Serial abuser creating new accounts every week to ruin my auctions. Any ideas how to solve?

[mirage-studios]

Long story. This person started these attacks years ago when eBay got rid of sellers being able to restrict buyers based on the number of feedbacks they had (about the same time they stopped allowing sellers to leave negative feedback, I think).

So I had to regularly deal with blocking the bogus accounts and canceling the bids from them.

This problem was solved when sellers were able to require buyers to have a Paypal account. It appears that this restriction has been removed, so now the bogus bidder is back to creating multiple accounts per week to ruin our auctions.

Wondering if anyone has a solution to this beyond constantly blocking bogus accounts and canceling the bids from them (which is ineffective).

I called eBay and asked them to allow our account to require buyers to have 5 positive feedbacks before accepting a bid from them (since the bogus bidder's accounts never have more than 1 feedback and usually have 0), but they said they can't do this.

Thank you for any suggestions.

[repurposed4-u]

I have had similar issues-eBay won't do anything. Not enough people complain-for fear of getting 'blocked'.

It is sad-but there are other places to sell. I am tiring of loosing sales due to non-payers-which have increased 100x since the pandemic. Seems FREE money means 'BLOW it on trinkets' ... rather than pay bills. UNTIL they realize the electric will be shut off. So disgusting where this country is going.

[thhoan-40]

I think this problem is hard to solve. Waiting for solution.

[vince.pi-59]

I can relate to that, very few do not work not because can't, but that because they do not want to.

I would love to rant about this but...it will never be enough.

people will never learn the ways of the world since they do not live in it(which means actually contributing to society)

[vince.pi-59]

My apologizes i meant to say that many do not work

[repurposed4-u]

I and MANY others think eBay needs a new CEO. EBay has been going downhill fast-due to the enormous changes-sometimes monthly. People selling on eBay DON'T want a bunch of NEW **bleep** to deal with.

AND I think sellers would like some protection-SINCE WE ARE THE ONES DOING AL THE WORK!!! The BUYers are more protected in ALL ways. THEY risk NOTHING. Sellers have little to NO protection from the increasing amount of scammers & thieves. WHY DON'T more complain!!!??? If enough WOULD...then MAYBE something would be done!!! Can't have buyers if there are NO SELLERS! Someone has to make a stand for fairness.

[repurposed4-u]

Same problem-eBay will NOT address the problem. I have had bidders with (0) feedback bid on my items-even though their account is 3-8 years old (VERY suspicious) & my eBay requests & concerns have been ignored. Unfortunately-if seller cancels an offer or transaction on one of these (obviously FAKE or stolen) accounts-it lowers the SELLERS ratings. WHAT IS THE SOLUTION-is there ANY?

[lagarto_electronico]

The sick thing is that I've been seeing hijacked accounts of deceased elderly people with a decade of positive feedback. 

Either someone is purchasing these accounts off the DW (someone probably used a brute-force dictionary attack) or they are visiting the terminally ill in hospice care for the purpose of identify theft.

They can eliminate ALL competing sellers in the same niche this way.

[auctionairecorp]

Report the Buyers, and open Seller protection cases against them (the transaction)   AND MOST IMPORTANTLY  find somewhere else to sell things online.

In my opinion, eBay is an ongoing criminal enterprise

[theguitarpartsguy]

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@thhoan-40 wrote:

I think this problem is hard to solve. Waiting for solution.

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Actually, it isn't.  Just sell for fixed price instead of auction, and check the box that says "immediate payment required".  They can't end your listing without paying.  If they don't pay, the listing stays up.  Most non-payment cases are on auction listings anyway, so just stop using them.  That's your solution.