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family member got suspended - can I still register?
 

Well, I never thought I'd find myself posting this about eBay, but to start at the beginning ...

About 5 years ago, I registered an account at eBay under my name that I rarely ever used. About a year or so ago, my mom wanted to sell some things on eBay and I changed the account over into her name. After the first listing, it was suspended by eBay saying that someone had "hacked" the account. No big problem, after a short chat the account was reinstated and they said it was probably due to the name change (same family name, different first name).

Now all went well and she was slowly building up her feedback when she wanted to speed up the build-up a bit and sold about 15 "eBooks" for around 50 cents each. I assisted her with the setting up and everything and all contents were custom written, nothing copyrighted, etc. Big mistake, I know. eBay suspended her account yesterday for "feedback manipulation" even though she only left feedback to those who really paid for the auctions. Today she received an email that the account would be "indefinitely" suspended. We're guessing appeals won't work, even though she sent an email saying she was sorry and she'd abide by the rules in the future.

Now my question is, can I sign-up for an eBay account under my name? Consider the following:

1. The suspended account was first under my name, then changed over into her name. I assume eBay will still have traces of my name in their system, so I'm concerned they will "link" the suspended and the new account.

2. When the suspended account was first created, I listed my home address and the still current address of my mom in the United States. I am now living in Japan. Can I sign-up with my name as I'm in a different country with a different address?

Basically all the information for the new account would be different (country, address, credit card, paypal account, etc.), except for my name and my birth date.

The fact I'm concerned with is that because it was my name and birth date that initially signed up for the now suspended account, even though it was then transferred to my mom's name and details, they will still "link" my name and birth date to the old suspended account.

What do you guys think? You all seem to already know a bit more about this than me, though it looks like I'll become a "regular" around here.

:)

I am not as knowlegdable as most here having only joined recently. But IMO I would think that you would be home free and not have any problems, may have difficulty setting up an account to sell in the US if the account holder is in Japan, but I could be wrong in that I see a lot of stuff originating from the far east for sale in the "US" version of ebay.
One thing that might surely get you banned would be if the account originated from Japan and you mom or someone else signs in from the US with a US based IP address.
Someone might want to chime in, but I believe there are programs that will send out a ⊗⊗⊗⊗ IP address or hide yours entirely.
Has anyone had any experience using one of these IP programs?

You'll be fine to do this. You won't have any problem at all.

Well thankfully I'm fairly good at working with IP addresses, proxies, etc. I won't have a problem with that. I was just concerned because for the now suspended account, I had my name like "Brian Johnson" with birth date "July 5th" on it for about 5 years, then it was changed to "Mary Johnson" (my mom) with birth date "February 10th" - both on the same address in the US.

Since I'm now in Japan, I have a Japanese address, credit card, etc. I would just sign-up with my name "Brian Johnson" and my birth date. So I was concerned they would match it up that someone with my name and birth date (me) used the now suspended US account before my mom and they would suspend my Japan account too.

Obviously I won't be listing any low priced items and I'd rather buy some more expensive ones and have them shipped to me to build up feedback. Better safe than sorry.

You think they will let me slide even though I was the original registrar of the now suspended account?

How will they know when you are in Japan?
You are worrying that they think that there are no more than one person by a specific name born on a specific date in the entire world?
Although given the rationale they use...:p

From the things I've read about eBay in the past, you could probably get your account locked for living in the same city as a suspended person. I will give it a try in a few days, let's hope it works!!

you can use VPN that better than the proxy?
VPN in the US around $10 to 15$ / month.
secure and safer than the proxy.
when someone connect to ebay through a proxy, the host and city mark masked witch put the account under the red flag.
but the VPN the host and city is available.

VPN: virtual private network