Old EBay account was banned, the support staff asked me sensitive questions.

[chevy_enthusiast_24]

My old eBay account was banned out of nowhere today. The email would not tell me the reason, so I contacted support. Support told me my account was “unverified”, even though I had made a purchase, verified an email and phone number, and got my item without issues or complaints. I have used this account for years before without issues.

The support staff told me to go through “security questions” to get my account back. The first question they asked was very sensitive and personal. The question was “do you know this person”, and proceeded to give out a direct family member’s name. The question was if I knew them, and what their age was. The support chat was imminently terminated.

Now, this family member does not use ebay, never in their life did they have an eBay account. I am the only one who had an account.

My question is, how did they know my family members name? Their full name was presented to me. Is this even normal to get banned out of the blue like this? Is it even ok for support staff to ask these questions?

[rfmtm]

How did you contact support?   In other words are you sure you were talking to ebay?

[chevy_enthusiast_24]

I contacted them through a chat on this link: https://www.ebay.com/help/home

[rfmtm]

What appears to be the problem is you were at some location that someone with a bad ebay account had logged into from in the past, when you logged into you account.  Now your account is linked to theirs. 

It may not have been that family member, but someone visiting them, or someone visiting you.  Until you figure out who it was or they resolve their issue with ebay you will be restricted.

If you old ebay account was suspended (not just restricted), you likely will have any ebay account you have face the same fate.

[whitewaterford]

@chevy_enthusiast_24 This is speculation on my part as I don't have first-hand experience using eBay's identity verification.  However, it is not an uncommon practice in the cybersecurity world to do verifications based on multiple choice questions that most people wouldn't know all the answers if they were trying to impersonate you.  It's quite possible that eBay subscribes to such a service.  That doesn't mean that eBay staff can see all the answers.  However they could see whether you passed.

For example, I recently turned 65 and and had to verify my identity online to create a social security and had to answer all sorts of multiple choice question.  Some of these questions might come from your credit report or other government sources. I  am retired from a Fortune 50 company and this was usually discussed in seminars offered to use about cybersecurity.

These services ask questions (multiple choice)  like 1) which of the following car models have you ever owned?  2) Which of the following people have you ever lived with?  3) Which college have you attended?  4) Which state have you never lived in?   And, in many cases "none" and "all" could be the right answer.  I think you get the idea.  It's not quite as invasive as you might think given ... you are just trying to pass the test that you are really you based on what the service already knows about you.

Again, this is just a possibility, assuming you were really working with eBay.  They may use a service like  this.  

[kensgiftshop]

I don't remember if it was when I was signing up for disability or something else, but I was asked a lot of questions like that.

Did I ever live at this address?

Mentioned a vehicle I owned, wanting to know if I bought it used or new?

A bunch of odd ball questions like that.

I have enough trouble remembering what I did yesterday, then they ask questions about 30 to 40 years ago.