Make a return from eBay suspension NARU

For a reason or another there are people wanting to return to eBay selling. It is not straight forward because eBay records many of your data. Not only they record data you filled in seller application form (name, address, phone number, SSN, credit card, paypal email), they also logged your IP address, computer hardware code (lan card MAC number), computer name, workgroup name etc. You may not even know the latters yourself, but yes eBay logs the things you don't know. They have the right to do so because you have agreed it once you agreed their terms of joining as an eBay member.

So to rejoin eBay again, you have to renew all items aforementioned. Here is a check list for your easy reference.

1. Change your LAN card AND hard drive so that both hardware codes will go not the same.
2. Change your login username, either use a common name like "peter" or "mary". Use "Administrator" is the best because it is default to Windows OS. It is stupid to use your last email ID registered and NARUed on eBay
3. Change your computer name in your OS (typically Windows XP or Vista). Use some generic name like "my computer" or "pc at home".
4. Change your internet service provider, or request a new fixed IP address. If you are connected with dynamic IP you can skip this step. Ask your ISP if you don't know if you are connecting with fixed or dynamic IP.
5. Call your credit card company and ask for a different card number. It will be less suspicious to eBay if you will use a card with different card holder name.
6. Get a new mailing address.
7. Get a new phone number (cell phone number is acceptable).
8. Give credit card company your new mailing address for your monthly statement.
9. Re-register on eBay using your real name, the new address and phone number but ALWAYS a different email address. Do NOT use email from your private domain. Use those free emails from Google, Yahoo, MSN, or whatever.
10. Open a new Paypal account with new banking acount/credit card/email/mailing address connected.

Now when you log in to eBay, their computer sees a different PC, coming from a different service provider, with a different home address, and a different email address.

Ever wonder if eBay server is that powerful to log so many personal data from your computer secretly? Do the follow two simple tests in your spare time.

Test 1:

1. Go into DOS mode from your Windows (steps are here).
2. Enter this line to prompt "ftp -A download.speedtest.com.hk". You don't really need to download anything. That is a public server in Hong Kong for internet connection speed test. Purpose of this ftp is to show you how that server will log your entry.
   
   
3. Once you are connected to the FTP server, you will see this line "Anonymous login succeeded for XXX@YYYcomputer".
4. You should now understand how your username XXX and computer name YYYcomputer are logged easily by a server.

Test 2:

1. Download and install this data backup tool SyncEXPnet.
   
   
   
   It is a very handy tool I am using to backup my netbook computer to my home via the Internet while I am drinking coffee chatting with friends.It is a green software in which all files are installed in one single folder. So if you don't like that software you can just delete the complete folder after the test.
2. Go to the installation folder, execute the file SEServer.exe. It may minimize itself to the taskbar immediately. Double click the icon to restore the window. Click on the "registeration" tab. You can see two rows of numbers are read by the software. One be a serial number unique to your hard drive. The other is your LAN card MAC number.SyncEXPnet uses these hardware codes to generate registeration license. This execise is to illustrate how your hardware codes are extracted by software easily.

I am no professional software/hardware engineer. There may be easier ways to illustrate the risks but I won't know. These are just two simple ways for me as a layman to realize how my personal data are showing off to third parties easily.

I've been Naru'ed a few times by Evilbay, and learned the way painfully and costly. Regarding to the hardware codes that was confirmed by my ex-account manger from eBay.HK. Once I asked if I could ever reinstate my account, or do I just register with a new email and paypal account. He told me indirectly that their US Trust & Safety team rules everything which they cannot override in HK.... email/paypal are just part of the data they log from members... changing the entire PC will be a better bet....

eBay.HK had their stake of interest to have me back selling, because I was one of the top sellers in HK contributing a few bucks to their incomes. But their T&S team in the US just killed all my accounts in a row just because one of the accounts broke their policies.

I have few credit cards on hand and go with a dozen subsidiary cards to my family members. So I can have cards in different names. At times your local eBay office may call your phone to verify your existence and accessibility. So your phone number must be real and accessible.

eBay is not clairvoyant, just eliminate the traceables, and on you go. No magic solution needed. I believe many seasoned eBay sellers and BHW-ers know the tricks already and I am just trying to organize them neatly and added with the two tests for more funs.

Now I have my working eBay accounts selling all within their rules. But the ultimate advice be not to rely on them as your sole income. Now I have my own money sites and learning ways in BHW to boost traffic here and there : )

Good luck.

talk about paranoia, but you really took up the time to write this out! kudos to you.

Very interesting. I often wondered how they were doing it, all the while I thought I was being so careful, sneaky little buggers . Thanks for the valuable information.

Hardrive and Lan Card(mac address) asre not used by eBay to link.Alot of that is VERY unneccesary.

New I.P
New Address
New Phone
New UserName

Thats all you need.

I also doubt they are able to track the mac adress. I really do not understand how they can do that.

However it's a great post, and I belive you are right on many of your points. However I do belive it's important to have new IP adresses(from the location you claim to live), New Personal Information, New Mail. And maybe one of the most important things, as I see it anyway. Delete cookies. Both ordinary, and flash cookies

Wow, thanks

It's too exaggerating if they do check for all these. Do they have to go to such extend? If yes I don't believe they can survive till now. But thanks for the nice tips

i don't think that egay is tracking to such levels , because it would cost them a lot of $$ for very little return

Good advice. I personally run VMWare Server which is free. I currently have 5 seperate PCs each of which is used with a different eBay/Paypal combination. I use a mobile Internet connection, and disconnect/reconnect between switching VM's.

In regards to the MAC address - it may still be visible within the TCP headers, unless you are behind a proxy or some other device that will re-write them. I don't think they would record it though.

To date very few track MAC addresses. Even if you wanted to change it you could do it with your router rather than replace the NIC (which is normally built-in to most motherboards).

It's really amazing how LITTLE information is actually tracked and USED for anything. It's those that tried these methods and then screwed up later on and got suspended again that started blaming all the massive tracking conspiracy.

You also don't need to change your OS, hard drive, and certainly don't have to change your ISP. Sheesh.

^^

I see alot of people get suspended from eBay and say they need to buy an ENTIRE new router, computer,etc..

If delete your cookies, and change your ip then to eBay you are a completely differnt user/pc

I have been as casual as some of your guy suggested creating new eb accounts. One of them got killed on first paypal payment received, one of them killed without even having done anything (not even creating a selling privilege yet), a couple of them killed in between the two ends. Those accounts were created over a 12 months span on different computers and over different IP addresses (we have dynamic IP at work) and different credit card names and addresses. But they got all killed within a week.

As I said I learned them painfully and costly as real life experience. You guys make your own judgment on what to believe.

the reason why your ebay accounts get killed is because of the fraud detection algorithm software that ebay uses. I believe it is called FADE. when a new account displays activity that is similar to a banned acount you get shut down.
My advice is follows

change IP address
delete cookies( but delete them a day before you sign on to trick the server into thinking you didn't delete them becuase.
When you sucessfully sign up leave the account dormant for 3 days.
do not bid on 99 cent products to boost your scores.
bid on items and watch items.
act like a noob who has never been on ebay before.

great write up. I wouldn't say paranoia, i would say CYA! Ebay is tough right now.

bigchow said:

I have been as casual as some of your guy suggested creating new eb accounts. One of them got killed on first paypal payment received, one of them killed without even having done anything (not even creating a selling privilege yet), a couple of them killed in between the two ends. Those accounts were created over a 12 months span on different computers and over different IP addresses (we have dynamic IP at work) and different credit card names and addresses. But they got all killed within a week.

As I said I learned them painfully and costly as real life experience. You guys make your own judgment on what to believe.

Click to expand...

You HAVE to be doing somthing wrong or are getting linked(do you owe paypal money).I wont get into the specifics....


ALSO to the guy about "FADE"...That is 100% ENTIERLY FALSE PayPal has Millions+ of user..if that were true tons of account would be getting shut down for "similiar patterns".