goofbay - using it and being linked?

[Juicyas]

Just curious what info goofbay pulls from ebay when you do a check.

Say for example I check the feedback on one of my accounts, then check it on another. If I do this more than once, is there any chance the same information being pulled like this regularly will alert ebay to some kind of link?

[lakeman]

I have also thought about this. I came to the conclusion, how does ebay know you would be looking at your other accounts? They have no way of knowing, you could be looking at a competitors activity.

[Juicyas]

Mm, I guess those are the 2 ways of looking at it.

The same with auctiva really. I find if I want to see how my auctions are doing, to look at my store is the fastest way instead of changing IP/windows acc. I wonder if doing that so frequently in time with each account over again creates some kind of pattern...

[Lyda]

It doesn't matter if you are doing your search while not signed into account. You can just pull Ebay and do your search for certain item without logging in....

[Juicyas]

What I mean is .. ebay's servers are logging all activity right? Of course when the spiders are going about their jobs (watch that ebay doco to see the craziness of the size of the servers!), that isn't something they'll be checking for. But if there's a chance of a link, I think some human eyes that see a constant 'pulling' of information from the same accounts within constricted time frames would give them cause to take a closer look?

[lakeman]

Yea I see what your saying. But even if they do take a "closer look", there should be nothing at all for them to link.

[oompaloompa]

I checked with goofbay and they said ip is from their server on searches

goofbay is a great tool. I get your point though, 3 ids in a row could be linked, i do it all the time though 10, 12, 15 in a row!!! When you say closer look there should be nothing to link, i dont agree, there are always similarites in your set up method.

[lakeman]

If you have any way ebay can link you then you are not setting your accounts up correctly.

[oompaloompa]

what do you mean correctly?

we all set up accounts in a certain order for example, all stealths or most are set up with a vcc for example, thats all i mean, not similar names and addresses. Lets be honest most will be selling similar products on each account.

[lakeman]

What I'm saying is if your accounts are set up the right way, completely different details, name, info, card, user account, ip, different listings etc. then there is no possible way for you to be linked by viewing another one of your ebay accounts through the community search.

[oompaloompa]

agreed! yes, my only problem is I sell one type/catagory of products on a group of accounts and another type on another group, wish i had dozens of catagories to choose from but had to stick to ones that work for me and least hassle.

[lakeman]

I see what you're saying, but if you think about it that gives you even more of reason to search "competitors" activity. Even though the competitors I am referring to are actually your other accounts, if they were actual competitors you would want to see how their products are selling, right?

[Lyda]

Does Ebay know my IP if don' log into it, but type something in Search window? Do they get from what IP the search is from for particular item?

I've been wondering if their servers actually DO track the IP. I know they CAN. The capability exists to check stored cookies even when you don't log in. I just don't know if they actually bother.

[GreenBean]

^^^I think not until another factor 'triggers' a close perusal.

Not 100% off topic but there was this fraud in the banking industry where
.1c was syphoned off hundreds of thousands of accounts. Went on for a long time.Fraudster got mega bucks. No alarms went off until something happened. Feel ebay is much the same....if that makes sense. All that info might be there but not correlated.

[Lyda]

Jeez, I do that a lot... checking on items without signing in... but I don't have any more suspended IP, it's just an IP that belongs to another account which is ok account.. I got rid of my suspended IP entirely, lol. But, I am wondering now too, capabilities or not.. Well, if they are capable, they are most likely doing it, at least for accounts that have been flagged at one time or another..no?

[oompaloompa]

they would have to track ALOT of ips for no reason,

I think goofbay is a good tool as Ive been told by them that it goes thru their server ip...

I know that even when you search ebay without logging in, it knows if you've viewed a particular item or not. Try this. Don't log in. Search something. Load an item from the search list until you find one with a counter on it. Close the page. Search again. Open the same item. Notice the counter did not increment upward? Cookie.

[Lyda]

How clever Vic!

[Juicyas]

Mm, I am very wary of the 'not logging in' part of it. I would think they could track that if they wanted. It always says "Hi ___, not you? sign in' at the top so that is definitely cookie time!

I think when it comes to linking, the bots won't find it. But a human doing a closer look probably has access to all these things. For example if you search 'gucci shoes' on 3 of your accounts and one goes down and they are wondering if another account belongs to you, then the fact that you've searched the same items in the past would be another point to add to their reasons that they are in fact linked.

Having said all this.. I keep a close check on my competitors... I have seen them lose accounts and have another keep going for a very long time (when they have multiple running). Or they lose one account and start another with _exactly the same_ pictures and item description a few days later and they seem to have no issues (so far). I doubt they are doing stealth because from their strategies for selling that I can read into from their listings, end times etc etc, they're a bit thick!

[oompaloompa]

hi blah not you is definately a cookie!!!

You dont get that if you deleted cookies option on browser.