Received an unusual message...

UserM13 · #1 02-13-2019

Hi all,

I received this message via eBay. It’s regarding a product I have been selling for around 3 months. (I’m no business or a regular seller) I do however pick up bargains where I can see there to be a profit usually just before Christmas.

Anyway now this random message... Giving me 24 hours. Not sure what to make of it. As I’ve bought the products with my money, using my images, my text etc.. ? ...It’s either legit and the company doesn’t like seeing their products sold on eBay even though there are many others on there that are definitely not authorised as they would appear to require to sell if any of this is to be believed or a competitor trying some scare tactics especially by adding the 24 hours part. Like what exactly is going to happen in 24 hours? They going to report me to eBay, get the listings removed etc.. I’d have though they’d have done that anyway if they felt they had a solid case.. Anyway this is a new area I’ve stumbled into. I don’t want to deal with any unnecessary stress so I do plan to remove before the deadline unless you guys who appear to be the experts in this area could give some much needed advice. Thank you.

“Hello Sir/Madam,
This is ***** from ***** in charge of the intellectual property protection.
We found that you are selling ****** products on your website without our authorization. According to our regulation, except for the local authorized clients, under no circumstances shall any distributors sell or resale our products, either on or offline in UK.
Therefore, I’m sending you this e-mail to hope you remove all ****** listings on your website within 24 hours after receiving our message. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation very much.
If you have any question, please contact me.”

UserM13 · #2 02-13-2019

I do apologise I appear to have posted this twice by pressing “post” using Safari on iPhone somehow.

blueuk · #3 02-14-2019

Let me guess 0 feedback ? I'd be asking them to contact you via email so you can do some research on them, only then can you decide what to do.

The categories i sell in nowadays i don't have this issue, but even 5-10 years ago i'd get contact from other sellers purporting to be solicitors acting on behalf of companies demanding listings are taken down. Once a seller was that stupid sent the message from his actual seller account.

I had an account manager in those days and within 48 hours he had managed to get that guys account shut down.