RE: Ebay problem?
Ryuji, Are you absolutely certain this message is from eBay? I receive several messages a week about updating my account and suspension of my account from "eBay". None of them are from eBay, but imposters who encourage you to log into a phony eBay account. Once there you "confirm" your personal information...you see where this is going. Their emails and web sites are identical to eBay's so it is impossible to tell the difference. The ONLY way to confirm that your original message is actually from eBay is to log into your account and go to the My Messages area. IF, the email you received is there then it is in fact from eBay. If not, then it is a fake and you can simply ignore it. Unless, of course, you logged into the fake site and "confirmed" personal and financial data--that's a problem! BTW, as a personal practice, I never use email links to access my eBay or PayPal accounts. I simply type in the url and log into my account directly. If your account is under suspension without cause then I suspect you unwittingly responded in the past to one of these bogus eBay emails and provided personal/financial information that was used by an unscrupulous person on eBay. Mark -----Original Message----- From: Ryuji Suzuki [mailto:rs@silvergrain.org] Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2007 12:02 AM To: alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca Subject: Ebay problem? Hello all, This posting is about my current difficulty with communicating with ebay. The reason I bring this here is because a lot of us rely on very obsolete and sometimes obscure equipment and parts, and ebay is an important channel to trade such items. I have heard of all sorts of troubles related to dealing with ebay themselves (not the sellers/buyers on ebay) but this is something I never realized until I had problems on my account. For those curious, if you google, you can find endless number of anti-ebay websites describing all sorts of troubles they had with ebay. I don't need to be another of those, so I keep this to a factual summary. I made my ebay account many years ago, in late 1990s. I have used only one account and have sold/bought about 20 times total since then. I have a very low activity level on ebay, and my most recent activity is already many months ago. Out of the blue, I have this email from e-bay: > Dear RS(my ebay handle here) (my ebay email address here), > > Your eBay account has been suspended because our records > indicate that it is associated with the following currently > suspended account: > > XYZ (someone else's ebay handle that I've never had anything > to do with) > > To review the eBay Previously Suspended Users policy, please go to: > > http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/rfe-previously-suspended.html > > ***During Your Suspension*** > > - You are not permitted to use eBay in any way. This > includes using another existing account, registering a new > account, or using any eBay services under any > name. Accounts or User IDs that are associated with your > account may also be suspended. > - Any outstanding seller fees are due immediately. eBay will > charge any amounts that you have not already disputed to > the billing method that is currently on file. > > Sincerely, > > eBay Trust & Safety This is unacceptable, since I do not know ANYTHING about the user XYZ above, never traded with them, or saw anything about them (until I googled this username after seeing this email). I wrote back, telling that this appears to be an error in their investigation, and I requested more careful evaluation of whatever they have gathered. They replied with another automated message: From: eBay Customer Support <rswebhelp@ebay.com> Subject: (a number) Your recent email to eBay's Trust and Safety Department (another number) > Dear Ryuji, > > Thank you for writing eBay in regard to your account > suspension. > > We value your concerns and have reviewed your account > again. However, though we understand that you may not agree > with our decision, your account will remain closed > indefinitely. > > Your account was found to have the same or similar contact > information (such as: address, telephone number, name, etc.) > as the account that you were found to be associated > with. Due to privacy concerns, we cannot give out the actual > address, phone number, name, etc. that was found to be the > same or similar. > > To protect the integrity of our site, eBay does not permit > suspended users to re-register with eBay, or use eBay's > services under any account name. > > eBay reserves the right to suspend new accounts opened by > anyone in the same household of a suspended user, or by any > other associates of a suspended user. Based on our records, > the information you provided to us matches that of a > previously suspended user. > > Thank you for your time. > > Sincerely, > Kit > > eBay Customer Support I don't know what to say. This is complete nonsense and they just took up my ebay account for no reason. Furthermore, they argue that they will remove any other account if I create one. Is this a common problem among this community? Is it a recent trend for ebay to close innocuous and harmless accounts for no good reason (and reasons that they cannot describe)? P.S. I guess people may respond with all sorts of comments, which I would appreciate, but I will reply only on the portion that I think is of interest to photographers who use ebay to trade items. -- Ryuji Suzuki http://silvergrain.org
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