Blocking sanctioned individuals or individuals on the terrorist watch lists

I had an order several years ago who purchased from me in USA and he was in Ireland. I was paid, shipped the item out then several weeks later or so it came back and as I recall it said blocked person or something written on the package.

So I was out the shipping fee and I refunded the buyer. I looked up the guy's name on Google and I think it was some list like terrorist watch list or sanctioned person. I used stamps.com or eBay shipping labels and had no idea of this or I would not have shipped out.

Is there a way to block these people or companies? I know it is pretty rare but would be nice.

sandwhichking

239 View listings

Posted 3 years ago·Last reply 3 years ago

20 comments

inhawaii

·3 years ago

Ebay's most handsome seller.4909 View listings

Maybe I should add this to my listings:

"I do not sell to: Serial Killers, Terrorists or bad people in general."

I wonder how much my sales would drop?

ms.rodriguez*

·3 years ago

39 View listings

"Bad people in general"would probably keep 1/4 off the country from buying.

jet_sale

·3 years ago

0 View listings

report this person on ebay live chat

janet9988

·3 years ago

127 View listings

@jet_sale wrote:
report this person on ebay live chat

This happened to the several years ago. You don't report them via live chat to block them.

You use your bidder management tool.

You cant prevent an unblocked member from buying.

chapeau-noir

·3 years ago

No bad meows!6575 View listings

Well, there's the Most Wanted list, but I'm not sure there's a comprehensive terrorist list (international, domestic or stochastic) available to the public. I also suspect this is a very rare occurrence and not something to really worry about.

reallynicestamps

·3 years ago

2483 View listings

EBay does not require us to refund a single red (or green) penny for shipments that are Undeliverable.

We are not even out the shipping charges because those are not refunded to anyone either.

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy?id=4210#specialcoverage-inr

You can refund if you want to, but eBay does not demand that you do.

sumsum70

·3 years ago

1490 View listings

Wow, I'm not the only one! Had a package returned a few years ago, it was headed to France via USPS. Came back with a paper attached about the recipient being someone that can't be shipped too. I don't remember the exact wording, but it made me think I would probably be on some kind of watch list just for being the shipper.

sandwhichking

OP3 years ago

239 View listings

Yeah, it isn't very clear who we can and can't ship to. If you look at that sanctions list, some names have aliases (a.k.a) some may have three of four different names they go by. Does The USPS block all of the aliases, are they linked to specific addresses or what? Someone at USPS, FedEX or UPS must know.

a_c_green

·3 years ago

4168 View listings

@sandwhichking wrote:
Does The USPS block all of the aliases, are they linked to specific addresses or what? Someone at USPS, FedEX or UPS must know.

I doubt that the USPS does any screening like that at all. It is more likely that the package gets turned around in Customs when arriving in the foreign country.

sandwhichking

OP3 years ago

239 View listings

Yes, I think you are right and for security purposes they will probably not let outsiders like us know what their criteria is that they use for rejecting shipments.

ms.rodriguez*

·3 years ago

39 View listings

Frankly, as long as you are not selling anything that can be used as a weapon or to repair a weapon or military aircraft, just ship the darn item. Sales are slow enough here. Like someone else posted, if buyers' name is Laden, do you really know if they are related to THAT Laden? No, you don't. Many people have similar or identical names to other people.

yerba_mate_straws

·3 years ago

1205 View listings

Unfortunately, that isn't how people on sanctions list works. If you ship to someone on the US Treasury Sanction list and you are from the USA, you can't ship them a toothbrush and get away with it. All items will be rejected by the shipping carriers and returned at some point after shipping out.

inhawaii

·3 years ago

Ebay's most handsome seller.4909 View listings

If you could get ahold of a current terrorist watch list and check all orders against that list.

-or-

You could put "I do not sell to terrorists" in your listings.

deltilogical

·3 years ago

10754 View listings

Isn't that list secret? Like the no-fly list.

Unavailable member

·3 years ago

Their profile isn't available.

@inhawaii wrote:
If you could get ahold of a current terrorist watch list and check all orders against that list.
-or-
You could put "I do not sell to terrorists" in your listings.

You can only block int'l terrorists. I did that long ago - I'm not paying the extra fee.

richard1rst

·3 years ago

53683 View listings

@sandwhichking wrote:
I had an order several years ago who purchased from me in USA and he was in Ireland. I was paid, shipped the item out then several weeks later or so it came back and as I recall it said blocked person or something written on the package.

So I was out the shipping fee and I refunded the buyer. I looked up the guy's name on Google and I think it was some list like terrorist watch list or sanctioned person. I used stamps.com or eBay shipping labels and had no idea of this or I would not have shipped out.

Is there a way to block these people or companies? I know it is pretty rare but would be nice.

Well, I have several comments here.

First, why did you refund the shipping?

Secondly, are you sure it was the SAME person on that list or just a person with the same (common?) name. There have been stories of exactly that type of name confusion happening to U S citizens on the no fly list.

Be specific as to what the note said. USPS postal regulations say the a full first and last name must be used. Was it returned because he only used an initial?

See, without specific information the best we can do is guess. "or something written on the package. "

Exactly WHAT was written on the label.

No, there is no way I know of to ban certain specific people,

a_c_green

·3 years ago

4168 View listings

@richard1rst wrote:
Be specific as to what the note said. USPS postal regulations say the a full first and last name must be used. Was it returned because he only used an initial?

See, without specific information the best we can do is guess. "or something written on the package. "
Exactly WHAT was written on the label.

Wasn't there something in here not too long ago about certain FedEx shipments getting refused due to being an "embargoed carrier" or something like that? It wasn't to do with the recipient himself, but that FedEx for whatever reason was not allowed to ship their packages to that country.

itscalledapostingid

·3 years ago

169 View listings

@a_c_green wrote:
@richard1rst wrote:
Be specific as to what the note said. USPS postal regulations say the a full first and last name must be used. Was it returned because he only used an initial?

See, without specific information the best we can do is guess. "or something written on the package. "
Exactly WHAT was written on the label.
Wasn't there something in here not too long ago about certain FedEx shipments getting refused due to being an "embargoed carrier" or something like that? It wasn't to do with the recipient himself, but that FedEx for whatever reason was not allowed to ship their packages to that country.

It was about shipments going to Hawaii. It came up a few times:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Shipping/FedEx-eBay-Embargoed-Shipper-to-Hawaii/m-p/33753571

sandwhichking

OP3 years ago

239 View listings

Well I returned the shipping because I was unable to deliver the item to the customer. I don't know whether the customer knows that he was on some sort of blocked list.

As I recall it said "blocked individual" written on the package when it came back and I googled the name and it showed up on some list. I have read that there have been some issues with individuals being blocked for having the same name as the blocked people and having issues. It was a full name, not initials. The name was a type of Islamic name like Muhamed Aslam or something like that.

Some of the people on the sanctions list can be found at https://sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov/

I am not sure if that includes the terrorist lists. Lots of Russians have been added so much so now that have to do multiple search queries because the results are too great for one query.

tsme35

·3 years ago

23542 View listings

Don't think you can block them but I had one a couple years ago from a buyer in India, he was on the "no mail list". Never heard of it before but I kept the money and the item, ebay kick them off and I had no way to refund.