Sam's eBay Horror Story #1

Interesting. I was in the middle of a (small) transaction with a longtime reputable seller whose account was then suspended the same day as yours. Maybe a hacker has figured out how to fool their screening program to create havoc. For example, If he creates an account using your address, then is suspended for behaving badly, his account would be linked to yours because of the same address.

Just be happy that you aren't trapped in a Klein bottle!

That would be more intersting though. :)

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ:

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header above is ignored unless my full name AND either lasers or electronics is included in the subject line. Or, you can contact me via the Feedback Form in the FAQs.

That's sort of along the lines of what I'm thinking as well. Assuming it isn't a typo on someone's part entering eBay IDs, then I'm sure there is something legitimate to the investigation. But some elementary Web and directory searches would quickly reveal who has the real addresses and other contact information. This is like a bad Hitchcock script!

Thanks.

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ:

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header above is ignored unless my full name AND either lasers or electronics is included in the subject line. Or, you can contact me via the Feedback Form in the FAQs.

I've not had a problem of that kind with the idiots, but I have attempted to do a problem resolution with them and find them useless droids.

To minimize contact with them I even quit using Paypal, as they wanted too much personal information such as checking account, etc. I don't trust them and never will.

Were I you, I'd talk with my attorney about the bad experience.

Good luck; you'll need it.;

For me, I do eBay for fun. It's not like a day job so being kicked off for a few days may be a good thing. Other than the time I've spent trying to communicate with the droids and writing up the saga, it gives me more time for other things. Perhaps they will have done me a favor if I never get back on! :)

But I could just imagine if this happened to someone whose business was selling on eBay.

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ:

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header above is ignored unless my full name AND either lasers or electronics is included in the subject line. Or, you can contact me via the Feedback Form in the FAQs.

Maybe wrapping your letter around a brick and tossing it through the window of their headquarters would get someone to actually read it.

I'm sorry to hear you're having these problems. I assumed you had some tale of a fraudster victimizing you, but apparently your problem is eBay's fraud detection false-positive'izing you.

All I can say is the eBay as an service and as a corporation has been degrading significantly for years. It started with things like "protecting" us by censoring email addresses, and then things like hiding bidder IDs, and now the recent feedback changes. Bah.

It's really sad. Technology seems to be marching backwards in a lot of ways. Aside from portability, our grandparents had better telephones than these portable things we carry around today. It used to cost money to talk on the phone or send mail, so incoming phone calls or email were generally worthy of your attention. Now I spend significant time daily attending to worthless phone calls and spam, coming from instrusive idiots who have no possibility of profiting from their nuisance. Cheap communication not only explodes into time-wasting frivolity, it empowers the foolish to "get in touch" with you personally. When it cost money to talk, the foolish didn't have any to waste.

I actually feel better about being bum-rushed by panhandlers on the streets these days. At least they're limited by space, time, and my appearance in a public place, limitations that don't apply to electronic gooks, and one gets at least a little human interaction of a lukewarm sort.

The "fall" of the Internet from the crime-free 1970s-1980s to present day just confirms the doctrine of original sin.

If Ben Franklin has proposed a postal system where 98 percent of the traffic was spam and frauds, he'd be laughed out of town.

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-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

Very possibly a phishing e-mail. Any time you get a suspicious e-mail from "Ebay" you should NOT respond to any link in the suspect e-mail. Go directly to Ebay's security center and give them the details, including the source code of the suspect e-mail.

Since you clicked on the link contained in the e-mail it is important you do virus and malware scans IMMEDIATELY.

Mark Z.

You must be the eternal optimist. :)

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ:

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header above is ignored unless my full name AND either lasers or electronics is included in the subject line. Or, you can contact me via the Feedback Form in the FAQs.

I read email in Mutt (a text program) on unix. For me to follow a link requires copying and pasting, which I will only do IF the URL contains the primary domain of the supposed sender. This I only do rarely. And with eBay, there is always the duplicate copy in the "My Messages", which isn't blocked by being suspended. And don't forgate that those bid cancellation emails had to have originated from within the eBay system.

Thanks for your thoughts though. :)

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ:

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header above is ignored unless my full name AND either lasers or electronics is included in the subject line. Or, you can contact me via the Feedback Form in the FAQs.

I agree 100 percent about all these.

No one I've talked to thinks any of these are for the better, except possibly limiting email address exposure.

My pet peeve is hiding of bidder IDs. First of all, everyone seems to agree that if anything, this makes it easier for shill bidding and other similar practices. And the way they do it is only half-hearted in any case. With a bit of effort, it's generally possible to identify the actual bidder from the 4 character masked ID and the Feedback rating.

With the system in place now, I can end up bidding against friends of mine. eBay may consider agreements among friends not to outbid one-another to be against the rules. But with all due respect, that is none of their business, just as if a bunch of friends sends one persno to a real auction to bid on their behalf.

As bad as the Feedback system was, the "improved" arrangment could be simply ridiculous. Maybe I missed something but no feedback direct from sellers anymore? How about this as an alternative: The seller should be *required* to issue the first feedback when they have been paid and ship the item. Then, the buyer can respond with their own feedback once the item arrives. If that is negative or neutral, the seller can respond and a dialog is allowed until any issues are resolved.

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ:

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header above is ignored unless my full name AND either lasers or electronics is included in the subject line. Or, you can contact me via the Feedback Form in the FAQs.

(snip)

(snip)

The thing is, when a seller who does a lot of business for them, cheats a buyer, the eBay droids are are present only so they can say they have a resolution process. That the process follows the path of least work/thought/fairness/intelligence for them is what's important.

Possibly Sam was taken in by a phishing mail?

Easy:

Look into the source code of the HTML page you opened, and you will notice that instead of the Ebay pages you are routed to China, or elsewhere. The link is embedded in between the valid Ebay data. Had that several times. With WHOIS you can identify the sender and his location. Forward the page as text file, not HTML, to Ebay fraud service.

I am using AGENT as mail client, TEXT ONLY, and opening a link takes several mouse-clicks. w.

My experience with ebay live help has been just as bad. I used it recently to find out why an item I listed almost 24 hours ago still wasn't showing up in the search. The guy jet kept repeating that it should show up within 3 hours when I was asking him why it hadn't shown up within 3 hours. I think they just match your question to the closest one on their help list and read the answer to you.

Since you mentioned the new feedback system...

The new feedback system now makes feedback for buyers meaningless. They should just make it so sellers can't leave feedback at all since a buyer's feedback no longer tells you anything. If paying is the buyer's only responsibility, then why don't they just make it so the buyer receives an automatic positive feedback as soon as they make their paypal payment? All of my worst buyers have been people who paid promptly, but then later made unreasonable demands, or did a charge back.

Another problem I'm seeing with feedback is the new star rating system for things like shipping. The meaning of the ratings is deliberately misleading. 4 out of 5 stars is described as "reasonable", or "satisfied", "accurate", or "quickly". These all sound like positive comments, but a seller with an average of 4 out of 5 stars is virtually kicked off ebay. They have to pay higher fees, and have their listings hidden at the bottom of the search. Andy Cuffe

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com

It's like the Model T or the 500 phone set, which came in any color you wanted, as long as that color was black.

You can leave any kind of eBay feedback you like for buyers, as long as it is positive.

As a followup. My account was restored around noon today (June 7) with the following statement: "Thank you for taking the time to fax the information we requested.

I appreciate the information that you have sent, and I have reviewed the details of this suspension. In light of additional information that has been submitted and a new review, it has been decided to reinstate this account."

No explanation and not even a form-letter apology.

Thanks for your support!

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ:

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header above is ignored unless my full name AND either lasers or electronics is included in the subject line. Or, you can contact me via the Feedback Form in the FAQs.

There's something very strange I just came across.

One eBay member whose ID I won't make public here has a 53 Feedback rating,

But looking at his Feedback listings, 6 out of those 53 people he either bought from or sold to who gave him Feedback are now "no longer registered users", a.k.a. have had their accounts suspended.

I had emailed him about shipping on one of his auctions and received a reply only long after the auction closed, on June 2. I presume that emailing via the eBay form would include some information on my address so he could calculate shipping if needed, in other words, contact information that might be used to try to open a new account.

And for those saying it was phishing again, there were no links in the email.

Contact me off this forum if you'd like more details.

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ:

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header above is ignored unless my full name AND either lasers or electronics is included in the subject line. Or, you can contact me via the Feedback Form in the FAQs.