Black Suburbans

Do you Ever Feel Targeted for Things You've Said? Legally? Financially? Or in Other Ways?

In my attempt to hustle for a little bit of side money I recently opened a new eBay account. I had one years ago when my husband Oh was alive but both the phone number and email address associated with the account are long gone. So I opened a new account and tried to list a still in the box Hamilton Beach toaster I found in the garage on the auction site. I got an error message. Here is my chat with customer service:

Shan Henrex

I can see you are trying to create a listing but you are getting an error to verify your details before you can proceed.

Amy

yes

Shan Henrex

I appreciate you for reaching out to us, allow me to check this information for you to see what we can do about it.

Please allow me 2-3 minutes to review all the details.

Shan Henrex

Thank you for your patience. I just want to let you know that I am still thoroughly reviewing this information for you. I’ll need 2 more minutes as I want to make sure I give you the right information.

Amy

I'm still here also. I do not know what I did or did not do or need to do to sell on ebay

Shan Henrex

Thanks for bearing with me Amy. Upon careful investigation and deliberation on your account, I can see it was restricted because it exhibits a risk to eBay and to its community. As eBay is an internet-based business, and its users are our customers, we must carefully weigh the risks involved in allowing users on our site.

I appreciate your willingess to use our platform as your marketplace but I am afraid this decision can't be appealed. Because of the risk your account has posed to the eBay community, the suspension is permanent and means that you will not be able to participate in any buying or selling activities on eBay.

Amy

How was my account determined to be risky?

Shan Henrex

I’d love to be able to go into detail about the process we go through to identify risk we have found on your account but doing so would allow others to circumvent those policies.

Amy

I have no idea what I did?

Shan Henrex

This is the reason why we are not providing specific information on what behaviors we have found to be a risk to our site. We've found that providing this information can also provide ways to circumvent this suspension or review process in the future.

Amy

So I have to make a new account?

Shan Henrex

You can't use or open any other account. If you do, a suspension will be placed on the other account as well.

We understand this is not an easy message to accept, but we believe eBay isn't the right venue for you to buy and sell. You will no longer be able to use eBay in any capacity.

Amy

So let me get this straight. I cannot use ebay. I cannot find out why I cannot use ebay. Any attempt to try to use ebay will lead to a suspension. Obviously I'm very curious what happened here.

Shan Henrex

We understand that you may be disappointed about our decision. This decision is final and cannot be appeal. We regret any frustration or inconvenience this decision may cause you. We wish you all the best in the future.

I trust I was able to explain every information you need to know. I will have to close this chat session now. Thank you for using eBay Customer Service.

In regards to a related matter, Chime bank got back to me, again, regarding my fradulent transaction charges on my bank account. Someone or something dubbing itself “Google Play” or “Google Play Services” hit my account 18 times for a total of $105.82. Chime investigated this and did not give the money back to me. I filed a rebuttal asking for more information. I got a response back yesterday:

This letter is to inform you that we have made a final determination regarding the claim referenced above. As part of our investigation, a review of our systems was performed in addition to information provided during the claim filing process. As applicable, we coordinate with other financial institutions, merchants, and networks as part of the claim review.

Based on our investigation, we have concluded no error occurred. Therefore, no funds will be credited to your account and this claim is considered closed.

You may request a copy of the documents we used in determining the final outcome of the investigation. If you have any additional questions or need further assistance, feel free to contact us at any time.

Thanks,
Chime Disputes Team

I already requested more documents related to the no error occured claim. With over $100 gone from my account for I don’t know what or to whom it looks like an error to me. I’m glad to know that anything dubbing itself Google Play is allowed to keep money from my bank account. Possession is 9/10ths of the law it seems.

I can always go back to those food delivery apps for money, right? Some weeks ago I signed up for three of them: Grubhub, Postmates (now UberEats) and DoorDash. DoorDash (I never delivered for them before) needed me to submit to some sort of facial scan as part of their identity verification process, where I look right, look left and look straight into the camera. The AI is trying to match this information with the photo on my driver’s license, which is less than a year old. The Ai could not determine if I was me or not so I was not allowed to go further into the signup process.

I had worked for Postmates/UberEats in 2020. They needed a new background check, a process I have sailed through probably 20 times over the years. For some reason this 2-3 day process has stretched into weeks, with no information regarding why. Only GrubHub has allowed me onboard so far, but they are slow. I have some runs especially untipped ones to the farthest ever expanding Northwest and Southwest corners of Las Vegas where I literally spend more on gas getting there and back than the order is worth.

All of this has been clear as mud. Somewhat obviously all of these disparate rejections which contain no useful information whatsoever about what the problem is now have me on full alert. If somebody has hacked into my account, gotten access to my personally identifying information, posed as me, done suspiscious things, and has access to my bank account numbers, say, I have an extreme interest in finding out about it and clearing my file.

Or was I just lumped into some group of antivaxxer antiwar types whose life will be made difficult for difficulties sake? Was I targeted?

This issue is not new to me. I have those who reject evidence of targeting instinctively. They claim that I am being hysterical and paranoid or, as my ex Joe put it one time, “You don’t make enough money for anyone to give a shit about you like that.”

The world is lost to some folks if the American Dream turns out to be a brick wall at the back of a theater.

Of course such targeting with the rise of AI could easily be done with no direct human input whatsoever. The AI sees what I type and say (did you know google reads your private messages?) and if what I write is deemed problematic they have one million ways to easily delist, devoice, deplatform or deperson. At worst I’ll have an interaction with a customer service type who either doesn’t know or is not allowed to say what I did either.

It’s also not difficult to have a single person in a position of power who can make your life a living hell. A single negative mark in an obscure file, or an anonymous complaint by a vindictive ex, is all it really might take. Most people just toe the line, even if it is becoming increasingly difficult to know what line you might have crossed. The outrage cycle is designed to divide and deperson on both sides. The monster laughs.

Have you ever felt targeted?

Artwork for the day is a long ago drawing of a bed entitled “Where is my Home?” I sometimes still wonder about that…

Back to work or…something…

Buy me a ko-fi