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Personal Hotspot / Tethering issue
 

Hi all,

I have been creating Ebay selling and buying accounts for last 2 years on my MacBook Pro using my iPhone 12 to hotspot / tether via EE network.

this week I started using my new iPhone 14 to hotspot / tether via EE network (only change being a new mobile / cell number.)

I created 5 buying accounts and they were all banned in 20 minutes.

Went back to my old iPhone 12 set up as sim is still active and 5 accounts were created fine.

Does anyone know if there's something i need to turn off on the latest iPhone when hotspot / tethering or if the latest iPhone is somehow telling Ebay I'm the same user?

Ive tried to mirror my settings on my iPhone 14 to the ones on my iPhone 12 such as location services etc but still getting banned.

Quite a specific one but hoping someone has some experience on this, thanks :clap:

Re: Personal Hotspot / Tethering issue
 

did you check if IP effectively change from one connection to the other?

Re: Personal Hotspot / Tethering issue
 

hi yes I logged them and all different.

Re: Personal Hotspot / Tethering issue
 

I expect its to do with it being on EE which has a really limited 5G IP range.

I don't think the old iPhone 12s are on 5g... could be wrong there but mine only ever got 4G back when I had one

On a side note - was a VCC added?

Re: Personal Hotspot / Tethering issue
 

This is the kind of idea sharing i was hoping for :clap: - i was scratching my head wondering what the difference could be between the 2 phones and yes the iPhone 4 is 4G and iPhone 14 is 5G so you may have something.

I'm buying items of £15 whilst i test it out and paying with a VCC however i used same brand of VCC's on the 5 accounts on iPhone 12 and they weren't banned.

Re: Personal Hotspot / Tethering issue
 

Yep I would put money on the IP address being the issue there. Goes without saying to also make sure the eBay app isnt installed on the new phone

Re: Personal Hotspot / Tethering issue
 

That shouldn't have mattered but it's weird that your iPhone 14 would be the cause of suspension.

When you tethered do you usually wait until the IP changes?
If it were me I'd shut down the phone's internet completely after each account and restart to get a different IP or info altogether.

Have you tried this?

PS: You don't have any kind of privacy or incognito option on your phone do you?

Re: Personal Hotspot / Tethering issue
 

the IP addresses were different every time - I've just done a test now and done 5 airplane modes and the addresses were all different even from the 5 accounts created before - So even though the IP addresses are different i didn't consider that they would have already been abused?

I didn't copy over my Apple ID/settings/apps from my iPhone 12 so the iPhone 14 basically just being used as the hotspot with no info on it at all.

Re: Personal Hotspot / Tethering issue
 

Its more that the new iPhones use 5G and that has a really limited IP range - then EE itself has a further limited 5G IP range.

It means that the phone can be turned off for half a day and still in theory get turned on and get issues the same IP address again.

3/4G has a much much larger range so doenst have the same issue

Back when 4G started to come it it also had a small IP range it used to cause the exact same thing to happen but over the years the 4G IP range has gotten a lot wider so its not a problem anymore :)

Re: Personal Hotspot / Tethering issue
 

Strange if its actually changing... I would just stock to the old 4G phone then

You can also text out the theory if you want and put your new iPhone into 4G only mode and see if you still get banned. If you do something is funky with that phone. If you don't its down to the 5G

Re: Personal Hotspot / Tethering issue
 

If I were you I'd do the following:

try making 1 more account on the iPhone 14 tether.

and 1 extra account using a home IP.

ANd you said your iPhone 12 tether has still been successful after you went back to it correct?

Re: Personal Hotspot / Tethering issue
 

ok I've just created two accounts and made a purchase on each using

IPHONE 14 - Switched it to 4G
IPHONE 14 - 5G

I will take my dog for a walk and update the results when i get back.

If both are banned then i will just use my iPhone 12 and we have all learned something ... but if James idea of switching to 4G works then celebration time.

Will update when i get back ...

Re: Personal Hotspot / Tethering issue
 

Do let us know :)

If for some reason the new phone is still getting you linked then I guess its just an ebay spy :D

Re: Personal Hotspot / Tethering issue
 

Both Banned in under 20 mins.

IPHONE 14 - Switched it to 4G - banned
IPHONE 14 - 5G - banned

The only thing i can think is that both the phone and the sim are 5G specific so setting it to 4G might not make it 4G in the truest sense:

What i mean is that doing a quick check when I have logged IP's for 5G its always been these first 7 numbers and either 11 or 12 digits long. The 7th digit being a 2:

213.205.2

but with 4G its either 11 digits or 12 digits long with the 7th digit being a 1:

213.205.1


When i changed my iPhone 14 to 4G the IP address was still a 5G one

213.205.220.**


I have just created another buyer account with my iPhone 12 and will see if it works again.

Anyone on here creating Ebay buyer accounts fine with iPhone 14 on EE?

I really wanted you're idea to work James

Re: Personal Hotspot / Tethering issue
 

i only use residential ip from ipburger....

Re: Personal Hotspot / Tethering issue
 

Using iPhone 12 worked fine again.

I mean i can use my iPhone 12 so its not the end of the world but its a head scratcher that i can't use my all singing all dancing iPhone 14 pro max :noidea:

Re: Personal Hotspot / Tethering issue
 

Yep it's and odd one. Sounds like the 4g setting didn't take on the new phone? Maybe reading that wrong though.

Re: Personal Hotspot / Tethering issue
 

Best suggestion I can give really is get a new sim for the iPhone 14 on say Three. That I am fairly certain if you get the 14 into 4g mode would solve your issue

Re: Personal Hotspot / Tethering issue
 

thanks for you're ideas james - hopefully others will find it helpful.

I will be in touch privately about some feedbacks/defect removal service Cheers!

Re: Personal Hotspot / Tethering issue
 

Agree with saijin. If you're only using it as a hotspot and you know the IP has changed for each account then it's not the phone.

If you're only using the phone as a hotspot ebay can't even see it, their last port of contact is the EE server. They will get absolutely no details about the phone.

So what are you doing for phone numbers when you create the accounts???

Re: Personal Hotspot / Tethering issue
 

Just a point of note ebay can see other details about the phone from the browser.

Re: Personal Hotspot / Tethering issue
 

Do you mind elaborating? I have a stealth account running and was going to fire my second one up this week via a phone with a different browser installed but if they can see the device, I might have just saved myself early enough.

Re: Personal Hotspot / Tethering issue
 

Just using a different browser is enough so long as the app isn't installed :)

None of that applies to tethering though as a browser on the laptop is usually used it's only if using your phone itself as the device

Re: Personal Hotspot / Tethering issue
 

Thanks, James. I just want to be sure I understand before I do anything silly. I have 1 mobile phone with 5 different browsers (Safari, Firefox, Chrome, Edge, and Opera). I reset my IP on each one by airplane mode and check via IP Burger as I've been building 4 accounts in the background just looking, bidding and listing for a month. I'm constrained by budget hence the single IP unfortunately.

Can eBay link if its done through my browser? I know the IP is the only downfall but can they read anything about the device and the likes through the browser apps?

Is laptop better to go through? I can start building another 5 by laptop and I should have 5 secure for next year as well.

Thanks!

Re: Personal Hotspot / Tethering issue
 

laptop/desktop is preferred for me anyhow vs cellphone use

Re: Personal Hotspot / Tethering issue
 

What meaningful details of a phone can they see when it's being used as a hotspot from OP's macbook because my understanding is it was obsoletely nothing and why it's worked so well for endless sellers for years now .... until this one thread.

Re: Personal Hotspot / Tethering issue
 

When phone is used as a hotspot, i'm pretty certain that no details about the phone are seen by eb - you're right about that.

Re: Personal Hotspot / Tethering issue
 

Will drop a few notes which might be useful, might be not.

One detail not related but hear me out. Paypal used to do some interesting security precaution if internet speed is low. Not sure if they does this now as it was 2 years ago when i was messing with this. So what i found out while camping and sitting on a low speed net - if speed is less than 25 mbps then they ask sms verification to log in. If faster - password was enough. So maybe, just maybe, EB has something to do with a net speed also, but it does not makes more sense as 5G should be even faster..

Another thing - why to mess with overcomplicated technology? Nobody realy knows what new phones can or can not, so why not to buy an USB modem - just put your sim on it and thats it. That thing is not super smart and can provide zero info about PC or about itself as it does not has anything to provide in a first place.

Also take a look which apps can use mobile data - i keep all of my apps OFF on mobile data. Also location tracking is OFF too. Also on home wi-fi i have set that phone can not join the wi-fi automatically when it is accessable because from some apps behaviour can say that part of route can go through home wifi even if phone is connected to mobile data..

So just a few things to think about..

Re: Personal Hotspot / Tethering issue
 

Hi guys just thought I’d give this one a nudge and see if there are any ebay uk users successfully creating uk ebay accounts with 5G yet via hotspot/tethering specifically with IPhone.

I thought I’d try again using 5G hotspot thinking it’s older now with more IP addresses on rotation (in theory) but boom still getting banned.

Using the EXACT same account creation set up but with 4g the accounts are fine.

Re: Personal Hotspot / Tethering issue
 

5G does not offer more IP addresses nor influences rotation frequency.

IMO, it has nothing to do with why you're being suspended, look for another breach.

Re: Personal Hotspot / Tethering issue
 

I’m following the EXACT same account creation method for both 4G and 5G so there are no breaches to investigate - the account creation is the same.

I will rephrase my question:

Is anyone creating UK Ebay seller accounts using a 5G IPhone hotspot / Tethering to create new accounts successfully ?

Re: Personal Hotspot / Tethering issue
 

Nope I’m using an iPhone 12 to create accounts and having no issues with networks I’m using.

Today I tried testing three IP rotations but all are in Scotland. Has anyone created accounts using three network? I’ve not created an eBay account yet using three but can’t seem to get U.K. ips from three.

What network are you using on iPhone 14?