ebay paranoia

Last night something a bit weird happened. I got an email from ebay to say that a seller had requested my contact information. The thing is I had bid on the item but didn't win it so I see no reason for them to have my information. The only time I have requested contact information is when I had a dispute with a woman who sold me a ghastly fake and I was hounding her for my refund. I see no reason why ebay should provide contact information for people who haven't had any transaction or before the completion of an auction. TBH I didn't know that they did so.
The thing that increases my paranoia is that it is a guide book. I didn't really think about it before I bid but in a way buying a guide book is like advertising that you'll be going on holiday soon.
I guess that it doesn't really matter because it still has my old suburb not my current one and my mobile number not a home one which is in DH's name (different family name) anyway so it would be pretty hard to track me down from the information provided.
Anyway, is there anyway I can hide my feedback because I have decided I don't want random strangers seeing what I have bought? Not the score just the items. I've noticed on the US ebay that some people have it done like that but I have no idea about doing it on au.ebay.
Also can I change my privacy settings so that only people who have bought from and sold to me can get my contact details?

ETA - I would understand (maybe) if it was a high value item if a seller wanted to verify my ID before accepting my bid but not for a secondhand book

OK - I found where to make my feedback private
http://feedback.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayI...eedbackOption2

Thats bizarre Chloe. Maybe go onto live help on ebay and ask them?

Surely there are privacy laws they must respect if you weren't the winning, as you wouldn't have a legally binding contract with the seller anyway, so i don't think they would be allowed to give out your contact details.

Thanks for the suggestion Yael.
The rep was hopeless. Just gave me a line about sellers needing to contact bidders if items were damaged during the last 12 hours of an auction.
This person has sold a stack of travel guides lately (and not much else) - it's not too hard to match names with listed entries in the white pages and get addresses.
This person potentially has the addresses of dozens of people who will be leaving their homes vacant in the next few months and the rep seemed to totally fail to grasp the implications of this.
Maybe I've been watching too many movies but my spidey senses are tingling about this guy.

ETA - normally I don't bid with low feedback/new sellers but for a $5 book I figured it couldn't hurt.

I'd feel the same way Chloe. It never pays to underestimate how people are able to mis-use information. I am incredibly paranoid. I prefer to keep my real name right out of the cyber world. Every account I have I list my "online name" instead of my real name. I can't believe that people would also put their real name on FaceBook accounts for example.
I don't put my real name on competitions I enter either.... and you'd be surprised how many companies on sell your details! It's never silly to try to protect your privacy... too many people just haven't a clue what risks they put themselves to. My DH (who downloads music from a file sharing site) has come across many files from people's own person hard-drives that contain financial data, taxation details including tax file numbers, personal resumes... the lot! occasionally he'll ring the person up and tell them to use privacy settings but mostly they don't seem to understand the magnitude of the situation. DH is a bank manager and usually introduces himself as such just to reinforce how dangerous it is (he is familiar with fraud)... but, no, still blase :rolleyes: How trusting we all are.... I mean, who would stand on the sidewalk and hand out their name, phone number and street address to strangers??? It's exactly the same thing!

I have been contacted in the past by a seller who has multiples of whatever they are selling - rather than listing everything individually, they wait until the auction ends and thus, the highest price has been established and then contact you to offer you the chance to buy it at the higher amount.

Your guy MAY have a couple of copies of the book... It's still a bit shifty IMO

(I now the Spiderman theme song stuck in my head: 'Dachlostar, dachlostar.....' and so on :lol:)

x
AJ

The thing is AJ if that's the case they can just do a second chance offer or contact me via ebay. They don't need my name and phone number.
The more I think about it the more I think there is something dodgy going on....

So true.... Sounds sus, doesn't it?

YEP, eBay representatives are useless .. Every time I have had a problem they just beat around the bush & simply don't want to deal with anything :wall:

... GOOD IDEA not to give your INFO ;)

This seems VERY suss to me.

If they request your number then doesn't it automatically give you theirs?

Maybe call them and ask them quite frankly why they wanted it, and tell them you think they are suss and you will call your local police about the issue if they don't give you a satisfactory answer.

If they request your contact info, does that mean that they automatically get it? Or was eBay contacting you to obtain your permission?

They get it automatically and the same email is sent to you with their contact info.

Ooooh... I had no idea they could do that. I'm really surprised... surely the seller would need to have grounds for requesting that information? Not paying, etc.? Otherwise, it doesn't make any sense. If they are doing it for the purpose of selling extra items, wouldn't that go against eBay's recommendations against engaging in transactions outside of their system?

I'd feel a little weirded out too, in all honesty.

I had a friend recently stalked by a freaky ebay buyer... was very weird!!! Even created a new account to continue the "stalking". I'd definitely feel weirded out.

update - I snooped around his account a bit and noticed that he has a shill bidder so I reported him to ebay.
Now he's just sent me a second chance offer because the person who won the auction was the shill bidder.
What a w@nk@.

Good sleuthing Chloe, always pays to "know thy enemy"! :clap: I hope he is banned and that Ebay can keep him out!

nah, he won't be banned, ebay would rather keep the fee's.

Is shilling like dummy bidding? Surely that's bannable? Geeze, no wonder I don't ebay much anymore.

I think that there is definately a promising career for you chole! ASIO here she comes