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Two weekends ago (right as I had 26 of my own seller auctions closing) eBay locked me out of my account and retroactively canceled all auctions that I had won as a sniper in the last two months.

Since I had all of these auctions closing and all this money coming in, I freaked out. I thought someone was really try to steal my account.

Here are some quotes from the notices I received:

quote:
eBay Listing XXXXXXXXXX Cancelled - Results Null and Void

The listing in which you were a bidding participant has been ended by eBay. Since the listing was ended by eBay, for the transaction itself is null and void.

To protect the privacy of all eBay members, we can't discuss the details of the listing removal. We hope this assures you that your account information will also remain private.


At the same time I also got an e-mail saying:

quote:
A26 Account Security Notice: Restored Account

It appears your account was accessed by an unauthorized third party and used to bid on items without your knowledge. Additionally, the email address on your account may have been tampered with, which is why you may not have received any emails about these bids.

To regain control of your account, please complete the following steps...

With regard to any items won with your ID, please send a quick note to each seller and briefly explain what happened. The sellers will be able to request credits for all the relevant fees to be credited to their accounts.

Should you receive feedback or Unpaid Item notices as a result of this activity, please click "Help" on any eBay page and then select "Contact Us" to request that the feedback or Unpaid Item notices be reviewed for removal.

In order to better protect your account, we encourage you to obtain a Security Key. Learn more http://www.ebay.com/securitykey


The completely ridiculous thing is that all these canceled auctions were long finished, the goods delivered, and the feedback left.

After a sleepless Sunday night with the eBay "Trust and Safety Unit" I was able to get my account restored. I was so freaked out by the whole affair and so relieved to have my account restored that I never questioned eBay on what really had occurred.

Now with the perspective of time and distance the message eBay is sending is clear: don't use sniping services or we are going to mess with you big time, possibly even close you out of your account permanently-- and by the way get our little "Security Key" thing too so you'll definitely never be able to snipe again.

Unfortunately in my case, I think they won. My carefully cultivated seller account is very valuable to me, and I've got alot to sell in the coming months. Unless I open a separate bidding ID, I'm too scared to use Auction Sniper any more.

I'm pretty bitter about it, but don't see there is anything I can do because eBay has all the power.
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Obviously I don't have any direct evidence. How can anyone (dare to) guess the mysterious powers of eBay. Wink

I had expected to find more people with similar experiences, but haven't so far. It seems I'm an isolated case...

All the same, I'm very password and security savvy. My accounts were in no way compromised. I've never had any account compromised. I've been auctionsniping all my auctions for over two years now. Since eBay did this retroactively and exactly when I was most vulnerable, my only best, simplest theory to explain their actions is that they did it to warn/punish me for sniping.

I think the fact that they have recently rolled out their Bid Assistant lends support to my theory-- but, yes absolutely, it remains merely a theory.

I wish I could still feel comfortable using snipping services, but eBay has quite successfully intimidated me.

I am seriously considering starting a new eBay ID just for bidding/sniping-- because you have to be an idiot not to snipe!
No one has mentioned anything about this problem on the forum. Over the years some users have commented about being restricted by a seller, and assumed it had something to do with AS, or with sniping, but none of them (that I remember) persisted in the claim and typically stop discussing the issue after they read a suggestion to contact the seller for an explanation, which leads one (me) to believe it had nothing to do with AS, or with sniping.

If ebay was doing something such as you’re suggesting, I would think there own forums would COME ALIVE with threads full of complaints.

I just don’t see the motivation for them to implement something like this. If is it some form of random punishment for sniping, then they would (and they know it) be exposing themselves to a lawsuit. I just don’t see it.

As far as a separate ID just for bidding/sniping, I think that’s a safeguard every seller should do. I wouldn’t want some other seller to be able to leverage extra cooperation from me by holding my seller-feedback ransom.
quote:
A26 Account Security Notice: Restored Account
- sounds like a spoof or hoax to me!

Example.

As eBay logs in with your ID and password then the only evidence they could use is that the IP address was different (or known to them as being AS's). My IP address is different every time so that's probably not it!

I'd change your password for something uncrackable and stop worrying until the day comes that sniping by software no longer works and you have to use manual snipes.

R2
I guess maybe I'm being paranoid, but I still have no other, better explanation.

It had nothing to do with the sellers. They had no problem with my winning bid, are still happy registered members, and none of their other auctions were affected. None of my selling auctions were affected. None of my non-sniped BIN transactions were affected. Only sniped auctions from the last two months-- they even canceled sniped auctions where I was the highest bidder but the item didn't sell because of a reserve price!

eBay's actions _seem_ very precisely focused on my sniping activities....
region2-

The "Restored Account" was very real. I know how to avoid account phishers and other such hoaxes. I was truly locked out. I had to spend more than an hour with eBay support to get my account unlocked.

All my passwords always have very high security ratings. My accounts weren't compromised.

What your saying about logging IDs, passwords, and IP addresses makes sense, and in the absence of other info, that's exactly what eBay must have done. They looked at activity for my ID from auctionsniper.com IP addresses and canceled those transactions.

One other tidbit that I think is significant, is that when I was interacting with eBay support they were at first very mystified that old, totally complete auctions had been canceled. They were surprised when I told them that I had authorized the bids, paid for the items, and already received them. Finally, the support person asked if I had used a sniping service...

...and, as I said, I was so relieved to have my account unlocked I didn't push the support person further.
That last reply should have been addressed to Chatter not Dave. Sorry.

Anyway, I had another thought about how it went down.

I as I mentioned I had alot of items closing on the night it happened. Their total was quite high, and my volume and amounts of transactions has been quite the last several months after a long hiatus.

Perhaps all this triggered additional scrutiny for my account and that scrutiny caused eBay to look very narrowly at my activities. My snipes became suspicious because their originating IP didn't match any of my other activity-- BLAM my snipe auctions got canceled and obliterated.

Quite possibly this all happened because I met certain criteria and thresholds in eBay's security algorithms. No actual person intervened to do this. Which makes all the more sense, because canceling long finished auctions really makes no sense.

The eBay support person really didn't seem surprised that it may have been triggered by sniped auctions.

So perhaps the lesson is watch your snipes when you have a high volume of large transactions at play.

So yeah Chatter and all, there probably isn't a reason to be paranoid, and eBay isn't out to get snipers per se. It's just sniping can trigger automatic security measures under certain circumstances.

Cool. I'm kind of relieved.
I did some “limited” searching on ebay’s discussion boards. Didn’t find much. Found a comment or two complimenting ebay on restricting an account because someone(s) had indeed hacked their account.



quote:
My snipes became suspicious because their originating IP didn't match any of my other activity
quote:
It's just sniping can trigger automatic security measures under certain circumstances.
Both of those statements qualify for a “maybe yes – maybe no”. It might well have been the inactivity on the account, coupled with a recent high activity that triggered this. Both statements, as does the thread’s title, suggest a conclusion instead of an assumption. The thread’s title is a bit dramatic for something not supported by anything more then supposition. Even a “?” in the title might have created a more receptive/supportive environment – might have given more credibility to ebay’s reported response.



quote:
I was so freaked out by the whole affair and so relieved to have my account restored that I never questioned eBay on what really had occurred.
That might have been the place to start?



quote:
Now with the perspective of time and distance the message eBay is sending is clear: don't use sniping services or we are going to mess with you big time, possibly even close you out of your account permanently
quote:
I'm pretty bitter about it, but don't see there is anything I can do because eBay has all the power.
quote:
simplest theory to explain their actions is that they did it to warn/punish me for sniping.
quote:
but eBay has quite successfully intimidated me.
See any pattern?



quote:
Cool. I'm kind of relieved.
That’s what counts.
quote:
I am seriously considering starting a new eBay ID just for bidding/sniping
Was my first thought when reading your experience and your concerns. I have an ID for sniping, one for selling, and one for nibbling/BIN stomping! I wish you would've pressed the eBay support person regarding what caused all the hoopla. You didn't do anything wrong. More specific -- SNIPING, be it manual or via service, IS NOT A CRIME!
Sunny-boy.Sunny-boy.

As you recognized, eBay holds the power.

I think Rick and R2(d2) here have pretty much snuffed this out for you, but let me give that butt one last squash with my foot.

eBay does funny sh - stuff. I have another account whereby we sell cars and parts on eBay. Not my favorite place to do it, we have had VERY limited success, but for certain makes/models, it works.

When we first got started, since I am part dyslexic (and the rest, well, stupid), and don't like to read, I just jumped in head-first into eBay selling cars. I know you might say, what about getting some on-line help? Well, I can't STAND those on-line chat-things, back & forth, back & forth, worthless things take an HOUR to get an answer (if your lucky) to something that would take 5 min on the phone to get, you have to persevere some of the worst grammar, and of course, dodge a bunch of sales come-ons. Course, could be worse, might have to actually smell their foul B.O. and see their dental disorders as they give you a toothy grin.

Anyway, everything was great for us, had listings going, buyers interested, asking questions, bidding, suddenly, I get a notice from eBay that all my auctions are cancelled, we were shut down, and they told us if we DARED to create another account and re-list our cars, we'd be crushed like the vermin-scum we are, remember, we are "used car dealers", worst-of-the-worst, well, ok, there are a few worse, like Time-share sales, Jewelry (retail or wholesale, doesn't matter), Home Improvement, Mortgage Brokers, then come car sales, but we are right in there as having some of the worst business reputations, and rightfully so, there are SO many scum-bags in the industry, they'd screw their own dying grandma for a nickel.

Anyway, eBay slams the door on us. The initial claim was that it appeared someone "hacked out account" and was using it without our consent. Like you, I am pretty savvy on the computer, I am an ex-computer geek, I had a frontal lobotomy done so I could forget that side of my brain entirely and stop counting in Hex. Binary digits are no longer my late-night companions.

Anyway, like you, I smelled manure on that claim.

Digging a bit further, it turns out eBay assumed we were illegally selling cars. Of course, once they asked, I gladly provided our license, insurance, etc as proof we were legit, but that is eBay's "shoot first and ask questions later" policy, I think they have that printed right over the door.

The difference for us is, it took DAYS to get back on-line, not an hour such as yours. We had to go through an appeals process that took over 3 days to even hear back that they couldn't read any of the faxed paper work we sent (again, manure wafted heavily, the documents were sent at "fine" setting on a new fax machine, they expected us to believe they couldn't read a single word of the 24 pages of documents we sent!) So, that took another 4 days to hear back that we seemed OK, then another 3 days or so to get the final answer, so, 11 days in total, completely shut down, unable to do anything about it. If I lived in California, I think I would have gotten out a 30-ought-six, a high-powered site, found a well-positioned grassy knoll out front of their building and settled in for a day of target practice!

FYI - during this ENTIRE time frame, there was NO person I could physically talk to on the phone, other than the eBay operator, who seemed empathetic to my situation, but continuously put me into phone transfer hell, which if you've never been, is an endless loop of dead extensions, automated answering systems with no voice mail capability, or just plain busy-signals. Repeatedly, I was told by the less-than-minimum-waged Hin-dudes that answer the "on-line chat" lines that the "Trust & Security" unit (or do you say "Trust & Safety"?, I don't know, I don't care either) was way overwhelmed with work, that if I sent something to them more than once, it would just put me further behind, that they could confirm that T&S received my docs, but not when they would actually look at them, and that it was impossible to speak to anyone in T&S on the phone or leave a message, EVERYTHING they touched was by email. I need a job like that where I can just hide all day and not be responsible for producing anything.

Anyway, the fact that you would have even gotten to speak to someone from T&S, let alone get a resolution in an hour tells me that, if it really did go down that way, eBay realized they made a BIG mistake turning off your account, which is of course easy for us to recognize, 26 seller auctions closing? Holy Sh... Are you one of the success stories those late-night infomercials talks about of people who don't touch, inventory or actually buy anything, they just somehow magically make money on eBay, or do you have an actual business that for one reason or another prospered on eBay? Just curious, I like to know who I am talking to.

So, sorry for the drawn-out details, thought you might get a kick out of our story. But, I think you have snuffed this butt out pretty well, eBay is kind of fickle, and if your account suddenly goes from a comatose state to something that resembles a frenzied school girl jacked out of her mind on Mr. Pib and diet pills who finds her Mom's Platinum card on the bureau, you solved your own Nancy Drew here, you probably tripped more red-flags than a hot, sexy 21 year-old "adult" entertainer's tax-return in the IRS Mainframe.

Well, good luck to you SK, keep the "sunny side" up and the "greasy side" down!!! Keep your nose between the ditches and the (eBay) smokies out of your britches! I'll catch you on the flip-flop, we gone bye bye!

AS-Attack
The newest, (and stupidest) success story to hit AS! Stupid, like a fox, well, maybe a fox who got hit by a car, but survived. Wait, I think the saying is "Crazy like a fox". Never mind.
Can't say I've run into this particular problem but have to agree that dealing with Ebay is worse then dealing with government agencies. They are the most arrogant and ignorant folks on earth. Customer service is horrible.

And yes they shoot first and ask questions later. Several times they've canceled my auctions that they claimed were against their mighty rules. Each time they were wrong but they won the argument.

I truly wish somebody else would be able to take these jerks on with another auction site. Rumor was Google was going to open an auction site but I fear they'd be just as bad.

Big money gives these companies the feeling that they can do whatever they want. Sadly it appears they can. Mad
7mm - YES! I agree. SOMEONE else needs to come along and knock eBay off the top of that cash-heap they are sitting on!

Can it really be that impossible for someone else to be real competition? I guarentee, if someone was a threat, eBay would become WAY easier to deal with as a seller.

Why did uBid never catch on? I know today they are complete dog dooky, but 8 years ago, I used to buy computer sh - stuff (components) from them. When did they get all weird and stuff?

I say, "Go GOOGLE, Go GOOGLE, get your bid-site on, get your bid-site on...kick some eBay butt, kick...." you get the rest of the song.

Oh well, I'm gonna go hang out next to my dog with a lighter, see if he'll pass gas!
Ebay's policy of shoot now & ask questions later is well renowned and yet, the real villains, escape the net. I can't imagine that ebay is anti snipers or see them ever preventing them as in the end, they make money, either because the sniper is successful or as they hope, the sniping bid pushes up the final bid price (which means more fees for them)
I can see that this topic is old, but I recently had a similar experience with eSnipe and had my eBay account suspended twice within 24 hours due to issues with unauthorized third party access according to eBay.

Should I even bother trying to sign up with AS or will I encounter the same grief I got from eBay as I did with eSnipe?
Hello bea2les,

Welcome to the Auction Sniper Community and thank you for your question. We have not had any customers report their eBay accounts suspended due to any services provided by Auction Sniper.

I would suggest signing up as we let you win 3 snipes for free. If at that time you would like to continue using AS, you would be charged 1% of the item price for winning snipes.

In other words, try us for free and see what you think.

Please let me know if you ever have any questions or if I can be of any help.

Respectfully,

Steve
Auction Sniper Product Manager
I can let someone drive my car, which is (in my world) the same as “give out your ID and password to a third party”. When I “transfer” my car to someone, then I no longer have the ability to determine who drives the car or not.

Again, I see nothing in the user agreement that states you can’t turn your ebay ID and password over to someone else. After all, a spouse would be considered a “third party”, and although I think it wise not to have a spousee bidding on the something using the spouser’s ID, I see no mention that it’s against ebay’s “TOS”.
Hello bea2les,

I just wanted to follow up. We have been around since 2001 and have not ever had a customer report the experience you had with the company you mentioned.

Again, I encourage you to try our services for free, so that you can feel satisfied that your sniping will be successful with us.

Thank you,

Steve
Auction Sniper Product Manager
quote:
I can let someone drive my car, which is (in my world) the same as “give out your ID and password to a third party”. When I “transfer” my car to someone, then I no longer have the ability to determine who drives the car or not.
Car analogy is rather good!

In my mind, transferring one's eBay ID would be GIVING someone your ID to use for THEMSELVES -- purchasing & selling for THEMSELVES, not for YOU. Auctionsniper(AS) acts as a virtual assistent, bidding NOT for THEMSELVES, but bidding for YOU at YOUR DIRECTION. It would be similar to a boss, having to be in a meeting in the afternoon and wanting to manually snipe an auction ending during the meeting, giving a secretary his eBay ID info and directing her to bid in his behalf on a specific item at a specific time for a specific bid price. That is exactly what AS does programatically, and I would contend that in neither case was a "TRANSFER of ID to another party" involved.

In essence, AS is a third party "proxy" bidder for you.
quote:

But, I think you have snuffed this butt out pretty well, eBay is kind of fickle, and if your account suddenly goes from a comatose state to something that resembles a frenzied school girl jacked out of her mind on Mr. Pib and diet pills who finds her Mom's Platinum card on the bureau, you solved your own Nancy Drew here, you probably tripped more red-flags than a hot, sexy 21 year-old "adult" entertainer's tax-return in the IRS Mainframe.

Wow, AS-Attack, that is poetic! I'm so impressed I took the time to sign up for the forum and verify the email to tell you so. You've got talent. Do you have a blog?

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