eBay message restriction again, awaiting new penalty

[coppelltvrepair]

So here it is again.

We've been penalized before for reasons that eBay representatives could never reveal to us, the best we got was "...it is internal information that we can't get access to and you can't talk to the people who do, but you have to trust the system and if you do it again the penalty will be even harder.

- Do what?

- Whatever you did that prompted that penalty."

This time we are warned upfront.

Oh well...who cares about quality content, the really important goal here is that we do not disclose our contact information...or else!

[eburtonlab]

The message mentions "contact information", the exchange of which is forbidden prior to a transaction payment as you know.

The problem is that the 12-digit PCB number looks like a phone number to a simple filter algorithm scanning message text for such things.

eBay won't tell you exactly what is triggering the message because eBay thinks doing so would allow scammers to more easily get around those filters and send their contact information in scam messages without having to resort to the numerous tricks they already use to do so now. Though almost certainly many scammers already know more about the filters and their limitations than just about anyone at eBay does at this point.

Drop the PCB number entirely or refer to it by the last few digits only if you must include it and the message will likely go through without a squawk.