Hi all,
I purchased an account for a popular online game on eBay.
Approximately, 90 days after the purchase the account was locked and customer service confirmed that someone else is trying to log into the account and they are asking for me to provide historical data to prove I am the owner of the account (e.g. evidence of a historical in-game purchase and previous telephone number linked to the account).
I suspect this is a common scam. The seller sells the account, waits 90 days, then reclaims the account using the "I lost my account" feature. Thereby, avoiding eBay buyer protection and opportunity to leave negative feedback.
Anyway, I opened a dispute in Paypal. I have spoken with the seller on eBay (who, in his defence, claims he is a genuine seller) and, although he initially ignored my messages, he has provided the evidence of historical payment and the previous telephone number to PayPal as part of the dispute resolution.
The problem is, PayPal won't release the information to me so I have no way of providing said information to the game's publisher in order to have my account unlocked (or knowing if the information is accurate - it could all be bogus).
Has anyone got any advice on what to do here as I feel stuck between a "rock and a hardplace"?
The seller isn't responding to my requests on eBay to provide me with the payment evidence and telephone number directly and PayPal won't release the information to me (maybe due to data protection?) so I have no way of getting the account unlocked.
The only person with the information required to have the account unlocked is the previous seller (as he knows the previous telephone number and has the paypal account which made the in-game purchase). I feel like I've bought a car but the seller's kept a spare key and is ignoring my requests to give me the spare key.
Does anyone have any idea which side the PayPal dispute team will favour?
In the interest of full disclosure, I have reported the seller to ebay and to the UK police.
