eBay Forcing User ID

giantmutantbroccoli

"He sent trainees to unwittingly post the luxury hair irons and fixed the deals on work PCs, making £63,000....

The investigators traced McMorrine because he had used the private number plate of his sports car as a user name. "

Actually, this guy sounds like exactly the sort of idiot who would use his real name to sell stolen goods. I'm amazed though that he got away with using work computers, got trainees to do the dirty work for him, was manager of a branch while the stock was going missing and it still took a private detective to find out it was him. It's amazing he wasn't caught earlier and I bet there are a lot of changes made to how the hairdressers does inventory now.
Or maybe I should get a job as a PD lol

Flyonthewall

giantmutantbroccoli wrote: »

Seriously. As to why, I said I'm nosy. Does it really matter? If the information is out there, someone will be reading it.

You said "Whenever I make a purchase, or am feeling particularly nosy, or if someone is asking peculiar questions about an item I'm selling." That makes it sound like if you check for some other reason when buying but do random checks if you're feeling nosy. So I wondered what the other reason was...

I was just curious as it seems rather pointless to check. It matters as far as this goes because if there's some reason people are checking then the username thing might make more of a difference or people know that if they don't want their ID to be checked then there are certain things not to do. Obviously people being nosy doesn't help with that, it's not an avoidable thing.

There are a whole range of reasons why people might not want their purchases on eBay publicly linked to their real name, and not all of them are "because they're selling illegal goods".

Obviously. I never said there weren't other reasons. The whole illegal thing was actually an entirely different point anyway but nevermind.

Examples (most already given):
-someone who is in hiding eg witness protection, domestic violence protection, avoiding a stalker, avoiding an ex, etc could be put in real danger by this policy.

Yeah because when your life depends on it the obvious choice is to go on ebay and start buying/selling. It's ok that anyone could get your name to send you an item, so long as the username doesn't give it away. It's not like anyone can sell on ebay or that the people you are hiding from (or their friends/family) may sell on ebay...oh, wait...

-someone who uses their real name in their work and who doesn't want that work connected to their purchases - maybe they buy mills & boons, or collect teddy bears... or erotica You wouldn't hand over your amazon receipts to someone you're working for, would you?

Nah, they might get jealous of the bargains I find

Seriously though, most people at work won't care what you buy. Even if someone does they can probably find out without your username being your real name. Even with the username done this way, for people who have more common names or if it is more random than just your full name the chances are people won't be able to find you anyway through knowing your name.

-thinking on the above point, what if the person is a teacher? Would they want the kids they teach to know what they buy - or to mess up their auctions because they got a low mark in English?

Well that's as I said above.

-there are also professions where it can be dangerous to have the general public know who and where you are. If you worked in, say, scientific research involving animals, you probably wouldn't want to open your eBay account up to the sort of abuse you might get on the internet if you tell people that - and as a scientist, your name would be connected to any publications you'd made about said research.

Yeah, damn those thousands of people who read every research paper and track down ebayers to abuse them...

I would think, unless made very popular, it would be a very small number of people who would know the name of someone in such a profession and an even smaller number who would track them down. Even if it were popular I'm betting most people wouldn't pay much attention to the name, it would be the content of article/research itself that catches their attention and I doubt many peoples first thought is ebay. More likely facebook/twitter.

-someone who buys expensive goods could be put at greater risk of theft

Not really. I mean, most thieves watch houses. The sports car outside or the massive TV you can see through the window is a bit of a give-away. The thief would have to be going through ebay, finding out usernames/names (ebay do hide usernames now), then finding out their addresses and then stealing from them which is surely more complicated. Plus, you could be buying stuff for work or a friend or whatever. So after all that they may not get anything (or at least, nothing like they hoped).

-it could also put you at greater risk of identity theft/fraud if someone can see both your real name, and the amount of money you spend on a regular basis

The risk is rather high anyway. Simply throwing something away with your address on by mistake could lead to that.

-someone who uses their eBay account to buy goods to resell at a profit on eBay. Buyers will see your name when they buy your goods. How bad would it look if they then see that name attached to a buyer who buys the same goods on eBay? There goes your business model!

Some people buy and resell on the same account anyway. In some cases people can tell their item is being resold based on condition or whatever. Still, if they had two accounts the usernames would have to be different and I doubt many would look up the username of who bought it then the name of who's selling it.

I'm joking! I'm trying to imagine what would happen if another website did this, though. If OKCupid started giving you a variation on your real name when you signed up, there'd be complaints. If EA, or Xbox or whoevever gaming website did it, there'd be complaints. Ooh, or what if MSE did it? Imagine every post you make has to be connected to your real name sounds horrible! And eBay has its own forums for discussion still...
We'll probably have to agree to disagree on this one, I think.

Other sites do already do that.

Why would it matter if a gaming site did it? Oh no, someone knows I'm playing Assassin's creed! Whatever will I do. Besides people generally invite their friends to play anyway so you know your friends usernames. It wouldn't matter if it were their real name, their friends know it anyway.

I'm not saying it's the best idea or anything. If every site did do it though people would be more careful about what they put online and there would be far less trolls.

Flyonthewall

giantmutantbroccoli wrote: »

"He sent trainees to unwittingly post the luxury hair irons and fixed the deals on work PCs, making £63,000....

The investigators traced McMorrine because he had used the private number plate of his sports car as a user name. "

Actually, this guy sounds like exactly the sort of idiot who would use his real name to sell stolen goods. I'm amazed though that he got away with using work computers, got trainees to do the dirty work for him, was manager of a branch while the stock was going missing and it still took a private detective to find out it was him. It's amazing he wasn't caught earlier and I bet there are a lot of changes made to how the hairdressers does inventory now.
Or maybe I should get a job as a PD lol

:rotfl:

Amazing what goes on sometimes.

unreal2014

giantmutantbroccoli wrote: »

Seriously. As to why, I said I'm nosy. Does it really matter? If the information is out there, someone will be reading it.
There are a whole range of reasons why people might not want their purchases on eBay publicly linked to their real name, and not all of them are "because they're selling illegal goods".

Examples (most already given):
-someone who is in hiding eg witness protection, domestic violence protection, avoiding a stalker, avoiding an ex, etc could be put in real danger by this policy.
-someone who uses their real name in their work and who doesn't want that work connected to their purchases - maybe they buy mills & boons, or collect teddy bears... or erotica You wouldn't hand over your amazon receipts to someone you're working for, would you?
-thinking on the above point, what if the person is a teacher? Would they want the kids they teach to know what they buy - or to mess up their auctions because they got a low mark in English?
-there are also professions where it can be dangerous to have the general public know who and where you are. If you worked in, say, scientific research involving animals, you probably wouldn't want to open your eBay account up to the sort of abuse you might get on the internet if you tell people that - and as a scientist, your name would be connected to any publications you'd made about said research.
-someone who buys expensive goods could be put at greater risk of theft
-it could also put you at greater risk of identity theft/fraud if someone can see both your real name, and the amount of money you spend on a regular basis
-someone who uses their eBay account to buy goods to resell at a profit on eBay. Buyers will see your name when they buy your goods. How bad would it look if they then see that name attached to a buyer who buys the same goods on eBay? There goes your business model!


Those who use eBay accounts for illegal or other nefarious purposes, like shill bidding, selling stolen goods etc, are still very unlikely to be caught because they are very unlikely to use their real names on eBay. People stupid enough to use their real names to sell stolen goods are also stupid enough to be caught on CCTV, or to not realise that the "buyer" is actually a sting. To put it bluntly, if a shop loses goods worth £1000s, and that shop can't be bothered to, say, look up their lost goods on eBay, take note of the location of the people selling them, make some enquiries as if they were a buyer and actually find the thief that way, then I don't know how much this new policy of eBay's will actually help them, because it's clear they weren't looking on eBay to start with. To put it bluntly, stupid criminals will eventually get caught - as long as the people who are looking for them are smart. If everybody is stupid, we're all doomed and I don't think eBay putting people's real names out in public on their site will save us from the eventual extinction of the human race a la Idiocracy.

I'm joking! I'm trying to imagine what would happen if another website did this, though. If OKCupid started giving you a variation on your real name when you signed up, there'd be complaints. If EA, or Xbox or whoevever gaming website did it, there'd be complaints. Ooh, or what if MSE did it? Imagine every post you make has to be connected to your real name sounds horrible! And eBay has its own forums for discussion still...
We'll probably have to agree to disagree on this one, I think.

I'm glad somebody is listening. Even if nobody from ebay listens and the system does not change, at least it may make people aware of what happens, and they will not be caught out in the same way.

I have to wonder, after all, being that it is the forum he created, what Mr. Lewis would say about this, I've heard him say many things about eBay and imagine he would have at least a few words to say about this too. Privacy should be priority, not a topic to be frowned at when somebody is asking for help.

BB1968

I'm really sorry to say this, but I think you're being a tad paranoid. I have used ebay for years and have never felt the need to stalk a buyer/seller, and go through their user id.

You said yourself that you know you can change it - do that and find something important to focus on - I think you're taking the whole user name thing way too personally - ebay haven't designed their system with who they wind up the most in mind, it makes it simpler for people who lack imagination as far as creating usernames go. You can always close your account and, god forbid, live without Ebay in your life...

k3lvc

BB1968 wrote: »

I'm really sorry to say this, but I think you're being a tad paranoid. I have used ebay for years and have never felt the need to stalk a buyer/seller, and go through their user id.

You said yourself that you know you can change it - do that and find something important to focus on - I think you're taking the whole user name thing way too personally - ebay haven't designed their system with who they wind up the most in mind, it makes it simpler for people who lack imagination as far as creating usernames go. You can always close your account and, god forbid, live without Ebay in your life...

Good bump but OP hasn't been back for 3 months :rotfl:

ballisticbrian

Some of the seasoned seller on here may know what I'm talking about... I sometimes get a diatribe like on page 1 from buyers who bought a 99p item that was supposed to be disposable after the first use, and you know what?


I think - this is going to be a NEGATIVE and if I reply and say a single word, the negative will also say "and seller was unhelpful and rude" and so I don't even bother replying.