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New (for me at least) reason for banning accounts
 

Just got off the line with Ebay in regards to one of my stealth accounts.

3+ month aged stealth went live today where I listed a 3 non risk items.

Got hit with a, call us in 48 hours or your banned.

I called and after a 40 minute wait period, I was told they couldn't lift my ban because my IP address didn't match my phones Area code.

So there's a heads up. I didn't know this and I'm sorry if this is old information for anyone else, but apparently area code and IP Address are connected and decisions are based off that connection.

Re: New (for me at least) reason for banning accounts
 

This is odd, since if you use a dial up connection, they could show your IP as being from the other side of the country.

Re: New (for me at least) reason for banning accounts
 

It's new for me too. It sounds strange and I hardly believe!

Re: New (for me at least) reason for banning accounts
 

They come out with some guff!

In the UK, my IP sometimes shows approx 50 miles away from where I'm actually at.

Re: New (for me at least) reason for banning accounts
 

That is probably some new computer security software wow that's messed up because lots of people have area codes that don't match their area.

Re: New (for me at least) reason for banning accounts
 

It might not be that odd actually.

I made an account with a texas IP address and had a NYC phone area code (Doing some testing)

The code did not come through to the account went down and wouldnt even let me make a sellers account (A verification screen came up)

I wanted to use the wording that I was moving to another state

Re: New (for me at least) reason for banning accounts
 

This is actually not new. When you check your ip address and log it to keep track of it as you should be doing especially if you have multiple accounts you will see it says where you are located, who the carrier is that is providing your service and the ip address.
It is always wise to create stealth accounts with addresses within a certain distance of where you know your ip addresses will be showing you are located.

It does make too much sense if you make a stealth account say in Ohio and you log to ebay with an ip that says you are in California.

Re: New (for me at least) reason for banning accounts
 

Lets not forget also that Ebay Reps are not all the brightest light bulbs in the package. Most are hired with zero computer knowledge and I seriously think that they will tell you what exactly they do to match info, or IP's, etc.

Re: New (for me at least) reason for banning accounts
 

Oh and on the dial up thing. I use to use dial up. I forgot what it was called it was only like $8 a month and if you have unlimited calling within the US with your landline it works out great..I believe it was Basic IP...or something like that. And you could select the numbers you wanted to use to connect to. So if you had a stealth account in Ohio or California you could look up the numbers they had in their system that you could use for the dial up connection in those states to use specifically when you logged on to those accounts. That way you DID have an ip address showing you were located in the state close by to where the physical address on the stealth account was.

Re: New (for me at least) reason for banning accounts
 

This is very very true!
Also the ip thing is not usually the card they try to pull its the your info wasnt found in our public database.

I wonder what they would do if someone threw a "Well thats because I have been living off the grid in Tibet for the last 20 years" at them?
HAHA

Re: New (for me at least) reason for banning accounts
 

Based on what I have seen, that's just an excuse.

THey basically looked at the public database and couldn't get anything.
They can't just ban people because the IP doesn't match the area code.

What If my cell phone is from a different state??? A lot of people have this

Re: New (for me at least) reason for banning accounts
 

I agree with SaiJin!

This is an excuse. I have plenty of stealth accounts. Many do not match the area code.
I think it may be due to the method of connection.
Some older connections use different protocols.

They do a lot of random stuff too. :laugh:

Re: New (for me at least) reason for banning accounts
 

Ditto.......we are such a mobile society nowadays....I'd argue that till the cows came home....many people have had a phone number for years and don't want to change it just because they move.......Really, there is no such thing as long distance anymore, so what does it matter what area code your phone has??? They'd get an ear full from me and I'd bet I'd win this one.

Re: New (for me at least) reason for banning accounts
 

There is definitely a public database record for the name/address I was using. I can 100% attest to that.

As to the rep not knowing ****, I definitely don't doubt that. I pestered her for about 5-10 minutes after she told me that, demanding to know how they could honestly make a decision based on that sort of irrelevant information. Her only defense was to keep regurgitating the same response "Your IP doesn't match your area code"

However, I don't think she was pulling this out of her ass. All of the accounts that were using this exact area code were brought down periodically today with the same "Call us in 48 hours or your banned". I only had the patience to call back once after that bull**** I went through on the first account.

I think Ebay may be experimenting, but hell, who knows. I just figured I'd give everyone a heads up on what's been happening in my neck of the woods.

Re: New (for me at least) reason for banning accounts
 

It makes sense. You could test this by acquiring an IP where your phone number resides and seeing if that comes back with a limited aco****.

Thanks for reporting back. :)

Re: New (for me at least) reason for banning accounts
 

They never give you a real reason why they ban accounts, they even tell you that, because they do not want you circumventing there system opening a new account

So they usually give a generic response, or make something up

The problem here you made the account and let it sit too long , so by coming out and listing right away after letting it dormant for 3 months raises flags just for that reason alone

You should of either sold something right away and have been logging in periodically or have now started logging in for a week and maybe made a small purchase and than sold something

Or it just could of been something in the way you have made the account but since you did nothing with it for 3 months it's just now getting reviewed, and its possible if u sold something right away they would of picked up on what ever it was and banned you than

But the ip thing is not the reason, if it was they would of never told u that because that's like them saying we caught u with a stealth account, and next Time what u want to do is make ur stealths using an IP that is in the same geo location as your area code

Plus I get IPS from California , Texas , all over and I'm in the northeastern part of the country and its never an issue

Re: New (for me at least) reason for banning accounts
 

Agreed with DMshark. THey come up with an excuse that is not the real reason of the ban.

Remember years ago when they used to call you if you are a powerseller to let you know you are banned as courtesy? And when you ask them "why", they said : "We can't tell you" ?