MC152 FPA and fractal spirals downwards

[tatiana]

I mostly just want to vent. Yes, I know I should buy the "eBay Stealth 3.0" guide, read it three times, and then read it again.". All of my accounts got MC152 FPA'd today.

The worst part, I guess, is not knowing how to get back the $63 balance from one eBay Seller Account (I tended to overpay them, often.) I do not want to send anyone a Driver's License, real or forged. I do not want to place a phone call and be forced to wait on hold for 30 minutes. I do not want some eBay employee who has a job, a desk, and an income to start asking me for my Social Security number. And what mostly started this all was some characters trying to buy my items using a hacked Paypal account that did not belong to them.

So many layers of eBay and Paypal and phone numbers and credit cards and bank accounts and VCCs and Feedback scores and Paypal Confirm and Paypal Verify and it's all rather maddening.

Again, I'm an "old-timer" --- I remember when "Check or Money Order" was a perfectly acceptable payment method, your eBay auction would get won by somebody, you would SEND THEM YOUR ADDRESS, they would MAIL YOU A CHECK, you would WAIT TO GET THAT CHECK and deposit it into your very own bank account, three days later their check WOULD CLEAR, and then you'd send off a big UPS box and email them a tracking number, and they would wait a week to get their item and it worked and everybody was happy!

[GreenBean]

some vent! Your choice is:

make paragraphs in your next post. Much easier to read

Deicde IF you want to beat ebay/paypal. Find out the way from the forum. And there is no person of the name you mentioned here any longer.

[tatiana]

The fractal / spirals part is like this:

You are a happy buyer and seller on eBay.

Then: someone buys your stuff using stolen Paypal.

Paypal does chargebacks and refunds, then red-flags _you_. You try to pull your remaining money out. For this, Paypal limits you. You have to make a new Paypal account. It needs new credit cards, new bank accounts. It has 21-day holds. It has no Paypal score. Ebay gets suspicious. Ebay red-flags you. You get 14-day eBay suspensions. You have to make a new eBay account (even though they said not to). It needs new credit cards, new phone numbers. It has a Feedback score of Zero. Now you have to buy penny eBooks and wait for thirty more days, and you look suspicious, and you feel like you are doing something wrong. And then all of your listings are being MC000 canceled and your eBay accounts are being MC152 suspended and your money is trapped for 180 days (forever) inside Paypal.

And the thing is, I know exactly where they live! (They? The stolen-Paypal hackers that started this whole thing.) What can I do?

[GreenBean]

What makes you sure that the address of the paypal hackers is correct? 99% of the time nothing is correct. How are you going to prove anything bearing in mind you'll get no help from paypal?

Have you submitted an appeal? What's been done there

[IDK]

Originally Posted by tatiana

I mostly just want to vent. Yes, I know I should buy the "eBay Stealth 3.0" guide, read it three times, and then read it again.". All of my accounts got MC152 FPA'd today.

The worst part, I guess, is not knowing how to get back the $63 balance from one eBay Seller Account (I tended to overpay them, often.) I do not want to send anyone a Driver's License, real or forged. I do not want to place a phone call and be forced to wait on hold for 30 minutes. I do not want some eBay employee who has a job, a desk, and an income to start asking me for my Social Security number. And what mostly started this all was some characters trying to buy my items using a hacked Paypal account that did not belong to them.

So many layers of eBay and Paypal and phone numbers and credit cards and bank accounts and VCCs and Feedback scores and Paypal Confirm and Paypal Verify and it's all rather maddening.

Again, I'm an "old-timer" --- I remember when "Check or Money Order" was a perfectly acceptable payment method, your eBay auction would get won by somebody, you would SEND THEM YOUR ADDRESS, they would MAIL YOU A CHECK, you would WAIT TO GET THAT CHECK and deposit it into your very own bank account, three days later their check WOULD CLEAR, and then you'd send off a big UPS box and email them a tracking number, and they would wait a week to get their item and it worked and everybody was happy!

I hear newspaper routes do wonders for "old-timers" income needs.

[rsot]

I miss that feeling of getting payments in the mail - to post boxes nonetheless. Was a solid time.

[tatiana]

In modern news, I clicked on enough buttons to get to the screen where you can request a refund check for an overpaid Seller account, they say that within 30 days the money will be refunded... .... to the Paypal account. UGH!!?! You mean the limited-no-appeals Paypal account that froze up a week ago? Then how will I ever get the money? I wonder more and more about that 180 day thing, and whether it applies to Limited-This-Limitation-Cannot-Be-Appealed Paypal accounts.

AC 38258 Response to your email from eBay Customer Support

Thanks for your email requesting a refund. I'm happy to help you with
this.

I've forwarded your request to our Customer Accounts team. Please allow
30 days for your refund to go through, although it doesn't usually take
that long. Please be assured that we'll make every effort on our end to
process your refund as quickly as possible.

A refund of $62.63 will be sent to your PayPal account.

The final amount of the refund will depend on your account balance when
the refund is processed. If you list or sell any new items before then,
the fees will be deducted from the credit balance.

=== === GGGGrrrreat!!! Now I'll never get it!

[tatiana]

Thank you for selling on eBay. In order to maintain a safe and secure online marketplace, eBay may require additional verification for newer sellers from time to time. Your listings have been placed on hold until we can speak with you.

To prevent your account from being closed, please contact an eBay representative by visiting our Contact Us page. You may be asked to sign in. Representatives are available from 5AM-10PM PST, 7 days a week.


Call us at 866-540-3229

=== === ===

OK, so the on-hold wait during the phone call is like 20 minutes, no doubt intentional, to burn up throwaway-phone minutes and further frustrate me.

The first thing they ask for is the first two digits of the Social Security number. They talk a lot about "public records". Please tell me, where can you look up the first two digits of anybody's Social Security number?

Then they ask me to FAX in two forms of government-issued ID.

Or else I cannot sell on eBay. "If you change your mind, just give us a call back".

=== === === ===

Gee, Thanks a bunch!!

== == == ==

The way they place the SSN question right after the "do we have your permission to look at your public records" speech

certainly makes it seem like
the first two (?!) digits exist as public information somewhere.


It's a bit of bait and switch to get people to cough up their digits.

[tatiana]

The following must be corrected before continuing::

*** Street Address - Your shipping address does not match with postal service records. Please correct your address.

POSTAL SERVICE RECORDS!! Are those publically available, as well?

[Autumn]

It's organized crime. Simple as that. They won't be at the top of this game forever...you can bet on that. Take a deep breath, grab a glass of wine and get back up on that horse. ; )

[tatiana]

eBay / Paypal seems like the hugest identity-theft organization on the whole planet!!

[smithgroup]

Yeah, they will go down sooner or later. More and more people are getting fed up, their stock is bombing. BUT there has to be a major competitor to take them down for good. As of now, that is non-existent.

Hopefully we will all be able to find some viable alternative with equal traffic, as for now STEALTH IT SHALL BE.

Just sell sell sell as much as you can the first month, let PP get limited, start with another account and repeat. At least you will have a PP becoming non-limited back to back each month.

jbuntz once said "add the 180 days to your business plan." THAT'S THE SMARTEST THING I HAVE EVER READ.

[fortuna]

The first two digits of a social security number indicate which state the person was born in.

(Actually it's the first three but they can screen almost everyone with just the first two).

Here's the list:

SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER STATE CODES
001-003 New Hampshire (NH) 004-007 Maine (ME) 008-009 Vermont (VT) 010-034 Massachusetts (MA) 035-039 Rhode Island (RI) 040-049 Connecticut (CT) 050-134 New York (NY) 135-148 New Jersey (NJ) 159-211 Pennsylvania (PA) 212-220 Maryland (MD) 223-231 Virginia (VA) 232* West Virginia (WV) North Carolina (NC) 233-236 West Virginia (WV) 237-246 North Carolina (NC) 247-251 South Carolina (SC) 252-260 Georgia (GA) 261-267 Florida (FL) 268-302 Ohio (OH) 303-317 Indiana (IN) 318-361 Illinois (IL) 362-386 Michigan (MI) 387-399 Wisconsin (WI) 400-407 Kentucky (KY) 408-415 Tennessee (TN) 416-424 Alabama (AL) 425-428 Mississippi (MS) 429-432 Arkansas (AR) 433-439 Louisiana (LA) 440-448 Oklahoma (OK) 449-467 Texas (TX) 468-477 Minnesota (MN) 478-485 Iowa (IA) 486-500 Missouri (MO) 501-502 North Dakota (ND) 503-504 South Dakota (SD) 505-508 Nebraska (NB) 509-515 Kansas (KS) 516-517 Montana (MT) 518-519 Idaho (ID) 520 Wyoming (WY) 521-524 Colorado (CO) 525 New Mexico (NM) 526-527 Arizona (AZ) 528-529 Utah (UT) 530 Nevada (NV) 531-539 Washington (WA) 540-544 Oregon (OR) 545-573 California (CA) 574 Alaska (AK) 575-576 Hawaii (HI) 577-579 District of Columbia (DC) 580* Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico (PR) 581-584 Puerto Rico (PR) 585 New Mexico (NM) 586 Guam, American Somoa, Philippine Islands 587 Mississippi (MS) 589-595 Florida (FL) 596-599 Puerto Rico (PR) 600-601 Arizona (AZ) 602-626 California (CA) 627-645 Texas (TX) 646-647 Utah (UT) 648-649 New Mexico (NM) 654-658 South Carolina (SC) 667-675 Georgia (GA) 680 Nevada (NV) 700-728 RR Retirement Board (All States - until July, 1963) 764-765 Arizona (AZ)

* The same number, when shown with more than one area, means that certain numbers have been transferred from one State to another, or that an area has been divided for use among certain geographic locations.

SO, let's say you're calling them from Kansas and they ask for the first two (which should be 50 or 51) and you say "65" because you're using a SS number from S Carolina. Without any public records at all, just this list they can say "so, you were born in S Carolina, when did you move to Kansas"? and most people will think "uh, oh - they are looking at my records".

Next time someone sets up a stealth account just try giving them the state code for the address you're using and I bet they pass you right through the SS/ public records part of the call.

[tatiana]

SO, let's say you're calling them from Kansas and they ask for the first two (which should be 50 or 51) and you say "65" because you're using a SS number from S Carolina. Without any public records at all, just this list they can say "so, you were born in S Carolina, when did you move to Kansas"? and most people will think "uh, oh - they are looking at my records".

Can anyone who does go through with this part of the phone verification with them, please tell me what question they ask next?

[GreenBean]

To date YOU are the only user that has said anything about this happening. So how can we know what the next questions will be

What has been described here is not reported by so far. New territory.