Unable to place bids without phone verification

[elibechts-0]

I've tried to place bids on two items today, but every time I click "Submit Offer," it prompts me for phone verification. I must say, it's quite annoying — is this a new requirement? I've never encountered it before

Thanks in advance for any help

[plpmr]

beneficial to whom and in what way?

[manyjamjar]

Reduce sniping ??

Surely an auction is a game of who blinks first ?

Some people don't always snipe becouse they want to "nick" the item on the last second. They put an automated bid becouse they have multiple item of interest and don't want to be sat next to thier devices. 

Oh well.......

[sweetcharity.2013]

Further update.

After buying nothing & not even looking for days I chanced upon something that caught my interest. I though I'd try bidding & guess what? The bid was placed with NO authorisation asked for! 

Personally now that will be my one & only bid on said item whereas before I would maybe last minute bid, but the thought of ebay interfering again has put me off.

[department28]

We still have very little information about this - is it going to apply to all categories, or just a few? Will everyone be asked to verify themselves before bidding, or will it be 'random'? 

It would be interesting to know how many bidders have been caught out by this, and maybe lost the item due to not being able to verify in time. So far, not many have posted to say it has happened to them, but it might not be fully 'rolled out' yet... 

I've only bid on one item since this issue was raised, and placed an automated bid instead of risking the 'verifying' interruption... 🤖

[lucy_farmer]

'Personally now that will be my one & only bid on said item whereas before I would maybe last minute bid, but the thought of ebay interfering again has put me off.'

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I remember the old Ebay auction saying of 'bid once with the highest amount you are prepared to pay for the item, and leave it at that'.  

If buyers do just that, it'll be better for the buyers bank account not to get carried away in the last minutes, certainly....

But ebay must surely make more money off last-minute 'getting carried away' higher bids, so why on earth do they appear to be attempting to stop that happening?

Ebay are getting more and more baffling by the week......😖

[sweetcharity.2013]

But ebay must surely make more money off last-minute 'getting carried away' higher bids, so why on earth do they appear to be attempting to stop that happening?

You would have thought they'd have thought of this.  

The only thing I can suggest is as others may have said that ebay decisions are taken by people who don't use ebay. Or as I prefer, ebay has been infiltrated by a rival company who are making these decisions (maybe I read too many spy books)  🤓😄