I am shocked and confused...

[thomassmith]

Hi,
I am shocked and confused.
2 days ago I listed my laptop on ebay.
Out of a sudden, a guy bought my item, which was advertised as local pickup only but can post if you contact me first.
this guy just bought it and sent me this message:
subject: Payment Information Request


Please get back to me with the condition of the item and also pls send more pictures of the item to **********so that I can send my payment to you via paypal immediately.I wait to read from you soon.

Then ebay's reaction:
MC999 Suspicious buyer for item

We had to cancel bids for the buyer, ***********, because they aren't registered on eBay:
How could he bid on this then???????
Of course I was charged with selling fee so I contacted ebay agents via ebay chat to cancel the fee. Also asked them to make it possible to relist the item.
then I got MC999 You can now sell even more on eBay

We're pleased to let you know that we've increased your selling limits as a result of your recent activity. You can now sell up to 75 items and up to £ 4750.00 a month, whichever comes first. To check your sales and monthly selling limits, go to the "All Selling" section of My eBay.

After that I relisted the item. Within 5 minutes I got the same message like I did from the previous buyer :
subject: Payment Information Request

HELLO, I just bought your item on ebay and i will like to make payment for it, Kindly send me your paypal email address and the item number as well as the picture of the item or send me a money request. Get it send to this my email address .Thanks

Again, I contacted ebay agents via chat to clarify and remove selling fee and relisted it again. This time I setup buyer requirements to block buyers like them and blocked these two guys.It was yesterday.
Ebay agent advised me to open a case (buyer and seller cancel the transaction) so I can get back my selling fee as the selling never happened.

Then my listing was removed yesterday:
MC999 eBay listings removed - unauthorized user of buyer or bidder account
We recently learned that someone was using an account to bid on or buy items without the account owner's permission. All associated fees have been credited to your account. Please note that we're working with the account owner to prevent any additional unauthorized activity.

Your listings may be eligible for relisting through My eBay. If your listing is eligible, you'll see it in your "Unsold" section in My eBay. Listings that aren't eligible for relisting won't appear in the "Unsold" section.

We're sorry for any inconvenience, and we thank you for your patience and cooperation.


Today I got a surprise!!!
MC113 Your eBay account has been suspended

Your eBay account was suspended because recent account activity has raised serious security concerns. We've taken this precaution to protect our members while we make sure that the activity doesn't cause harm -- however unintentionally -- to the eBay Community. 

You won't be able to use eBay in any way. This includes using another existing account or registering a new account. 

Any outstanding selling fees are due immediately, and any amounts that you haven't previously disputed will be charged to the billing method currently on file.
Regards,

Today I chatted some agents and they are not allowed to inform me the reason why it was suspended. I told the last agent I talked to to read all my previous conversations with ebay agents from 2 days ago. He did and was very helpful but could not help me. No appeal in my case although he gave me this piece of information:

If you want, feel free to send in your complaint about this as a written letter to:

eBay Complaints Department

Attn UK Risk

PO Box 9473

Dublin 15

Ireland

I asked him why I had not been warned before?????? Some red flag warning would have been nice to keep on track don't you think?

All I got from my past is one red flagged warning on invalid bid:






It has recently come to our attention that your account has breached our Invalid Bid Retraction policy.

***About eBay's Invalid Bid Retraction policy***

Bids on eBay are considered binding and may only be cancelled under special circumstances. Misuse or frequent use of the Bid Retraction option is not permitted on eBay. This includes any manipulation of the bidding process to discover the maximum bid of the current high bidder.

For more information about this policy please copy this link into a new browser window:

Invalid bid retraction

We realise you may not be aware of this rule. We respectfully request that you refrain from this activity in the future. Repeated breaches of this or another policy may result in the suspension of your eBay membership.

Thank you for your cooperation in this important matter.


I do not know what I have done. This last agent told me that the suspension placed on your account was caused by a different issue. "I can assure you that the ⊗⊗⊗⊗ buyers are not the cause. And this is not a reflection of your personality. It was just an action taken to keep our site a safe marketplace. "

I would think these two ⊗⊗⊗⊗/spoof buyers were the reason as I did not have a very active business life on ebay.

What should I do? I think I am innocent and ebay protects itself because of the suspicious buyers on my item and I opened a case on top of that and chatted with ebay agents loads of times and also I forwarded these emails I got from the ⊗⊗⊗⊗ buyers to spoof@ebay.co.uk.

But this agent telling me the ⊗⊗⊗⊗ buyers are not the cause. And he was quite kind and cooperative with me and did not exit the chat, I do not think he lied to me.

Thank you for reading my issue.

[thomassmith]

the case I opened has been solved.
ebay buyer on case details:
Hacking of my eBay account took place.
I did not place the bid, but apologize that you were part of
this eBay inconvenience.

So my ebay might have been hacked as well?????

[SaiJin]

I don't think your ebay acc was hacked, rather a hacked buyer's account was used to purchase from you and as a result eBay booted you both.

Unfortunately this is rather the norm with electronics of high value.

There's little chance you can save this account, when something like this happened, you should talk to T&S (as long as you have all the necessary papers), but even then it's never a guarantee, rather chances are small.

So my advice is while you try to save your account, create some back up accs NOW
using the stealth guide method

[jeffweico]

Saijin is right. Don't be shocked, this type of thing happens all the time. Before I lost an account, I thought only scam artists and counterfeiters got the boot. Boy, was I wrong! The least little thing can tank an account, especially a seller account.

[Dmshark25]

As I was reading more and more of your post, each time you said you relished and called and re listed, I was getting ready to write stop resisting this item and sit back a few days, and than I read to where the account was restricted

This is definitely an unfortunate situation , eBay doesn't like risk, and when a fraudulent situation like this occurs eBay is not going to fully investigate to see whether the fraud was all the act of the buyer and the seller was the victim, they just eliminate everyone

You can try calling in a couple more times you could get lucky, but in this forum you will learn how eBay operates and can try to avoid situations like this in the future

[thomassmith]

Thank you all of you for your responses. It feels good that you all express your sympathy and experience.

This was a £1450 Macbook retina pro.
I think I did the right thing when I sent the f a k e buyers' emails to spoof@ebay.co.uk as I was advised, we can say I coopearated with ebay and helped them get the bad boys.

I don't mind making a new account but I can't.
New IP needed, new bank card needed.

I should talk to T&S. Who are they?

And ebay booted only me. The 2nd hacked ebay account still active.
The first user was booted and became unregistered user but the 2nd account still active.

For some reason I do not think the ebay agent lied to me. (he claims the f a k e buyers are not the cause) He was very cooperative from the beginning.

He cannot lie, can he? All conversations are recorded.

[stevebills]

ebay are the biggest liars on the planet m8

[thomassmith]

I could not have a chance to protect myself that was the REAL issue.
no previous warnings, nothing.
just taking action and goodbye.

He said 2 kinds of suspensions exist.
Either with the possibility of appeal or without it.
Like we are on a trial I am innocent, could not prove my innocence and they sentenced me.

[Dmshark25]

It's not that the rep you speak with is lying it's more that they may really not know they are lying to you

The reps you speak with just answer phones and are told what to say and of course the higher ups are not telling them to say what really is going on

[thomassmith]

He was the member of Safety and Trust. He had a look on the case and said
"I can assure you that the f a k e buyers are not the cause. And this is not a reflection of your personality. It was just an action taken to keep our site a safe marketplace."

So he did not really know he was saying?

[Mon3y]

The exact same thing happened to my first account when listing an iPhone. Literally the exact same message and everything, but this was last year.

I got banned and a few days later I got an email off eBay apologizing, my account was then fine.

[Dmshark25]

Originally Posted by thomassmith

He was the member of Safety and Trust. He had a look on the case and said
"I can assure you that the f a k e buyers are not the cause. And this is not a reflection of your personality. It was just an action taken to keep our site a safe marketplace."

So he did not really know he was saying?

They will never tell you a direct reason why you were suspended, it is always something generic with words like " threat to the eBay community" and so on and on.

They don't want to give out why they suspended a member because they know that information will be used against them in the future to circumvent these preventative measures that eBay takes

The reason is you were high on there risk level , and eBay does not like risk.

When they took down your listing the first time , and I know you had no way of knowing this, you should of just let the account cool down meaning don't list anything for a few days and certainly do not relist the item that they took down on that account.

Just another reason multiple accounts are good to have , you could of tried to relist on another account and just left that one sit for a month

And than calling in and re listing and calling and relisting, all these actions that you would think to be logical were actually killing u, and the more u called in the more of a risk u were becoming

The key is to always keep quiet. eBay/paypal do not want to hear from you, because that means that there is an issue and that issue is a level of risk

You need to operate quietly , and go with the flow , if something is taken down, just keep it down and move over to another account, by calling in you actually flag yourself and make the issue worse

[thomassmith]

Originally Posted by Mon3y

The exact same thing happened to my first account when listing an iPhone. Literally the exact same message and everything, but this was last year.

I got banned and a few days later I got an email off eBay apologizing, my account was then fine.

Wihs it was my case as well mate.

[thomassmith]

Thank, it absolutely makes sense. I am too greedy, wanted to sell it ASAP.

[isitworththestress]

Originally Posted by thomassmith

He was the member of Safety and Trust. He had a look on the case and said
"I can assure you that the f a k e buyers are not the cause. And this is not a reflection of your personality. It was just an action taken to keep our site a safe marketplace."

So he did not really know he was saying?

It indefinitely was not the ⊗⊗⊗⊗ buyers but i don't know what it was?

Think about it before you buy any more of their crap.

This company has no morel code and you are nothing to them is what we all had to learn the hard way so welcome to the world of stealth. You come to the right place.

There was a way I heard of people getting their account back on PSU but not tried it myself.

If you do not like the link I am about to post to an old post on PSU then just let me know and I will remove it.

View topic - Unfair Account Suspension on eBay

It is an old post so not sure how it would all work now.

Originally Posted by thomassmith

Thank you all of you for your responses. It feels good that you all express your sympathy and experience.

This was a £1450 Macbook retina pro.
I think I did the right thing when I sent the f a k e buyers' emails to spoof@ebay.co.uk as I was advised, we can say I coopearated with ebay and helped them get the bad boys.

I don't mind making a new account but I can't.
New IP needed, new bank card needed.

The Stealth Book on here would really be an asset to you and reading a lot of the advice on this forum.