Is the auction firm doing enough to protect its customers?
EBay faces the music over auction scams
/v3-uk/news/1993567/ebay-music-auction-scams
31 Oct 2005, Ken Young , V3
Three people who conned eBay buyers out of £300,000 over a period of two years were jailed for a combined total of eight and a half years at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court on Friday.
Nicolae Cretanu, 30, and his wife Adriana, 23, a Romanian couple based in East London, were convicted of conning victims into handing over cash through wire services for non-existent goods. George Titar, 23, a Romanian illegal immigrant, was also convicted.
In an interview on BBC Radio Five eBay was robust in its defence that it is doing enough to tackle such criminal activity, despite scores of cases having surfaced over the past three years, albeit involving smaller sums.
A security spokesman for the auction giant said: "We urge people to be vigilant about how they pay for things. If you decide that you trust someone then you should pay with PayPal because if something goes wrong you are covered up to £500."
He went on to explain eBay's view of how such crimes are perpetrated. "The [criminals] set up accounts and in all cases the transactions end [successfully] but the negative behaviour involved separate transactions 'off' eBay," he said.
"What happens is that the people who are victims do not come back and tell us because it happened 'off' eBay.
"So they do not use the feedback mechanism to say 'this guy is not who he says he is' because the transaction did not happen on eBay. So I stress to people to keep it on eBay because that helps us to track what is going on on our website."
The spokesman added that eBay's recent research indicated that only 15 per cent of its users understand that it is their responsibility to protect themselves.
"I would like to drive home the fact that [eBay] has the corporate responsibility to do everything it can - which it does - but users have the same responsibility as if they were walking down the road and someone offered them a laptop," he said.
The fraud involved persuading buyers to send payment through Western Union so that it could be collected in a number of different places. Both Western Union and eBay advise against using this service for eBay payments.
The fraudsters also offered unsuccessful bidders the chance to buy the stock by contacting them directly and saying that the top bidder had fallen through or that more goods were available.
But questions remain over how fraudsters can operate in this way for so long without being detected by eBay.
The auction giant insisted that many of those defrauded did not contact the company because they were embarrassed or felt it not worth the trouble.
However, eBay would not say exactly how many instances had been reported and how long they had been tracking the activity of the conmen.
© Incisive Media Investments Limited 2010, Published by Incisive Financial Publishing Limited, Haymarket House, 28-29 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4RX, are companies registered in England and Wales with company registration numbers 04252091 & 04252093
Do you agree?
Too much red tape to complain
It is enlightening to hear from ebay that the fraud took place "off" ebay and that victims should still report such fraud to ebay.
If the fraud is "off" ebay then why it is being reported as ebay fraud? The press should be accurate.
Ebay should be doing everything possible to warn users about the risks of being dragged into deals in the dark allies outside of ebay controls. My online bank keeps hitting me with warnings of online fraud scenarios. Perhaps ebay could follow suit and even bind sellers by contract not to sell to ebay customers outside of ebay.
Finally, how many have tried to complain about a seller to ebay? I did about 18 months ago. The process is full of detailed instructions, preparation activities, lacks interaction and therefore is in one word daunting. Though I can understand ebay wanting to filter out the niggling disagreements from the fraudulent, the process does not feel supportive or helpful. Furthermore it is worthless for small transactions and in the same vein paypal assurances are not the no-quibble guarantee of satisfaction that ebay would have you believe. So ebay, to have credibility in being receptive to customer concerns on fraud, simplify your complaints process and make it more human and supportive. Until that happens, ebay, your words are meaningless.
Posted by Chris Merriman, 01 Nov 2005
about time !!!!!
i sell on ebay ,and i'm sick of all the con's on ebay.i have complained loads of times about the same people but they don't appear to do any thing about these people.maybe they should kick these people off.or at least do something about them.ebay is not as safe as they tell you.there's too many crooks on there.
Posted by honest ebay seller, 31 Oct 2005
Paypal helps defrauders
In my experience Paypal help defrauders; last Christmas I ordered a watch for $300 and paid via my Paypal account, when I return from holiday, not only had the goods not arrived and the vender would not answer my emails, but Paypal said that since their short time period for complaint had expired they would not pursue the matter on my behalf. Needless to say, I no longer use Paypal to pay for anything.
Posted by TG, 31 Oct 2005
Paypal no help either
Paying via Paypal doesn't help avoid bad sellers either. When an item I bought turned out to be faulty just after Paypal's very short complaints period, I got no help from them although they did say they would make a note by the seeller's account that a complaint had been received. Furthermore, when I tried to claim from my credit card company , they refused liability saying that my contract had been with Paypal and not with the seller direct. Buyer beware.
Posted by nord, 03 Nov 2005