said the same amount had come up in other threads about card misuse.⁹

One order, two lines

An eBay order can be charged in more than one piece. In Delaware’s records 41 order numbers appear on two or more charges, often on the same day for different amounts. The records do not say why; eBay’s help notes that one order can hold several items, each with its own item number.⁵¹ Refunds come back under the same number: 32 order numbers have a negative line, and in 26 of them the refund matches a charge to the cent, from the same day to 45 days later.⁵ So if you see the same number twice, check the order before assuming a double charge; if you see it with a minus sign, that is money coming back.

How to find the order and get your money back

1. Look the number up in your account Sign in to eBay, open Purchase history and choose View order details on each order; the 12-digit order number is on the details page, in the purchase history and in the confirmation email.¹ Check every eBay account anyone in your household uses.
2. If there is no account, retrieve the guest order Orders placed as a guest do not appear in any purchase history. eBay’s guest page has a “Retrieve guest order confirmation email” button: enter the order number or the email address used, and eBay sends a link to the order details. The guest confirmation email has the subject line “Order Confirmed”.² On eBay’s forum, a buyer who had only eBay O*20-09064-89672 San Jose CA from a September 2022 card statement and no confirmation email was pointed to this route.¹⁰
3. Ask the seller to cancel From Purchase history, choose More actions, then Cancel this order. The seller has 3 calendar days to accept or decline, and once the item has shipped it cannot be cancelled; you have to wait for it and request a return.³
4. If it did not arrive or is not as described eBay’s Money Back Guarantee lets you report an item that has not arrived from the estimated delivery date until 30 calendar days after it. The seller has 3 business days to respond, and you can ask eBay to step in from 3 to 21 business days after your report.⁴ It does not cover anything paid for partly outside eBay’s checkout.⁴
5. If nobody you know bought it, go to your bank On eBay’s forum, one reply to a 2024 post about three unknown eBay O* charges said that eBay will not tell a stranger what was bought on another person’s account.⁸ Tell your card issuer you want to dispute the charge, give them the line with the order number exactly as printed, and ask for a new card. Ask what its deadline for disputes is; it depends on the bank, the card network and the reason.

Is it a scam?

A line starting EBAY O* with a twelve-digit number is a real charge processed by eBay. But eBay charges whatever card is used at its checkout, and a guest checkout needs no account, only a card number. If no account you know of has the order and nobody in your household bought it, treat it as unauthorized and call your bank.

Other names

This site records payment companies that hold back money belonging to someone else. eBay is not in the incident record; this page is here so that people searching for a name on a statement find an answer. An eBay order paid with a PayPal account shows as PAYPAL *EBAY US. Other marketplaces write it differently: Amazon as AMAZON MKTPL with a code that changes every time, Etsy as ETSY.COM* and the shop’s name, Temu as TEMU.COM. Sellers who print their own labels through a postage service may see that service’s own lines, such as STAMPS.COM. Other names are in the table of statement names.

Sources

1. eBay Help, “Your eBay order number”. ebay.com/help. Read in a browser on 15 October 2026. Archived copy of 15 October 2026.
2. eBay Help, “Buying as a guest”. ebay.com/help. Read in a browser on 15 October 2026. Archived copy of 15 October 2026.
3. eBay Help, “How buyers can cancel an order”. ebay.com/help. Read in a browser on 15 October 2026.
4. eBay Help, “eBay Money Back Guarantee policy”, sections “Coverage, eligibility requirements, and exclusions” and “When the buyer doesn’t receive an item”. ebay.com/help. Read in a browser on 15 October 2026. The web archive was shown eBay’s robot check instead of the page.
5. State of Delaware Open Data, State Employee Credit Card Transactions, fields “merchant”, “trans_dt” and “merchandise_amt”. Lines containing EBAY (names such as OGLEBAY LODGING excluded by us). Queried and counted on 15 October 2026.
6. Apple Valley Foothill County Water District, California, bank statement for 1 to 31 August 2025 (PDF). avfwater.org. Read on 15 October 2026. Archived copy of 15 October 2026.
7. eBay Inc., annual report on Form 10-K for 2021, cover page and Part I. sec.gov. Read on 15 October 2026.
8. “Unknown purchase from eBay on my ban statement”, eBay Community, Payments board, posted 5 August 2024, and replies. community.ebay.com. Read in a browser on 15 October 2026. Archived copy of 15 October 2026.
9. “Charge on my credit card which I did not purchase.”, eBay Community, Buying board, posted about 2023, and replies. community.ebay.com. Read in a browser on 15 October 2026. Archived copy of 15 October 2026.
10. “Trying to get purchase receipt for warranty claim”, eBay Community, Ask a Mentor board, and the mentor’s answer. community.ebay.com. Read in a browser on 15 October 2026.