eBay help please - Banned but I don't use it!

[Cherryblossomandcornflakes]

Can anyone advise please? I've had an email from eBay saying that my account was showing risky behaviour, against their standards and I have been permanently banned! If I start a new account from this address, that too will be banned. I've spoken to someone on their live chat, who has refused to lift the ban, or explain what I have done.
If I had been selling something dodgy, or bought something and cancelled the order or not paid I would understand. But I literally have NO sales or purchases! I've only used it for browsing. I have purchased in the past on a previous account but bought and paid for in full each time, no disputes. I have never sold on eBay. I started the new account when I changed email address but nothing remotely strange or dodgy.

Searching on online forums brings up "there must have been something illegal" but not only has their been nothing illegal, there has literally been nothing! I cant speak to a human, they won't engage with me at all, and I'm permanently banned! Any ideas, anyone? Thanks

Could your account have been hacked? You need to speak to a person, ebay won't refuse that.

Thanks. The person on chat said that I haven’t been hacked. I asked if I could speak to a supervisor but they said no and closed the conversation. If I knew what I had supposedly done it would help!

Could it be a scam email and the person you are speaking to not eBay at all?

I would also second that the email isn't legitimate. eBay are bad but they don't ban for bad behaviour on an account that isn't used.

Good question! I assumed it was at first, but I went into eBay directly. I honestly assumed it was a huge mistake and they’d look at it, say sorry and open my account again.

The only possible thing I think I could have done was creating a new account, under a new email. Is that enough to get me and the family banned forever,? It wasn’t even massively intentional, I haven’t used the old account in years and google kind of opened it automatically

How did you access the live chat to speak to eBay?
Can you screen shot the message & repost it here, that said you were banned?

Screenshots here. I found the live chat by searching in contact us

I've received the email, and gone into eBay on lots of different devices, logging into eBay from scratch etc so I'd be fairly confident the email and live chat were not a hack. I think it's a little more likely that someone else tried to hack into my account to sell stuff? But there is nothing on my buying and selling history.

That's weird, it doesn't seem like ebay usual phrasing to say "causes concern for our community"

There are lots of unhappy stories online where people had their accouns suspended but they always know the logic.

Can you post copy of the original message that made you go on chat to have that conversation?

Do you have a partner or children who might have done something dodgy?

UC - good question but I'm honestly the only person in my house with an eBay account.

Original email here

The language of that chat sounds as weird as hell! I’ve never chatted to EBay customer service before so I don’t know if that’s normal but it’s so odd!

Thank you for that.
Try to take this kindly .. I was really hoping you had missed something obvious.. but you haven't!!
I'm intrigued but failing to solve your mystery.

Have you asked around to anyone who has used your household wifi or who lives in your home if they also had a ban?

What if you called them in person?
0345-355-3229

ps: the ban phrasing seems to be standard, see link

OP said
I have purchased in the past on a previous account

There's a potential clue on this thread.

"Ebay doesn't like multiple accounts." was the feedback from other eBayers.

You've slightly helped me, OP. For a bunch charity sales I was thinking to set up a dedicated account - I won't dare do that now!

I wonder if that's it? I didn't even open the new account consciously! I hadn't used the old one for literally 10 years or more. And after browsing again, I got a "log in with Google" which I did, which opened the new account. I didn't think anything about it except that it seemed handy because I had no idea of the log in details of the old account. Both accounts would have separate email addresses.

llijk thank you for all your comments tho, I really do appreciate your help. And no offense taken!

@Cherryblossomandcornflakes

Can anyone advise please? I've had an email from eBay saying that my account was showing risky behaviour, against their standards and I have been permanently banned! If I start a new account from this address, that too will be banned. I've spoken to someone on their live chat, who has refused to lift the ban, or explain what I have done. If I had been selling something dodgy, or bought something and cancelled the order or not paid I would understand. But I literally have NO sales or purchases! I've only used it for browsing. I have purchased in the past on a previous account but bought and paid for in full each time, no disputes. I have never sold on eBay. I started the new account when I changed email address but nothing remotely strange or dodgy. Searching on online forums brings up "there must have been something illegal" but not only has their been nothing illegal, there has literally been nothing! I cant speak to a human, they won't engage with me at all, and I'm permanently banned! Any ideas, anyone? Thanks

I had this about ten years ago, still banned

They wouldn't tell me why we it would "assist my fraudulent activity". Batshit.

I just use a friends account. Sorry I can't be more help!

I tried the customer services phone number posted above. It's just a recorded message telling me to go to the help section online. I can't access a human at all, except on the chat facilities. And now I can't do that either because you can't access without a registered account and I can't sign in now cos I'm banned.

Wow 1990s not just me then.

Why does your first screen shot keep saying 'gay'??

This is so bizarre and I have no experience of being banned by eBay, but a seller did ban me and it made no sense.

@hammersmithbridge I'm guessing that's the name of the customer service person.

‘gay’ will be the name of the operator. As in Gaye or Gaynor