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What is wrong with my set-up
 

I bought the Amazon Ghost guide about 2 weeks ago, and thought that some of the tasks seemed like to much work (and some impossible due to my location), so I took the easy route, but it failed and I am not sure why. Hopefully someone with more experience could help.

1.) First, I bought a VPS in Minnesota. I don't live there, it was just a random location I choose. I actually live in the Philippines.

2.) Next I rented a virtual office in Minnesota. This comes with free mail/package forwarding, which I intended to use to send to family in the US

3.) Bought telephone forwarding service to my phone here in the Philippines. The originating telephone number is a Minnesota number.

4.) Created an LLC company in Minnesota and obtained an EIN

5.) Signed up for a seller account. The account was active for about a week while registering for a restricted category. Was finally approved (damn pure white background images)

6.) Added bank account, this was a fresh bank account, made just for this stealth account. Amazon account suspended within 12 hours. It has been 4 days and still suspended, with no response from Amazon as to why.


So what happened? I read that using a VPS is not recommended, but I am not sure why other than IP block address restrictions, but the account was active for a week with no problems.

Every aspect of the account was made geocentric, and can not understand why they suspended it..... Help!

Re: What is wrong with my set-up
 

Welcome to the forums.

What telephone forwarding service did you use? I am feeling that the number could have been an issue but....

What credit card did you use for the account and DID YOU keep an ACTIVE balance on the cc?

Re: What is wrong with my set-up
 

Your problem for taking the easy way.

It does not work in stealth.

The methods are there for a reason. They work.

Shortcuts do not.

:violin:

Re: What is wrong with my set-up
 

VPN/VPS is fine but you need to know where your buying from and buy a reliable company. I'd say the most common reason for quick limitations would be perhaps due to your phone forwarding service, ebay/amazon has caught on to alot of forwarding service plus they reuse numbers alot.

Re: What is wrong with my set-up
 

Thanks for the replies :)

RSOT

The credit card was fresh with the new bank account, not a VCC, a real one. I am waiting for my partner to come around to find out which forwarding service he used.

123

I have seen you help a lot of people around the board, so I am happy to see you responded and also confirmed RSOT's suspicion of the phone forwarding. Since I am physically located in another country, what steps would you recommend? Will a VOIP number work? I have a skype number I use to communicate with people in the US, and you can pick any local number prefix.

Re: What is wrong with my set-up
 

Ok, found the forwarding phone service was vitelity.net

Re: What is wrong with my set-up
 

Hmm wonder if Amazon had the virtual office address already or...the credit card, was it always active?

Re: What is wrong with my set-up
 

No, it was a Bank of America account, you can create new accounts online through them anytime, so it was a fresh one. The account is tied to our other accounts, but Amazon should not be able to detect that, as the account number is brand new. Same with the credit card for the account.

We think we figured out a solution however. We thought Amazon would not allow us to create an account here in the Philippines, but it seems they will. This makes it so much easier. You can buy a phone number for $0.25 (yea, 25 cents). New 3g/4g internet for $25 a month. Unlimited housing addresses, and tax exempt.

The only requirement is having a bank account that amazon can deposit into, and philippine bank accounts wont work. So I hope creating a new bank account on BoA is not the issue. I am going through the process again now, I'll update the thread with my results.

Re: What is wrong with my set-up
 

Are you using the same name under BOA account? Real name? or stealth name?

Re: What is wrong with my set-up
 

Yllinu

Yes, but that should not matter. Amazon can not determine the owner of a bank account, as stated in the Amazon Ghost guide (using a DBA for example, which is what we had done). The deposit name given to Amazon was different than the name on the BoA account of course, but I am reasonably sure that no one can ask a bank for the owners name of an account number. Who knows with laws changing. Also, the guide was written in 2012....

As of now, I have been able to create a new Amazon account. The process I used was I created a VM, disabled all the NIC's to the VM, and used my cell phone internet toggle to the VM. I do worry about what Yllinu was inferring however, as I will need to attach a bank account to this account at some point.

Re: What is wrong with my set-up
 

They cannot.

Re: What is wrong with my set-up
 

Thanks James, thats a relief. Now I dont have to worry so much when I add a new bank account to this Az account

Re: What is wrong with my set-up
 

Hi eqdarkleaf,

I am also a non-US citizen and I am in Singapore, your neighboring country. :)

I would like to know how can you open bank accounts and get new credit cards online? Do Bank of America accept foreigners opening new accounts with them?

I am also using VMware workstation, how do I disabled all the NIC's to the VM.

Thanks.

Re: What is wrong with my set-up
 

Is it even possible to open Bank of America account when you dont even live in America ?

Re: What is wrong with my set-up
 

Yes it is, you need to contact Bank of America and find out what documents they require to do so, also they may require a large $$$ deposit.

Re: What is wrong with my set-up
 

Why on earth did you register for a restricted category!, you did'nt think that might attract unwelcome attention to your account!!, because that is not the action of a new seller on the platform, those categories are restricted for a reason, this was probably your biggest mistake and it cost you the account!

Re: What is wrong with my set-up
 

Rosie, as the OP acknowledged....the OP read the Amazon Ghost but felt that he knew more and decided to do things their own way. There's a reason to everything we suggest but some people feel they can't be bothered by these suggestions or rules we give out.

Re: What is wrong with my set-up
 

Never a truer word MM78!!

Re: What is wrong with my set-up
 

Will it be dangerous and risky for me to sell my previous product on a newly created account (a private-labelled product with my previous brand name which is linked to my suspended account)? I thought of giving it a try.. Any suggestion? Because I need to clear my inventory. Will amazon take it as its the same seller selling the same brand name product, because no one else is selling this brand name in the marketplace now. Or the only solution for me is to re-package my current inventory with a new package and brand name (which will be a very complicated process as the product has my brand name on it, and I need to find ways to remove the silk printed logo on the product). Any opinions?

Re: What is wrong with my set-up
 

Perhaps it would be better to start your own thread.....might get better results.