U of S | Mailing List Archive | alt-photo-process-l | Re: Ebay problem?

Re: Ebay problem?



I'm very aware of what you are talking about, but as you see
in my previous email, I have had correspondence on ebay
account and their messages are real. I also inspect SMTP
header info of this kind of emails. I don't respond to or take
action on fake messages. My email system has a very good
phishing alert system when suspicious links are present.



From: "D. Mark Andrews" <mark@dragonbones.com>
Subject: RE: Ebay problem?
Date: Tue, 04 Sep 2007 00:33:49 -0700

> 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
>