An Australian eBay user discovered an online merchant's database - with her name, phone number, and address - after doing a Google search for her name.

Before you pay for anything online, you should check if the merchant you are dealing with is fully adept at security measures to keep your private information safe. One of the worst things that could happen is having your personal details (phone numbers, postal addresses, e-mail addresses) exposed -- which happened to one eBay merchant recently.

Merchant "shahizanhashim," based in Malaysia, exposed hundreds of Aussies to risk when it published their personal details after they purchased items through its auction site, tropicalsale.com.

The Web site sold clothing on the auction site and exposed the details of 303 Australians who bought items through its eBay account. Details about their customers could be found through a simple Google search.

In a statement, the merchant's owners apologised to customers and said they didn't realise Google had indexed a page in their Web site, which they thought was only visible to them, reported The Age.

The database had a total of 791 customer transactions, including 228 transactions with customers in the US.

The customer, who didn't want to be named because she feared people could still Google her name and find her personal information, said she recently bought Christmas presents from the eBay seller.

"I found that my personal details have been comprised and are floating around in Internet land for all to see," she said, adding, "It sends a clear warning to eBay buyers that you may think your details are safe but they are not."

The Age reached eBay's Australian head of communications, Sandy Culkoff, who said the auction company was successfully able to shut down the page, which was hosted on the merchant's own Web site, not eBay's.

"No personal financial information, such as credit card details, were provided by eBay or exposed by the seller," Culkoff said.