4 ms·

Some countries/jurisdictions do exactly that, and trust me, it's a massive pain in the ass. Would you really want to visit a notary just to set up an eBay accou

Some countries/jurisdictions do exactly that, and trust me, it's a massive pain in the ass. Would you really want to visit a notary just to set up an eBay account? Because that's what you're proposing. The existing system isn't foolproof but, by and large, it works perfectly well. If the transactions in TFA truly were fraudulent, no court is going to hold her liable. The bigger problem here is a US court being happy to issue ex parte judgments for someone who should have been trivially contactable.

photonbeam 3y ago
Painful but necessary unless liability is shifted
Tao3300 3y ago
> Would you really want to visit a notary just to set up an eBay account? That's a very good idea.
mhb 3y ago
There could be other options. Perhaps the notary could choose how she authenticates a person. And perhaps that could be using a clever federated scheme that arises because of this need.
trvz 3y ago
> isn't foolproof but [...] it works perfectly well You're not using those words correctly.
oofoe 3y ago
Well, acktually... I just tried to set up an eBay account to buy an exhaust part. I created the account, sent the seller a message and twenty minutes later, I got a notification from eBay that I (and anyone from my household) was permanently banned because I was a "threat to the eBay community". I haven't been on eBay for ages, and as far as I know, was certainly never threatening to anyone on or off eBay. Nobody at eBay would tell me what had gone wrong -- in fact, as soon as I asked what the problem was, they said that they had to "end the call now". Maybe if I had signed up in person, they could let me know what crimes I'm supposed to have committed or at least save me a hour by not allowing the signup in the first place.
- coding123 3y ago
  The only people with working social media accounts, paypal accounts, ebay accounts are people that had them for 10 years or more. Everyone else is kicked out within a few weeks due to AI surfacing evil people.
- Tao3300 3y ago
  > an exhaust part Was it a catalytic converter?
  - oofoe 3y ago
    Actually, I /wanted/ a replacement flex pipe, but the only way to get it is to buy a rear catalytic converter assembly. The one I was looking at was supposed to be new -- not "RFE" (i.e. stolen)... Is eBay salty about catalytic converters?
    - Tao3300 3y ago
      It wouldn't surprise me. It's very dumb, but not surprising.
- kahnclusions 3y ago
  I just had the same thing happen last week. I’m moving away and selling some of our stuff that we can’t take with us. I have a spare 5G/LTE router that I thought I’d throw up on eBay as well as Facebook Marketplace. I followed their onboarding process to the letter to create a listing, verify my email and mobile phone, add a bank account, etc. About an hour later I got an email saying I’ve been “permanently suspended because of activity that we believe was putting the eBay community at risk”. Apparently doing nothing but following their onboarding process is putting the community at risk. They also tell you that “this decision (that was made 100% by an automated system) was not made lightly”. Get fucked, eBay.
  - oofoe 3y ago
    Did they also ban every member of your family as well? That _really_ wierded me out. I'm not sure a public utility (what eBay, Amazon, et al basically are now thanks to the death of brick and mortar) should be allowed such a totalitarian response. Somehow this hasn't stopped the people selling empty PS5 boxes and knockoff handbags at all.
NSMutableSet 3y ago
>Would you really want to visit a notary just to set up an eBay account? Yes.
Gibbon1 3y ago
> Would you really want to visit a notary just to set up an eBay account? If that would allow me to 100% regain control of a hacked account. The answer is yes.
allarm 3y ago
> Would you really want to visit a notary just to set up an eBay account? You're saying like it's bad. It's not. In fact, it's wonderful.
j-bos 3y ago
> Would you really want to visit a notary just to set up an eBay account? Because that's what you're proposing. I do, if the service involves hard identity/finance. Maybe where I'm from is odd, but you can't go into a neighborhood without tripping over a notary, there are mobile notaries, notaries in every white collar office etc. Not too inconvenient for a one time (per major action) event.

photonbeam 3y ago

Painful but necessary unless liability is shifted

Tao3300 3y ago

> Would you really want to visit a notary just to set up an eBay account? That's a very good idea.

mhb 3y ago

There could be other options. Perhaps the notary could choose how she authenticates a person. And perhaps that could be using a clever federated scheme that arises because of this need.

trvz 3y ago

> isn't foolproof but [...] it works perfectly well You're not using those words correctly.

oofoe 3y ago

Well, acktually... I just tried to set up an eBay account to buy an exhaust part. I created the account, sent the seller a message and twenty minutes later, I got a notification from eBay that I (and anyone from my household) was permanently banned because I was a "threat to the eBay community". I haven't been on eBay for ages, and as far as I know, was certainly never threatening to anyone on or off eBay. Nobody at eBay would tell me what had gone wrong -- in fact, as soon as I asked what the problem was, they said that they had to "end the call now". Maybe if I had signed up in person, they could let me know what crimes I'm supposed to have committed or at least save me a hour by not allowing the signup in the first place.

coding123 3y ago
The only people with working social media accounts, paypal accounts, ebay accounts are people that had them for 10 years or more. Everyone else is kicked out within a few weeks due to AI surfacing evil people.
Tao3300 3y ago
> an exhaust part Was it a catalytic converter?
- oofoe 3y ago
  Actually, I /wanted/ a replacement flex pipe, but the only way to get it is to buy a rear catalytic converter assembly. The one I was looking at was supposed to be new -- not "RFE" (i.e. stolen)... Is eBay salty about catalytic converters?
  - Tao3300 3y ago
    It wouldn't surprise me. It's very dumb, but not surprising.
kahnclusions 3y ago
I just had the same thing happen last week. I’m moving away and selling some of our stuff that we can’t take with us. I have a spare 5G/LTE router that I thought I’d throw up on eBay as well as Facebook Marketplace. I followed their onboarding process to the letter to create a listing, verify my email and mobile phone, add a bank account, etc. About an hour later I got an email saying I’ve been “permanently suspended because of activity that we believe was putting the eBay community at risk”. Apparently doing nothing but following their onboarding process is putting the community at risk. They also tell you that “this decision (that was made 100% by an automated system) was not made lightly”. Get fucked, eBay.
- oofoe 3y ago
  Did they also ban every member of your family as well? That _really_ wierded me out. I'm not sure a public utility (what eBay, Amazon, et al basically are now thanks to the death of brick and mortar) should be allowed such a totalitarian response. Somehow this hasn't stopped the people selling empty PS5 boxes and knockoff handbags at all.

NSMutableSet 3y ago

>Would you really want to visit a notary just to set up an eBay account? Yes.

Gibbon1 3y ago

> Would you really want to visit a notary just to set up an eBay account? If that would allow me to 100% regain control of a hacked account. The answer is yes.

allarm 3y ago

> Would you really want to visit a notary just to set up an eBay account? You're saying like it's bad. It's not. In fact, it's wonderful.

j-bos 3y ago

> Would you really want to visit a notary just to set up an eBay account? Because that's what you're proposing. I do, if the service involves hard identity/finance. Maybe where I'm from is odd, but you can't go into a neighborhood without tripping over a notary, there are mobile notaries, notaries in every white collar office etc. Not too inconvenient for a one time (per major action) event.