Amazon Seller wants passport details

Flyonthewall

FlyingDonkeys wrote: »

Fly On the Wall. That's your view. Mine is that passports do matter, they have Birth dates. Great information for identity fraudsters etc

They don't need your date of birth though. If they get your email address and password and/or card details they can do whatever they want anyway pretty much.

With a name they could look most people up, with a location/address it'd be even easier. Many people have their date of birth on profiles/social media and others can see it, not that that needs to be the case when you're dealing with hackers as they could find out anyway.

Sure, a passport would make it easier, but they don't need it and if they wanted that information it's not impossible for them to find out through other ways. Besides, just because Amazon look at that and say everything is ok doesn't mean they're storing that information anywhere. It might be checked, approved and deleted.

RFW

FlyingDonkeys wrote: »

Fly On the Wall. That's your view. Mine is that passports do matter, they have Birth dates. Great information for identity fraudsters etc

Your postman could probably find out your date of birth in about 5 minutes. They'd have access to your full name and address, it's pretty easy to find your birth records. It probably wouldn't take long to buy a copy of your birth certificate.
There are far more security lax places holding important information. The NHS is one. HMRC another. Not to mention the passport office itself, they're always losing passports and information.

Flyonthewall

RFW wrote: »

Your postman could probably find out your date of birth in about 5 minutes. They'd have access to your full name and address, it's pretty easy to find your birth records. It probably wouldn't take long to buy a copy of your birth certificate.
There are far more security lax places holding important information. The NHS is one. HMRC another. Not to mention the passport office itself, they're always losing passports and information.

Good point.

Our personal details are far from private or hard to get a hold of, both offline and online.

bxboards

Flyonthewall wrote: »

Good point.

Our personal details are far from private or hard to get a hold of, both offline and online.

Indeed, but it worries me that folks are just sleep walking into handing these over when there is no solid reason why they want a photo ID, where it will be stored, how long for, and who has access it to.

These are really pertinent issues I think. We have no idea where this is located - will it be subject to UK data protection laws or will it be squirreled away?

I think it's foolish just handing this over unquestioning. Remember the Ebay hack not so long ago - only the passwords were encrypted, nothing else!

The ID requirements are more than I have needed to buy houses, open bank accounts or get credit cards!

celestius

Now have been asked for further documents. How annoying -
Tempted not to bother with it anymore!

Flyonthewall

bxboards wrote: »

Indeed, but it worries me that folks are just sleep walking into handing these over when there is no solid reason why they want a photo ID, where it will be stored, how long for, and who has access it to.

These are really pertinent issues I think. We have no idea where this is located - will it be subject to UK data protection laws or will it be squirreled away?

I think it's foolish just handing this over unquestioning. Remember the Ebay hack not so long ago - only the passwords were encrypted, nothing else!

The ID requirements are more than I have needed to buy houses, open bank accounts or get credit cards!

True, but (as already said) there's really nothing on there that people couldn't get easily anyway. As a company, there are still laws they have to go by.

Yeah, but that's ebay not Amazon. Amazon have managed to avoid hacks/bugs previously. Ebay, on the otherhand, haven't and they have constant glitches and site issues.

I'm not sure if that says Amazon are going OTT or asking for un-needed ID or that banks and other companies really should ask for more ID and have more knowledge of who their customers actually are.

soolin

celestius wrote: »

Now have been asked for further documents. How annoying -
Tempted not to bother with it anymore!

I don't know whether I have a time limit for uploading my further docs, if I do then I'm probably stuffed as im away now for a week.

celestius

I have not been given a date, but it does say information is needed to open my Amazon Payments Europe account - does that mean I am ok to sell within u.k.?

Just clicked on some of my active listings and I am not selling them apparently.

Will give it one more try today as I want to sell at Xmas...

RFW

celestius wrote: »

I have not been given a date, but it does say information is needed to open my Amazon Payments Europe account - does that mean I am ok to sell within u.k.?

As far as I know you can still sell anywhere whilst it is still awaiting verification.
I don't know if they have a time limit on it. It's all sellers on Amazon that are being checked/rechecked (or have been now).
It's essentially a new company that they are transferring sellers to, so presumably at some point they'll switch off the old one. I think I remember seeing something about late 2016 but I may have made that up.
The main bonus for most pro sellers is that disbursements will become when you like rather than every two weeks.

printerinksucks

To be honest, given a) how many customers' data Amazon has and b) how much personal data for yourself is already out there (of which you would be suprised), I wouldn't worry too much about giving them your details.