Quote:
Originally Posted by Toolman89
(Post 516332)
Wait, you can't have all your email forwarded to one account? Why not? Cause that's what I've been doing lol
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When an email is sent, only the text part is actually sent to your email address. Any images are retrieved from the server of the person or company who sent the email (let's call it eBay).
When that happens, the IP address of whatever device you are viewing the email on will be sent to the sender (eBay).
eBay (and other companies) very often use a little trick to match the device IP address with their records. It also lets them know if their email has been opened and some other things.
One of the image files in the email you received will have a unique name attached to it (like df457adsjhh436574lkd.jpg) that was ONLY sent to your email address. When that image is accessed, eBay will record the IP address of the device making the request.
If you are viewing email from 10 different eBay accounts on one device, and the images are NOT turned off, then eBay will see the same IP address is associated with all 10 accounts. That WILL link the accounts.
If the images are turned off by default and you do not access them, then there is no link unless, of course, you reply to the emails from the device.
Here is the thing that people too often miss about linking. They think that if their account is not immediately suspended, then there is no problem, that no link was created. But that is not usually the case.
Many users have accounts linked every day. It could be as simple as two people sharing the same internet connection in a household accessing their individual accounts. Or, it could be the 35 people who used the McDonald's WiFi connection that day. If eBay were to suspend accounts for this, they wouldn't have any customers left. So, the information is simply on file, but they don't routinely use it for very much.
However, let's say those 10 accounts are linked in the manner described above and one of your accounts is suspended for whatever reason. eBay will now start looking for any other accounts sharing the same information. Names, addresses, bank accounts, credit cards, IP addresses, etc. Then the accounts are reviewed. If they believe that those 10 accounts belong to the same person whose account has been suspended, then they ALL get suspended. It is not automatic - if the employee reviewing the accounts believes that the IP address is a public address, like a free Wi-Fi connection, then they may not link the accounts.
Also, an account is usually not linked based on the IP address alone. But if those 10 accounts are all in the same geographic area AND they have all been accessed by one IP address AND they all sell clothing AND (whatever other similarities exist) then eBay makes a decision as to whether or not they believe the same person is behind all of the accounts. That is when you experience great pain.
The best thing to do is to eliminate all possibilities of linking and to make the accounts look as normal as possible.
