Main account permanently suspended for using a VPN to bypass government censorship in the UK

[bittycoiner]

Be aware, eBay appear to be doubling down hard on British users attempting to circumvent government censorship and protection of privacy from state interference. 

I've noticed a few sites are making an issue out of this. Google just places slow captchas when you try to search from the browser bar with a VPN, so I switched to Duck Duck Go and very happy with it. 

Most companies are fine though. 

As eBay is on it's last legs anyway I'm not going to use them just so they can funnel my details to government agencies, so they are on my lifetime blacklist along with google. 

All for putting my used Corsair keycaps up for listing. The clown with an Indian accent on the end of the phone told me to answer a series of questions, one of which was "do you intend to use your account for buying or selling?"  I said "both" and he then said what do I expect to buy (this is a personal account), I told him I have no crystal ball, I buy things as the need arrises. 

Then he asked me to predict my sales volume, I told him I have listed 3 keycaps for £10 and the keyboard has about 102 keys on it, which I have replaced so the old ones are up for sale. 

Then he told me I have a lifetime ban on buying or selling from ebay.  I am absolutely certain it's because of the VPN, they appear to be carrying out the directives of Sir Kier Starver and Rachel Thieves. 

It's like eBay is intentionally trying to pull a myspace.  eBay really isn't something worth saving now is it? The best days from the early 2000's up until around 2019 seemed okay, but they've gone absolutely bananas with the platform decay over the last year or so. Crazy postage, deleting entire categories from being able to sell like livestock, I used to buy tropical fish and live shrimp for my aquarium but they've deleted that now, presumably RM won't let anyone use special delivery and instead the platform decay means everything is now bottom scraping postage which eBay probably get a share of. 

So, where is everyone going as an alternative? Everything seems to be more app based now anyway so that's fine. What's a good one for selling used keycaps? Does Vinted still focus mostly on clothes, or are they a contender now to replace eBay wholesale across categories?

I do buy a lot from Aliexpress these days, by the time you factor in this "simple postage" the difference between an item being posted 10 minutes down the road, vs an item coming from China, is about 2-3 working days longer from Aliexpress, which I am happy to do as they don't charge me a buyer tax simply for purchasing, everything is tracked better than "simple delivery", and the overall cost of identical items is about a third to half the price.

My 11 year old account, gone in seconds, and this backup account gone too. I won't even know if this comment will post when I hit the submit button...

[bittycoiner]

Just listed on Vinted. 

Such a breath of fresh air. 

So long ebay, and good riddance. 

[plpmr · Accepted solution]

numerous people have found problems using VPN because it hides their ID and that causes problems with eBay, PayPal, banks etc, as they don't know who the person is and, or where the access is coming from etc.

[bittycoiner]

I've been securing my online activity with a VPN for over 30 years. Its the very first thing on the list of cyber security to protect your device and information from attacks, like ransomware, the kind of attacks the NHS has been suffering because they are not properly securing their connections, which contain all of our data. 

Up until about a week ago, the government recommended people use VPNs, which is great because it protects your data with encryption, everyone should be using a VPN by default. 

Banks, PayPal etc rely on VPNs to create a connection between you and the bank. It's highly recommended you use your own VPN to secure your traffic too. 

VPNs secure your data with encryption, and bypass government censorship. Until about a month ago the 2nd one didn't apply to the UK, but now that the tyrannical government wants everyone to be tracked on every website whether or not they have an account, and by sending your ID to some US company, is an atrocious abuse of power. 

The UK has cracked down on the right to protest, the right to privacy online, and all the other garbage being imported from China. 

Any company refusing to deal with UK citizens because you do not provide personally identifiable information and government issued ID, should be considered a liability and a security risk.  Now anyone regardless of age just to look on a forum for LGBT people to talk to their community is now prevented by anyone other than adults with government ID. This is tyranny and oppression being dressed up as "protecting the kids".  If you disagree, then you are a jimmy Savile apologist n0nce according to Labour.

So companies facilitating this tyrannical government should no longer be trusted by UK citizens, especially those who have used VPNs to protect their connection from man in the middle attacks for decades, but are now being denied service akin to Nazis demanding to see your paperz for going about your business because anyone who doesn't give up their paperz is clearly a communist..

[thepillenwerfer]

Exactly.  If you act in a suspicious way your draw suspicion upon yourself, even if it isn't justified.

[bittycoiner]

Using a VPN isn't suspicious. 

It's like saying that you use virus protection so you must be suspicious. 

It is nonsense peddled by boomers who really don't understand how the backbone of the internet works, and how critical VPNs and encryption are to do anything online. 

Your online banking wouldn't be possible without encryption and VPNs. It's a fundamental part of the way the internet operates. 

You're not hiding your ID when you use a VPN, the website you are dealing with know exactly who you are because you've entered your identifying information, such as your username, password, and then receiving a text to your phone.  VPNs have absolutely nothing to do with "looking suspicious". By that measure you're "looking suspicious" every time you use a secure website starting with "https". The "S" stands for secure, meaning unsecure connections will be rejected. 

But as for eBay, they have essentially just declared that in order to use the platform, you must not use a connection which protects you against hacking. It is no different than telling you "to use ebay you must turn your virus protection off".   Good luck with that. 

So far Apple is the only company to tell the UK government that there's no way they're going to deactivate VPNs and encrypted traffic, and instead just pulled their secure messaging from the UK entirely. 

Those are the companies who are standing up against UK tyranny. We already know eBay is in bed with HMRC, this continual step by step creep toward you giving up your rights is the worst attack on civil liberties in this country since 9/11.

DO NOT TRUST ANY COMPANY WHO REFUSE A SECURE VPN CONNECTION. PUT THEM ON YOUR LIFETIME BAN LIST AND CAUTION EVERYONE ELSE THAT YOUR IDENTITY AND DATA IS NOT SECURE WHEN YOU USE EBAY. 

[450-262541]

Without wishing to pry into matters which are none of my business, I'd suggest that the lifetime ban would most probably be related to another issue than vpn use.

Most days I have several different tabs open at once logged into different ebay accounts at the same time over a vpn connection that periodically changes IPs and they haven't ever even logged me out let alone asked me any questions or threatened to ban me for it.

I used Nord VPN for years without any problems with eBay and have recently switched to ProtonVPN and I've had no problems with that either. 

[bittycoiner]

Incorrect

[450-262541]

Don't know why they have banned you and not me also then...

[bittycoiner]

Why are you asking me?

[450-262541]

I'm not, it wasn't a question.

I was just trying to help by saying that it might be a different issue which you'd missed because you thought the vpn was the sole reason. It can't be the sole reason because if so, it would apply to all of us not just you and it clearly doesn't apply to all of us because it doesn't apply to me and I'm doing the same thing.

[wyntersemporium]

Vinted sell everything now including tech and noticed key caps for sale there.

[vinylscot]

IF you were banned for using a VPN, it would be covered in eBay's Terms and Conditions.

A sizable percentage of UK users now operate VPNs, and this number has increased greatly since the terms of the Online Safety Act came fully into force on 25th July. We would be seeing dozens of reports similar to your if eBay was banning accounts operated by users using VPNs. And we are not.

That was clearly not the reason for your ban.

[jonatjonatjonat]

Another example - I use a VPN for work. Have to. So does my wife. We haven't been perma banned due to VPN use. I access ebay every day via a VPN.

[bittycoiner]

Are you using PIA?

[jonatjonatjonat]

No. Not using that particular VPN.

[a1once]

I`m using Windscribe, which is free up to about 10Gig. So far, only my phone plan provider does not let me long in, saying it is a violation of security blah. Never been a problem on here though.