Why did ebay send me a warning?

[jacksonmontg]

So... I recently posted an iPhone 6 for sale, which might I say, the scammers went rampant over. One of the messages in my inbox was the following:

"I'm interested in buying your item for my nephew please contact me on [insert phone number] ASAP"

To this, I replied:

"Hello,

All transactions must be completed on ebay. If you are interested in purchasing this item, please use the "buy it now" feature or submit an offer.

Thank you for your interest."

TODAY, I get an email from ebay that says:

"We’re writing to let you know that activity on your account may not be following an important eBay policy that requires all transactions and payments to be completed through eBay. The same policy specifies that eBay member-to-member messages may not be used to share contact information, and you may not display contact information in a listing without the permission of eBay or except as required by law."

As if I'm doing something wrong! I guess I'm venting here but my question is why did ebay send me this? Do we as sellers have to worry about OUR account standing when we're contacted by scammers that ebay seems to not do anytning about? 

Comments appreciated. 

[liq1000]

They are responding to the phone number, you should have used the report a buyer function and reported the buyer, he is part of the criminal gangs that operate on eBay.

You should have not even responded to the message, just call and report buyers like this next time.

[llllady]

As you've explained it, you did nothing wrong.  If anyone should have received (and hopefully did) that message, is the person who sent you that message.

eBay is getting desperate, and their "bots" are picking up everything and anything, even listing numbers.

Nothing to worry about as long as you continue to color in the lines.  🙂

[emerald40]

OP, if you put that phone up again, do immediate payment required and US only.

[retrose1]

Even though the seller did everything right, ebay is going to blame them and not the buyer who was making the offer.  Shows you the respect ebay has for sellers.

I just block buyers that make offers.  And I love the report a buyer link.

[mistwomandancing]

It's jut auto-bots responding to you because it was noted that YOU responded to an invitation to conduct discussions (and maybe business) off of eBay, which they're cracking down on.

In future, don't respond to these messages.  These people know to simply buy it now at your price if they want the item.  What they want is for you to contact them outside of eBay, so they can scam you out of your item.  And some fall for it.  You can report them, and then put them on your BBL and be done with it.

[badwolf12]

Autobots ROLL OUT.

As suggested above, BBL and report buyer.

[rw011164]

Reporting that buyer is redundant since ebay seems to already know he sent the phone number

It is very bad that ebay treats its sellers in such a punitive and accusatory way since this seller clearly did not take business off of ebay, warned the buyer through the message system. The seller had no control over what a buyer includes in a message.

Reporting a buyer is certainly recommended but ebay is obviously already aware of the problem if they generated a warning over it.

[liq1000]

Do you really think Trust and Safety is reviewing millions of computer generated messages and will actually do something about this as far as banning the criminals running rampant on eBay ?

[sockmonkeydave]

@jacksonmontg

The bots got a tune up a bit back, and not a good one.

Anything that even looks like a phone or email addy will make the bots go crazy.

Even a part number will get pulled.

And don't ever say a word about your ex-wife.

[rw011164]

No, they are not. They have highly sensitive bits which automatically flag messages and non sales for specific patterns which might indicate a problem. Things like phone numbers, strings of numbers, addresses, email addresses, even coded ones and those reports are going to a special team trained to determine these issues. It is that team that sends warning messages and issues policy violations

[ittybitnot]

even coded ones and those reports are going to a special team trained to determine these issues. It is that team that sends warning messages and issues policy violations....

ebay special team member:

[mr_lincoln]

@jacksonmontg  The computer bots picked off the Buyer's message with the words "phone number" and even though the Buyer generated it, you responded so perhaps BOTH you and the Buyer got the computer generated warning messages.

I really like your reply though to that Buyer ...

[ittybitnot]

 so perhaps BOTH you and the Buyer got the computer generated warning messages.

You think ebay sends buyers the 'nastygram' as well? 

[badwolf12]

---

@ittybitnot wrote:

 so perhaps BOTH you and the Buyer got the computer generated warning messages.

You think ebay sends buyers the 'nastygram' as well? 

---

Itty, I do believe they send messages to both parties. I've seen posts about it from buyers.