Accurate and up to date phone number and email.

[Anonymous]

I have 2 coworkers who had their identity stolen.  And because of this they never give out a accurate phone number [ is is always a disconnected number ] and they give a bogus email address.  But the ship to and Bill to addresses are correct.  And within Ebay they can always log on and see any correspondence.  They are also doing this with other websites.  And again they do list the correct deliver to and bill to address.  They also take a screen shot and print this as another confirmation of purchase.  When she was given attitude by a company she told them to cancel the order.  They agin gave her some attitude, so she called VISA, and let them handle it.  Her account was credited.  I just wanted to throw this out as it seems people are figuring out ways to order and are able to give inaccurate phone and email info.  But they say they almost always get what they order.  Money speaks loud.

[wooden_flower]

Using a bad phone # or email address on eBay doesn't help protect your identity. Most identity theft happens with data breaches, or by clicking on links that lead to fake sites. 

But if it makes them feel better, it will work until it doesn't.  They may miss some opportunities, or some notices of compromised transactions, but I''m sure it all evens out in the end.

[inceptions]

As already advised by @wooden_flower , it's not the phone # or email address that leads to identity theft. If that's what they think, they are giving themselves a false sense of security...

If eBay doesn't know your friends have falsified this information, they can't do anything about. If eBay finds out that they have falsified their information however, they may find that are no longer registered members as that is a policy violation. They also will not get help if they need to speak with a customer service rep as eBay does not have a phone # to call - members must request a call back.

[eburtonlab]

Let us hope those users never experience a problem that requires a phone call, a text, or a password reset.

eBay UK apparently recently instituted a sort of mandatory 2-factor authentication verification process. Many users were required to receive an email, text message, or phone call to be able to complete the sign-in process.

Users with old or invalid email and phone numbers found themselves unable to sign in to eBay at all. And many of the usual "Contact us" links now only work when users are already signed in to an eBay account. Users not signed in who tried to contact eBay were directed to a sign-in page.

See here (UK link):

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Technical-Issues/Trouble-Shooting-Steps-for-New-Verification-Process...

eBay sometimes tries out various changes on other sites before implementing those changes on ebay.com.

Now might be a good time for users on ebay.com to verify that their contact details are up to date.

[janet9988]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

I have 2 coworkers who had their identity stolen.  And because of this they never give out a accurate phone number [ is is always a disconnected number ] and they give a bogus email address.  But the ship to and Bill to addresses are correct.  And within Ebay they can always log on and see any correspondence.  They are also doing this with other websites.  And again they do list the correct deliver to and bill to address.  They also take a screen shot and print this as another confirmation of purchase.  When she was given attitude by a company she told them to cancel the order.  They agin gave her some attitude, so she called VISA, and let them handle it.  Her account was credited.  I just wanted to throw this out as it seems people are figuring out ways to order and are able to give inaccurate phone and email info.  But they say they almost always get what they order.  Money speaks loud.

---

Giving out false information is just wrong. Not every phone number will show as active on google or other searches. . I know this personally.   It could be someone else's number or email. Just shameful. And when the real owner of the email or phone number finds out, the coworkers you speak of will now be the ones rightfully accused of identity theft.