New Here - But did everything right and...

[southrnprincess]

Hi everyone I am new here but I got suspended from Amazon and they are holding 5,000 dollars from me.

Needless to say for many many reasons this is horrible for me - so I did my homework, and read everything online and got an ebook.

I downloaded a "hide your ip" which changes your IP every 10 minutes (from what it says on my computer I'm showing as Austin, TX), cleared all cookies, cleared flash cookies, added new user on computer, so I went through the registration, New Name, New Credit Card, New Phone Number, New Address......

It STILL said "I was not able to sell items at this time" wth??

So I went to track my ip and it still was showing my ip as exactly the same as it was before I downloaded the ghost ip stuff!! It says my provider Charter is using a proxy server to connect - so basically does that mean that because my internet provider uses a proxy that means that my IP can't ever really be changed? I'm so confused.....

[GreenBean]

Sadly you have not done this correctly. That ebook was most certainly not ours. If it was you would now be enjoying a subscription & learning the preferred ways.

To get back to amazon takes much more than the steps you outlined.

Being a new you has greater depth than you can imagine.

You used "HideMyIp". That was your first mistake, stay away from proxies.

[southrnprincess]

Ok so that's it....you didn't read our book obviously so you didn't do it right. Well I pretty much guessed I didn't do something right but I didn't know what as I spent literally days researching this. We actually run a charity that is affiliated with St Jude, they have our tax ein and everything, so a week before we were supposed to deliver 5,500 dollars directly to the St Jude Dream Team (helps the kids with cancer get Christmas gifts, visits from Santa etc)....they suspend our account and hold our funds for 90 days. This is really sick. They know our affiliation and everything and still suspended.

Well thanks guys I guess I'll keep trying to research. God bless

[AmazonStealth]

You need to get a Fresh IP yourself from YOUR IP provider. Using all those "Hide My IP" sites are an immediate ticket to suspensionville.

[southrnprincess]

Well here's the question to that, when I initially what to check what my IP address was, it said my provider was Charter and the server was a proxy server. This was way before I tried to hide my ip or a proxy or anything. So if my provider actually uses a proxy server can I get a new IP? It's all very confusing

[sacka_man]

Are you familiar with TOR? Well, TOR can keep you anonymous, but there's nothing whatsoever stopping a website from making a list of IP addresses that are associated with TOR, and then handling the connection accordingly if it finds a match. For example, imgur does not allow TOR connections to upload images, to help thwart child pornography images, and other illegal images which are sometimes uploaded:



Proxy services like HideMyIP are a bad idea for staying anonymous. Amazon is a BIG BUSINESS, and there's nothing whatsoever stopping them from making a list of all IP addresses that are associated with proxy programs like this, and handling them all accordingly. Not only that, but often times Amazon can detect that you are using a proxy and find out your IP where the traffic is being routed to. I don't know the technical reasons how this happens, but I know it happens sometimes because I experienced this before when trying to stay anonymous, and I've heard other people say the same thing. If anybody knows the technical reasons, please chime in. This is another reason why I don't use proxy services.

I have no idea where you screwed up, but obviously you did, or you would not be suspended.

Sounds like you have a pretty good idea how to stay anonymous but as others have indicated, Amazon is incredibly complicated so you should buy the eBook to understand everything. It's not that much money and will help get you started again quickly.

SHEESH I really hope you get the $5,000 back! I have $1700 being held for me on one of my accounts. Also, a good idea might be to open up multiple accounts and build their reputation so that just in case one gets suspended or funds withheld, you will still have some sort of income stream.

[sacka_man]

Also, I would recommend making a separate user account on your computer and doing all transactions on it. I use VMWare and have a separate user account in one of my VMWare operating systems. This is the best way to avoid the problem of cookies/flash cookies and other similar methods of detection. It's simply too easy to screw up if you are using your main OS user account to try to stay anonymous.

[GreenBean]

Originally Posted by southrnprincess

Ok so that's it....you didn't read our book obviously so you didn't do it right.
Well thanks guys I guess I'll keep trying to research. God bless

What's with the princess act?

You proclaimed 'you did everything right but were not successful'. So you can not have done everything right, could you?

Re-read what I said. The book available here would have given far different information. If you settle done enough, you could learn to make a new account. That's your choice.

As for the Charity, then I would strongly recommend getting pro-bono legal assistance to get your funds back. But be aware now, you may have to fight HARD.
At this moment you have two issues.
Amazon are unfairly holding funds.
Your main aim is to try to make a new account. Research is still needed.
God Bless

[rsot]

Welcome to the forums.

Stop using proxies - even TOR is kind of dangerous.

Maintain a pleasant tone on the forum - you are too new to be able to act like you deserve so much attention - charity or not.

Get legal assistance if it`s for charity - dont cut corners.

All the best.

[southrnprincess]

Thank you everyone for the advice. And as for a princess act - I was never trying to come off as acting like one regardless of what my screen name says. I never proclaimed "I did everything" - I specifically said I did everything that I knew to do but obviously did not do something right. Well I pretty much guessed I didn't do something right but I didn't know what

So - I'm not trying to come across in a wrong way at all and maybe I was aggravated and it came across in the way I wrote the message. If so my apologies for that. Now as far as legality is concerned - from everything I have researched and from all the legal actions I have found on dockets in Florida & Washington state, there is not too much of a leg to stand on as far as precedence is concerned. I will try to contact a lawyer today, but to be honest it doesn't seem that unless there is a class action and people contact their Congressmen etc - then Amazon really doesn't care.

To their credit Amazon has pulled the biggest scam that's out in the open I can remember. Just to be able to show shareholders money they do not actually 'have", as it's others money they hold - they have effectively convinced the world to lend them money.