eBay Stealth Account Guide for e-Commerce Seller

What Does eBay Say About Multiple Accounting?

According to the eBay multiple account policy, multiple accounting is not a bad practice and there are legitimate reasons you can have multiple accounts. According to the policy, there are two legitimate reasons why you will want to have multiple accounts on eBay. The first is so you can have a different buyer and a different seller's account. Secondly, you might need a separate account for each product line you sell. Any other reason apart from these 2 and you have crossed the danger zone.

But first, if you even take a look at the multiple accounts supported by eBay, you will know it is a trap. It makes use of the concept of linked accounts which link all of your accounts together but appear separate to buyers on eBay. The goal here is, in the case of any policy violation on one account, your other accounts will also suffer the suspension or even ban.

If you need multiple accounts to evade selling restrictions and sell more products, then the linked eBay multiple accounting is not for you. What you need is a stealth eBay account that can’t be associated with you and as such, can’t be linked to your real eBay account. What you will be creating are eBay accounts that use other personal and contact details other than yours.

How Does eBay Identify Multiple Accounts?

If you have tried managing multiple eBay accounts without getting them linked, you will notice they get linked automatically or the accounts get suspended. Have you ever wondered how this happened? Well, that is because eBay uses sophisticated techniques to identify and block multiple accounts. They use a mix of your IP address, cookies in your browser, your activities, and browser fingerprint and this helps them achieve great success.

In the past, eBay focus mostly on your IP address and cookie. Your IP address is an identifier assigned to your computer by your ISP for you to communicate over the Internet. This is usually unique except you make use of a WIFI in which case, all users of a WIFI share the same IP address. This makes it difficult for eBay to use just your IP address as a pointer for multiple accounts. To play safe, sellers use proxies that serve as intermediaries between them and eBay, providing them with alternative IP addresses. With this, they can get as many unique IP addresses as the number of accounts they manage.

Cookies on the other hand are small pieces of text, stored on your computer by websites such as eBay to track you and your preferences. How eBay sellers deal with this is easy. They use cookie editors to manage them and switch them depending on the account they are working on at the time. You can even move cookies from one computer to another. Cookies can also be deleted. Because of how easy cookies and IPs are easy to game, eBay had to devise other means of identification.

Currently, eBay uses more techniques than just IP and cooking tracking to identify multiple accounts. They also make use of browser fingerprint which is the next-gen tracking method on the web. The method entails the use of every available detail of your browser and device including OS, browser user agent, time zone, fonts, plugins, canvas, and others to generate a unique identifier for you known as a browser fingerprint. It is an effective method with an accuracy level of about 99.5%.

The e-commerce platform also uses behavioral analysis and tracks how each account is managed, the product sold and description, and payment and withdrawal methods to identify multiple accounts. If you are able to hide all of these footprints used in tracking accounts, you will be able to avoid detection and ban easily. But if you are not, even if someone else creates the account for you, it will still get banned the moment you start using the account.

How to Effectively Create eBay Stealth Accounts

If you have made up your mind to create stealth eBay accounts, then you need to plan it through and make sure all of the pieces that are needed have been put in place. Generally, for you to effectively create and manage them on eBay, you need to avoid sharing the same personal, contact, IP, cookie, browser fingerprint, and payment and withdrawal method between accounts.

When done right, stealth accounts on eBay can help you evade selling restrictions, helping you to sell more products and grow your business in a scalable manner. Let's take a look at some of the most important things you need to get right.

• Generate Multiple User Personal and Contact Details

The first thing you need to get right is the personal and contact details that will be associated with each of the accounts. You already use your real details for creating your main eBay account. You now have to depend on fake details and do it wisely. Being a service where you sell products and a large chunk of your money can be held, I will recommend you don’t use fake details. Get people around you and seek their permission to use their identity to create eBay accounts. You can use that of your wife or husband, parents, siblings, and even friends. This will save you a lot of headaches as you progress.

You can go ahead and create a fake user persona using tools like the FakeNameGenerator.com tool and generate as many user contacts and personal details as you want. But when there is a need to verify the accounts, you will then go through the route of creating fake IDs which is a lot of work to do. However, using details of someone around you has its own problems too. First, the person(s) need to give their consent — and you know only a few will do that. Also, this is not scalable as you won’t get over 20 people who will give you their consent.

So, you have the option to use the personal and contact details of people around you or create fake details using a fake user persona generator like the one I mentioned. They both have their pros and cons but I will go with the option of using the details of those you can trust around you but seek their consent first. You can use their phone number too for verification. But for email, I recommend you create emails in their name but under your control so you can have more control.

The reason you need their details is so verification along the line or when your account gets suspended for suspicious behavior becomes easier for you. Using the other method, you might not be able to provide IDs and a photo of you holding it to back things things up in the case of suspicion.

• Setup Withdrawal Methods

From the little I have said earlier, you should know by now that you can’t use the same withdrawal methods for each of the stealth accounts you create and manage. Since withdrawing your earnings is as compulsory as other aspects of your business, you need to also plan this one. Now, this is one of the reasons I recommend you use the details of those around you — that you can trust and give their consent to. If you use their details, all you need is to get their checking account details or any other supported method. Some of the other supported methods include PayPal, Payoneer, and a few other methods used during account setup.

But for those that chose the other route, then you will need stealth PayPal and Payoneer accounts. You can’t create stealth checking accounts as that is illegal and will lead you to jail. The guide on how to create stealth PayPal accounts is as long as this one but the process is almost similar.

• Purchase High Quality Static Residential Proxies

If you will be managing multiple accounts on separate computers, there is no need to purchase proxies. However, most will want to manage multiple eBay accounts on the same computer. You will need proxies for each account so each will have its separate IP address, thereby giving the feel of the accounts being managed from separate computers. I advise against using free proxies no matter the reason you think you have as they do have security, privacy, and performance issues. Instead, go for high-quality residential proxies.

To avoid the suspicion that comes with your IP address changing now and then especially as done by rotating residential proxies, I will advise you to purchase static residential proxies also known as ISP proxies. These proxies route your requests via IPs provided by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to regular Internet users, making them undetectable.

These proxies have become cheaper and you can purchase one for $2 - $4. You will need each per eBay account you want to create and manage. Some of the best providers with affordable pricing for these types of proxies include Proxy-Seller, Smartproxy, and Proxy-Sale.

• Use Antidetect Browser for Creating and Managing the Accounts

When you create and manage regular eBay accounts, what you use is a regular browser. However, when you are dealing with stealth accounts on eBay, they are the least you will want to touch as they will help eBay to identify your multiple accounts due to their fingerprinting vulnerabilities. Instead, I will recommend you use an antidetect browser. With an anti-detect browser, you solve the issue of both cookie tracking and browser fingerprinting.

An anti-detect browser is a multiple-profile browser with anti-fingerprinting technology. Each profile you create is considered a separate browser instance, having its own browser environment such as local storage and cookies as well as a browser fingerprint. The browser fingerprint is customisation allowing you to have multiple browser fingerprints and browser environments on the same computer. The proxies I recommend you purchase earlier will also be used in the anti-detect browser. For each browser profile you create, you bind a proxy to it. This will effectively solve 3 of your problems as far as tracking on eBay is concerned. This includes IP tracking, cookie tracking, and browser fingerprinting.

One thing you need to know about the browser fingerprint customizable capabilities of anti-detect browsers is that they can be a trap. Anti-detect browsers allow you to configure fingerprint details such as browser type and version, OS type and version, time zone, and other details used in generating your browser fingerprint. Some newbies will get “creative” and try to customize. Doing so will only make you unique and make it easy for you to be tracked at best. At worse, you end up screwing up the fingerprint, making it inconsistent with what is obtainable in the real world which will reveal to eBay you are tempered with your browser fingerprint, and in turn, they will block you.

Instead of customizing, I recommend you use the browser fingerprint provided by the antidetect browsers. Some of these provide a database of correct browser fingerprints that will get you into the crowd and make it difficult for you to be identified. This is a more lethal practice than trying to be unique in your way. I will also recommend you choose a fingerprint that resembles your underlying machine. Take, for instance, if you are using a MacBook, it is better to choose your fingerprint to be that of the one on a MacBook than try to mimic a Windows computer.

As per our recommendation, I will recommend you make use of Multilogin if you can afford it. It is the best and provides the most consistent fingerprint. It has the lowest block rate in the market and comes with the most advanced features so far. However because it is premium and expensive, not everyone can afford it. For eBay stealth accounts, I will recommend other alternatives such as Gologin and Kameleo.

How To Manage Multiple eBay Stealth Accounts Successfully

Creating stealth eBay accounts successfully is one part, being able to manage the accounts for a long period and grow them is another. This is because the ban rate for stealth accounts is high and can be frustrating to their operators. This is the reason I recommend you use the details of someone close to you so when there is suspicion, someone can stand in and provide identification documents.

To keep your accounts in good standing randomize your activities on the multiple accounts and done settle into a pattern that can be used to identify your multiple accounts. This is because eBay uses behavioral analysis to identify accounts that have similar behaviors. When an account shares the same behavior as per how it is being managed. This might tip them off to look into the accounts manually. When multiple accounts now sell the same product, and have almost the same description and product image, then they can be sure the accounts even though have different account details, are managed by the same entity.

There is also the issue of mixing things up when managing multiple accounts in an antidetect browser. When you create an account using a browser profile in an anti-detect browser, only manage the account in that profile. Don’t manage it in another profile you manage another profile. Also, maintain the same proxy for each account. You should name each profile with the full name of the eBay account you bind to it. By doing this, you can keep track and avoid mixing things up.