Does the eBay Contact Information policy bother anyone else?
dgreene56
Posts: 206
(Sorry if this has been addressed before, but I couldn't find it in a search)
The other day, I get an email from aw-confirm@ebay.com with subject line "eBay User Information Request".
One of my buyers had requested my contact information. Ebay gives the buyer my real name and phone number and also gives me his real name and phone number. I had no idea that they would give out your phone number like that. Don't they realize that with your phone number, even if unlisted I believe, a person can find your street address? I find this very troublesome. It's not too far fetched this day and time to forsee a bad guy winning some auctions, requesting the contact information, and then, knowing that you have coins, either he sells the info to another bad guy in your locale or he himself or one of his gang pays you a visit. Phone to Address search And I'm sure there's other ways to get the address that I don't even know about.
After trying to disable my phone number on my eBay account for awhile, I got frustrated and contacted Live Help. The person their says that there is no way to disable your phone number as they want the parties involved to be able to contact one another. Excuse me, but I feel I should have an option on this and not be forced into it. I feel that contact between buyer and seller should only be done via email and they can disclose their phone numbers that way if they agree to. I would never agree to do this, however. The safety and security of my family is much too important to me. You go to the trouble of having a P.O. Box and trying to be discreet in many ways and it seems this eBay contact policy undermines the whole thing.
I sent a complaint to eBay's "Suggestion Box" (lower right in the Site Map) and demanded that they make this an optional thing for sellers. If you agree, please let them hear from you on this also. I'd think that, God forbid, one of us sellers or family member(s) gets killed or hurt as in the above scenario, that eBay would not want to face a lawsuit over this issue. Am I a paranoid nutcase or does this bother others as much as it does me?
The other day, I get an email from aw-confirm@ebay.com with subject line "eBay User Information Request".
One of my buyers had requested my contact information. Ebay gives the buyer my real name and phone number and also gives me his real name and phone number. I had no idea that they would give out your phone number like that. Don't they realize that with your phone number, even if unlisted I believe, a person can find your street address? I find this very troublesome. It's not too far fetched this day and time to forsee a bad guy winning some auctions, requesting the contact information, and then, knowing that you have coins, either he sells the info to another bad guy in your locale or he himself or one of his gang pays you a visit. Phone to Address search And I'm sure there's other ways to get the address that I don't even know about.
After trying to disable my phone number on my eBay account for awhile, I got frustrated and contacted Live Help. The person their says that there is no way to disable your phone number as they want the parties involved to be able to contact one another. Excuse me, but I feel I should have an option on this and not be forced into it. I feel that contact between buyer and seller should only be done via email and they can disclose their phone numbers that way if they agree to. I would never agree to do this, however. The safety and security of my family is much too important to me. You go to the trouble of having a P.O. Box and trying to be discreet in many ways and it seems this eBay contact policy undermines the whole thing.
I sent a complaint to eBay's "Suggestion Box" (lower right in the Site Map) and demanded that they make this an optional thing for sellers. If you agree, please let them hear from you on this also. I'd think that, God forbid, one of us sellers or family member(s) gets killed or hurt as in the above scenario, that eBay would not want to face a lawsuit over this issue. Am I a paranoid nutcase or does this bother others as much as it does me?
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What really bugged me on the request this particular buyer made was that they emailed me shortly after the auction closed and asked for my address so they could send a m.o. Of course, I sent them the P.O. address right back even though its clearly listed in the end of auction email they got from eBay. Then about an hour later, after I already responded to them with my address, they made this Contact Information request through eBay. I thought that was somewhat strange, and then when I realized eBay gives them my phone number, I just started getting upset about it.
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Call your phone company and tell them that your address is misspelled..."correct" it to a similar street name under the same ZIP; call back during the same billing cycle and cancel paper bills...download your statements and make your payments via the Internet thereafter.
RELLA
who boasts of twenty years experience in his craft
while in fact he has had only one year of experience...
twenty times.
The last thing I want to do is talk to some moron on eBay about a $10 coin
I answer their emails and give returns so there should be no need to talk
<< <i>Use a mobile phone number...bill your mobile phone to your P.O. Box for added security. >>
Edit - great idea!
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since 8/1/6
<< <i>Am I a paranoid nutcase or does this bother others as much as it does me? >>
No offense, but I'll go with the paranoid part.
Hell, there are people on here that can find out where you live in minutes just by tracing your IP address.
You can spend your whole life worrying about really insignificant stuff, or you can live your life. The best preparations in the world for your safety and well being occasionaly fail. People die wearing seat belts and people die wearing life vests! It's your choice!
K S
On another note, as was mentioned above, people can get your IP address from your email headers, and use your IP address to track down your physical location (heck I can do it, and I know next to nothing about that kind of stuff). If you get a prepaid cell phone, you should also start using a proxy server for your emails.
K - I know what you're saying but I can't help myself. I'm just programed to be alert and realistically on guard. We're bombarded daily with stories of innocent people being harmed by some scum out there. I've had someone walk right into my house before, in broad daylight on a Saturday when we were all doing chores, and walked out with our camcorder with about a year's worth of family video on the tape. Ouch! I had come from the back of the house to the front and the door was wide open. I thought at the time that one of my kids had left it open and didn't think much about it until the next day we were looking for the camcorder. I figured it out the next day when I found my plastic tape case in my side yard. When I came from the back of the house, he heard me coming and took off, which I guess is better than an unexpected confrontation. There's a lot of very brazen and savvy guys out there with zero conscience. I've got the wife and 4 young children here and I guess it's just in my nature to be as protective of them as possible. If something like this happened to us, and I had a chance to prevent the criminal from using an "opening" that I had forseen as a possibility but hadn't closed that "opening" when I had a chance, well, it would be kind of hard for me to live with that. I really have a very enjoyable life and I don't worry myself sick or anything like that. I don't think being cautious and anticipatory, no matter how small the chance of something happening, keeps me from enjoying life. In fact, after making these changes that Rella suggested, I know that I've done pretty much all that I can do to safeguard my family from my eBay endeavors. I can now continue to enjoy my hobby, my family and my life, but I'll still remain prudently alert.
Also, I'm very interested in how someone can get your physical address from your IP address. Wouldn't they have to steal it from your ISP's internal records? Or, is there a way for just anyone to type in an IP address on the net and up pops the physical address? I know very little about this and would just like to understand how it works.
Thanks guys!
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