Ebay account verification & with holding my money. Is this theft/blackmail?

Jubudz

Hi.  We have been an Ebay seller for 16 years & with a 100% feedback history through out.  As of today Ebay are with holding our sold items funds (£186.00) until we supply further personal data to verify our account.  We have had it out with them this afternoon via their chat box & so far we are resisting to their requests.  They are demanding one of the following: 

1. Current driving licence
2. Passport
3. Government-issued ID

They actually will not give us our money.  They said there was another way & this is the process of escheatment whereby the money is released to the government & we can claim it from them.  Nice customer service ...not.  After about 45 minutes of chatting there was a stalemate situation & we signed off.   What are our rights on this?   Can Ebay really force us to hand over such personal data & ID.  We are only selling second hand/used items after all! 

Please advise.

Many thanks.
JP

Sandtree

Yes, its to do with Know Your Customer and other anti-money laundering and sanctions actions. 

Why are you concerned about confirming your identity?

Jubudz

Sandtree said:

Yes, its to do with Know Your Customer and other anti-money laundering and sanctions actions. 

Why are you concerned about confirming your identity?

This doesn't answer the question of whether it's lawful for Ebay to hold on to our money in this way or what our consumer rights are.  Aren't we all concerned about handing over our personal data anyway & in this instance to a multi-national organisation?  I mean driving license, passport, government ID...who knows where it will end up.  Not to mention that an impeccable 16 year Ebay seller history should stand for something. 

ssparks2003

The first piece of sandtrees response did answer your question. Yes the can do it under the money laundering regs.

Sandtree

Jubudz said:

Sandtree said:

Yes, its to do with Know Your Customer and other anti-money laundering and sanctions actions. 

Why are you concerned about confirming your identity?

This doesn't answer the question of whether it's lawful for Ebay to hold on to our money in this way or what our consumer rights are.  Aren't we all concerned about handing over our personal data anyway & in this instance to a multi-national organisation?  I mean driving license, passport, government ID...who knows where it will end up.  Not to mention that an impeccable 16 year Ebay seller history should stand for something. 

It doesnt stand for anything, we've banked with HSBC for longer and just had to go through a much more invasive series of checks just because they;ve realised they need to bolster their KYC information. Similarly if your name matches someone recently added to a sanctions list they are legally required to verify your not them

As to where it will end up... look at their data privacy notice, it has to state what data they gather, why, who it may be shared with etc.

Jubudz

We've sold our souls like lemmings & uploaded photo ID.  No doubt it's already being duplicated in the far east as we type.  To add insult to injury it could still take up to two days for the funds to be released.  Still we gave as good as we got on the Ebay chat box. 

Sandtree

Jubudz said:

We've sold our souls like lemmings & uploaded photo ID.  No doubt it's already being duplicated in the far east as we type.  

Given fines to date have been up to $888m for basic GDPR breaches (cookie consent) and can be up to 4% of world wide revenue (not profit) they would need to be paid vast sums by those "far east" people you think are reproducing your ID to run that level of risk.

pinkshoes

If you're not happy with the service eBay provide, you could take your custom elsewhere?

Ergates

Jubudz said:

We've sold our souls like lemmings & uploaded photo ID.

They just wanted some official ID so they could confirm they weren't the middleman in a money laundering scheme.  They didn't need or want your souls.

Thrugelmir

Jubudz said:

  Still we gave as good as we got on the Ebay chat box. 

Not pleasant for the person at the other end simply doing their job.  Hopefully you won't find your account suspended or even closed. 

Manxman_in_exile

Jubudz said:

Sandtree said:

Yes, its to do with Know Your Customer and other anti-money laundering and sanctions actions. 

Why are you concerned about confirming your identity?

This doesn't answer the question of whether it's lawful for Ebay to hold on to our money in this way or what our consumer rights are.  Aren't we all concerned about handing over our personal data anyway & in this instance to a multi-national organisation?  I mean driving license, passport, government ID...who knows where it will end up.  Not to mention that an impeccable 16 year Ebay seller history should stand for something. 

So you'd be happy for ebay to give your money away to other people without confirming that they were Jubudz?