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

Re: Ebay problem?



Hi Ryuji

Just to be on the safe side I would forward the email to spoof@ebay.com That way you will know within a few minutes whether it is a spoof email or not. I would also log into your account and change your password.

Cheers

John

www.johnbrewerphotography.com
----- Original Message ----- From: "Ryuji Suzuki" <rs@silvergrain.org>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca>
Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2007 8:43 AM
Subject: 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




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