eBay Slammed Over Levels of Fraud

Dynamoo writes "The BBC is reporting that companies and law enforcement agencies are becoming increasing frustrated and concerned at the high amount of fraud at eBay. There are reports that it can take two months for eBay to pass details to fraud investigators, and that even for companies with a 'special relationship' with eBay it can take 5 days for fraudulent auctions to be shut down. From the article: 'With all the amount of profits that eBay makes, then there is ample scope for additional staff. Frankly, it is totally unsatisfactory.'"

Comments

Responsibility

[hug_the_penguin]

Yes, it's ebay's responsibility to do something about this, but if you're making a big purchase it makes sense to pay a little more and use their escrow service. You should instantly be set on alert if the seller has a low feedback and it's an expensive item, or has never bought something etc. but noone does this. There's a certain level of responsibility to fall upon the consumer. That said, ebay aren't doing enough, but it's not ALL their fault

Speaking of fraudulent eBay... PriceRitePhoto

[Bananatree3]

Rember our friends priceritephoto.com? They are a full fledged eBay dealer. Though not as obvious as most other eBay scams, fraud companies like them are operating on eBay.

Re:Speaking of fraudulent eBay... PriceRitePhoto

[ewithrow]

Actually they have now changed their name on eBay to BarclayPhoto

The blogger that this all started with has been doing a good job of tracking these guys down, including all of the aliases they operate under.

A few pointers to avoid being scammed on eBay

[WegianWarrior]

There are a number of fraudulent actions on eBay... but there are also quite a few scammers posing as buyers. A few ways to avoid them include:
* Do not be tempted to end the action early if they ask.
* Don't ship abroad - at least not to 'certain countries' in Africa.
* Don't accept moneyorders, WU, MG or the like - card is king, and PayPal (while evil) is also decent.
* Definitly don't accept a deal going like I'll send you a check on a higher amouth, you send me the item and the money left over. The check WILL be false.
* Educate yourself:
** www.scampatrol.org
** crime-online.info/blog
** www.fraudaid.com/index.htm
* Don't expect everyone online to be as honest and upright as yourself.

Re:Who really cleans up ebay's messes?

[drunkennewfiemidget]

I don't give a fuck how much karma I lose for this post and the fact that it'll be modded down as 'troll' or 'offtopic'. THERE IS ONLY ONE FUCKING O IN LOSE.

Two Words -- American Express

[path_man]

I can tell you that I almost never bid on an item on eBay unless there's a way for the seller to receive the payment directly via American Express.

Two reasons here: first, the Amex merchant account is a tougher one to get. Not impossible to fool, and certainly not fraud-proof, but I've heard way too many instances of fly-by-night merchant account setups which take MC and Visa that disappear in 30 days. If the seller takes Amex directly, it's probably a legit business.

Second reason is that Amex seems to have the absolute best policy for disputing charges. Broken item? Use Amex product insurance. Never received/not as advertised/fradulent seller? Dispute the charge. Here's the thing: Amex is on the buyer's side! They want to keep the buyer as a customer, and they don't want to have to pay the seller if they don't have to!

Sadly, though, eBay is yet another case of Buyer Beware. If I were to go to a flea market or to some sidewalk sale, it'd be Buyer Beware there too. Not to excuse eBay for not doing their part to crack down on bad sellers, but as in life, your first line of defense is to be responsible for yourself.

I used to work for eBay

[aussersterne]

And they are very careful *not* to do much about fraud.

Their position is that they are *just* a middleman that connects buyers to sellers. The rest is up to you. If you are defrauded, they want you to go to law enforcement, *not* to eBay.

They actively *do not* work to shut down fraudulent sellers or auctions, because to do so would be to assume liability, which is precisely what they don't want to do. So they are careful always to say "eBay is just a forum, we take no responsibility for what is posted here, that is up to you..." and to make clear to users that they are not liable for anything -- the veracity of any buyer or seller or deal is up to those that *use* eBay to research.

I think this position is a little weaker now that they also own PayPal, but back in the day they would claim to be just like classified ads or like cut-rate real-world auction and liquidations houses: buyer and seller beware, they're just the cheap man in the middle who holds no responsibility for either party.

Re:Who really cleans up ebay's messes?

[Oliver Wendell Jones]

Same sort of thing happened to me when I tried to buy a PCMCIA TV tuner/capture card. The auction ended early in the morning and I was the winner at a price of around $50. The same seller had numerous other auctions for the same item, including several Buy-It-Now options at $75. I went ahead and paid using PayPal, since I'm a responsible ebayer, and was surprised several hours to receive a notice to let me know the item was no longer in stock, and it would be so long before they were that they were just going to refund my money - thanks for playing.

I replied and asked them to immediately cancel all of their other auctions for the same item and they replied and told me that they used an automated software system to handle their auctions and they couldn't cancel their auctions, but they assured me they wouldn't start any new auctions for that item until they were back in stock

That's been 6 months ago now, and they still list the same item for the same Buy-It-Now price and still start their auctions at ridiculously low prices like $0.99. To the best of my knowledge there hasn't been a day since then that you couldn't buy that item from them at their price.

I sent an e-mail to ebay about the lack-of-sale, and included all the previous correspondence, and asked them to please cancel all the auctions of that item by that seller and I received a generic "thanks for writing, we'll look into it" e-mail in response.