Action required, being asked to upload a photo id, DL, passport, etc. Is this a joke?

[thefirstsellerandalwaysbuyer]

I don't understand why this is necessary in order for ebay to continue sending me my payouts? I've already provided my bank account info, SSN, and other information to continue selling items, now they're asking for access to even more personal information? Anyone know if it's tax related or because of sellers selling high ticketed items? I sell video games and collectibles, I doubt that would classify as "high priced" compared to antique furniture, watches, or jewelry. 

I'm just a part-time seller/someone just looking to downsize on living space, I'm not trying to make a online business or long-time endeavor out of this. Considering ebay has had a security breach, I'd rather not take that chance. Are you guys ok with this or have you uploaded your photo id on here? 

[yes_treat_yourself]

This is why we've pulled the plug forever.

Been on board for over 22 years (different accounts, thousands of sales, PowerSellers for the first decade).  On our last phone chat with eBay regarding payouts, I was transferred to a supervisor named Scott, after dealing with a few poor-English speaking foreigners, over eBay holding payments due to some kind of banking issue after having had zero issues prior to that.  They claimed our bank was now blocking payments so we needed to update.  

That was Christmas week.  No one needs money for Christmas, right?

Our credit union had merged with another several months earlier, so apparently that was suddenly an issue.  I tried to update the info online several times, then with an eBay rep on the phone, then with another rep, then several more attempts online, until after perhaps 15 attempts it finally all came together.  Repeated error messages of different types, etc., and my bank had then locked me out until they verified it was me because eBay kept screwing up the attempts.  

Regardless, I finally got it worked out.  But then they STILL didn't send the funds.  They finally sent them with the NEXT batch of sales, arriving in my account the day before Christmas.

I told Scott that after 22 years I was feeling like a battered spouse who was forced to stay in the marriage due to we having over $100k of inventory sitting in our warehouse.  Highly specialized inventory, a great deal of which went to overseas buyers.  We've been trying to liquidate.

I then listed our entire inventory on Craigslist for $20k, where it's still listed (Spokane, WA).  Terrific deal for someone with enough cash (or a viable trade).

Then, after making another $1700 in sales last week, eBay notifies us that they are holding our payments until we update our info and provide a SSN.  This was AFTER our sales.  "NO EXCEPTIONS".

We had enough.

I canceled all our listings and refunded all of our buyers.  Enough of the battered spouse **bleep**.

I knew that even if we complied with their latest demand, it would soon be something else.  Now you are describing that 'something else'.  Photo ID, passports, or ???   Total **bleep**.  We never asked eBay to be our 'payment provider'.  They forced it on us.

When I started on eBay, PayPal was 'always free', you could leave feedback for anyone, you could find any member with just an email address, you could chat directly with your buyer and make a direct offsite transaction with them with any terms you could agree on, and the list goes on.  I had buyers from Asia send me thousands in cash in the mail to purchase items.  Many paid by personal check.  The fees were almost non-existent, and we had 30 days to pay.  We held that 30 day payment delay until MP was forced upon us.

We will no longer subject ourselves to staying with this abusive spouse.  

We have other projects that pay us fifty times the money, and will burn our inventory before giving another penny to eBay...

Good riddance.

[dogchow747]

@thefirstsellerandalwaysbuyer 

Very simply put:

You must enroll in Managed Payments to sell here.

No other way around it, you must provide the info.

You can sell dirt, you have to enroll.

It is all highly secure.

[dogchow747]

@yes_treat_yourself 

"I had buyers from Asia send me thousands in cash in the mail to purchase items."

"We will no longer subject ourselves to staying with this abusive spouse."

Good luck with your next venture.

Good luck with the IRS.

[yes_treat_yourself]

This has nothing to do with the IRS, it's about once again being manipulated by the eBay system.  Had we been told about this BEFORE selling items and expecting our funds, in addition to providing timely shipping, that would had been different.  eBay should NOT have allowed ANY listings in 2022 before they received the required compliance, but they instead chose to hold sellers for RANSOM by extorting information out of us before we received the money that we'd already earned on our sales.

If eBay required the info before we were allowed to list in 2022, we'd have shut it down there.  But they instead chose the current option, to hold our $$ for ransom.

That is B...S.  THAT was our beef, especially after having gone through it only two weeks earlier.  eBay will manipulate and abuse it's sellers in every way imaginable, they assuming sellers are desperate for their money.  We were tempted to simply comply and then shut down our sales, just to get paid the funds we were due, but mostly to be true to our buyers by completing the transactions.

When EBAY has full control of OUR MONEY, then you can expect tyranny, as we are experiencing yet again.  What's next?  There will be no 'NEXT' for us.  We will liquidate the inventory elsewhere, without fees.

Do you understand how this unconstitutional Biden/Pelosi mandate works?  First eBay reports it, then our bank reports it when it comes in, then the bank reports it again when it goes out, and if we pay for something online with the same funds, it gets reported again.  For $1700 in sales, the IRS gets reports of $1700, $3400, $5100, or $6800.  I don't have time to unravel that kind of bull.

Biden has no business knowing what we spend our money on or who pays us what.  Only total income for the entire year.  They have no more rights to this than to monitoring our emails, phone calls, or texts, but we all know how that's been going (NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden).  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden

[mam98031]

"Considering ebay has had a security breach, I'd rather not take that chance."  This is smart.  We all need to always remember that anytime we use ANY internet site, there is always the possibility that they can be hacked.  And you are right, back in early 2014, Ebay did get hacked.  But the good news is that Ebay's security and encryption [all financial info is encrypted] held.  No seller lost any financial info and they some on plenty of sellers.  Some sellers had checking accounts listed to auto pay the Monthly Seller Invoice, others like myself had a Credit card set up for auto pay.  

Since Ebay has become our Money Processor they have Federal Laws that they are required to comply with that before this they weren't.  They have banking regulations, IRS regulations, the Anti Money Laundering Law and the Patriots Act that they have to deal with now.

If there is any concern about your identity then they are required to reach out and ask for more information.  There is a Federal program called CIP [customer identity program].  This link is a good one to describe it.

https://www.fdic.gov/regulations/laws/rules/8000-1600.html#fdic8000fra1020.220

If you have a single character difference in your address on your Ebay account when compared to your bank account, that can cause this.  Or a single character difference in your name on the Ebay account vs your bank account.  And on and on.  Everything has to match.  

I know it is annoying to say the least.  But once you get past all this, it will likely be smooth sailing.  I hope it all works out for you very soon.  Once you submit the info they usually have everything released within a couple days.

[thefirstsellerandalwaysbuyer]

Just to clarify, did you even read any of the questions in my original post? Not to be mean, but I don't think you read any of them. I'm not asking for a workaround, you say I must, why? Here's my questions:

 Anyone know if it's tax related or because of sellers selling high ticketed items?

Are you guys ok with this or have you uploaded your photo id on here? 

"Highly secured" that's funny. Based on what? Companies such as Google, Facebook, and even  Microsoft get security breaches and you think an ecommerce company is "highly secured"?

All I'm asking why should I even put my DL on here or if you guys are ok with this. I don't need a "YOU MUST COMPLY" response.

[thefirstsellerandalwaysbuyer]

"This is smart.  We all need to always remember that anytime we use ANY internet site, there is always the possibility that they can be hacked. "

I'm quite aware of how the Internet works , lol. That's why I take precautions to not provide personal information, but due to ebay changes, I've had to provide bank account info, SSN, etc. Things were "easier" when PayPal was the middle man, at least to me that is, but I digress. If what you said is true regarding Federal Laws, then this has to be tax-related then. This is annoying. 

[jda05121]

It's all right to be annoyed but the new tax laws require new information. Not sure why they asked for that much info from you. Something must have triggered it. Most of us just give a bank statement and our SSN. I think you already know what your two choices are.

[stainlessenginecovers]

It's common to ask for this additional info months after joining. Happened to me. I just gave it to them. No issues since (gave Feb 2021)

[mam98031]

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@thefirstsellerandalwaysbuyer wrote:

"This is smart.  We all need to always remember that anytime we use ANY internet site, there is always the possibility that they can be hacked. "

I'm quite aware of how the Internet works , lol. That's why I take precautions to not provide personal information, but due to ebay changes, I've had to provide bank account info, SSN, etc. Things were "easier" when PayPal was the middle man, at least to me that is, but I digress. If what you said is true regarding Federal Laws, then this has to be tax-related then. This is annoying. 

---

I complimented you and you somehow thought I was saying you didn't know how the internet worked.  Interesting.

ALL Marketplaces that process your money will now have to have your full SSN, TIN or EIN, as well as money processors like PayPal, Stripe, etc.  The new IRS threshold on 1099Ks makes that a done deal.  

[thefirstsellerandalwaysbuyer]

My apologies about man, sorry if my comment sounded a bit hostile. I guess I misread that and didn't think of that as a compliment, oops. I do appreciate the help. I just read about the  1099K being implemented in 2022. Yikes. 

[thefirstsellerandalwaysbuyer]

---

@jda05121 wrote:

It's all right to be annoyed but the new tax laws require new information. Not sure why they asked for that much info from you. Something must have triggered it. Most of us just give a bank statement and our SSN. I think you already know what your two choices are.

---

The weird thing is that I still get the message of needing to have my DL uploaded even after having payouts sent to my bank, which I find weird because they said that payouts would be locked? by Feb if I didn't provide identification? Like you said, I gave a bank statement and SSN and I still got this message. Should I just upload my photo anyway? I've got nothing to hide, but as I mentioned in my previous post, I'd rather not let them have access to personal information due to said reasons. 

[downunder-61]

They need your complete SSN now, you may have previously only had to supply the last 4 digits of it and as the 1099k reporting level has dropped the IRS demand eBay supply all seller's full SSN for this purpose.

Try to ignore the (odd) responder who is here to totally agree with you and bash eBay - they have nothing to add and do not understand that this is a legal IRS requirement, eBay is not just plucking things out of their b**** to make life difficult.

19 million sellers world wide have transitioned to MP and in the last 4 years since the roll out began I have heard nothing nefarious happening regarding hacks or what ever other scaremongers are claiming.

[mam98031]

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@thefirstsellerandalwaysbuyer wrote:

My apologies about man, sorry if my comment sounded a bit hostile. I guess I misread that and didn't think of that as a compliment, oops. I do appreciate the help. I just read about the  1099K being implemented in 2022. Yikes. 

---

@thefirstsellerandalwaysbuyer 

No yikes, well not for those that have always reported their internet income to IRS.  This threshold dropping on the 1099K won't affect sellers that have been reporting their internet income all along.  It will only potentially be a problem to those that have not, for whatever reason they may have.