Judge raps eBay over fraud

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Ebay was criticised by a UK judge on Monday for not doing enough to protect its users from the dangers of fraud.

Judge Richard Bray said it was "hardly surprising" that eBay was targeted by criminals, given the measures it has put in place to protect users. Judge Bray suggested that letting customers register negative feedback about other users wasn't enough.

"Provided you don't have fraud against you on eBay, you are all right as a fraudster -- you can get on and sell anything you like," Judge Bray said, according to reports on Tuesday.

"It seems to be extremely easy to commit fraud on the Internet," Judge Bray added. 

The Judge was residing over the trial of a woman convicted of taking £3,000 from five separate eBay customers for non-existent tickets to the Glastonbury music festival.

EBay insists that its systems are safe and secure."Fewer than 0.01% of all listings on eBay result in a confirmed case of fraud, and when used properly the site is a safe and secure place to buy and sell," said an eBay spokesperson.

"EBay employs approximately 1,000 people at eBay and PayPal [which is owned by eBay] with backgrounds in law enforcement, customer support, advanced computer engineering and analysis, who are dedicated to making eBay one of the safest places in the world to trade. We encourage all users to report any suspected fraudulent activity to customer services who will investigate," the spokesperson added.

Talkback

Hi.I think is a faud there.Im waiting for a item from Ebay but still not turn up.How many people must to pay for a site which make money without to protect their customers?

via Facebook 7 December, 2004 20:06
Reply

absolutely, im in the same position. i have not recieved reply and have paid, thankfully not much but if i send negetive feedback he will reply with some too - i cant have that on my record.

oh yea and i want my money back.

via Facebook 7 December, 2004 20:46
Reply

i ordered a john elway plaque and it took forever to get i contacted e-bay and they said that i did not use pay pal so there was not much they could do and the person that sold it to me they could not find his web site. i did receive the plaque but it took weeks and a
lot of time on the computer to get this done i have not ordered anything since then from e-bay

via Facebook 7 December, 2004 23:37
Reply

Yes it's far to easy for people to commit fraud and the poice claim they can't do anything about it unless its serial fraud. I too paid for something and never got it and the seller won't communicate.

Rohan

via Facebook 8 December, 2004 06:14
Reply

Three cheers for Judge Bray! I too have been the victim of a fraudulant seller on e-Bay, however neither e-Bay, nor their arrogant stepchild Pay-Pal seems to care;their policies are a joke!
I can only hope that the bad publicity in the U.K. will result in some reform of e-Bay and Pay-Pal policies, but I am not planning on holding my breath.
Although I do continue to use Pay-Pal, I now will no longer pay directly from my account for anything over the sum of USD $20.00, as that is all I am willing to risk.
If you are going to spend a significant amount of money for an item on e-Bay, use your credit card through Pay-Pal, that way, you have recourse to your credit card company should something go wrong.

via Facebook 8 December, 2004 07:23
Reply

ebay and Paypal are impotent when it comes to being able (and willing) to protect legitimate customers from fraud.

William

via Facebook 9 December, 2004 16:40
Reply

Ebay is a great place as long as you are careful! Read seller feedback. Order only from long term sellers. Use Paypal. No internet site is 100% safe, so if you expect to never have problems, don't shop online. I use Ebay all the time and have never had a problem because I read and take seriously negative seller feedback.

via Facebook 9 December, 2004 18:55
Reply

Hi, I love eBay and use it alot, i haven't yet come aganst something that has been fraud (touch wood) you just have to make sure you dont send cash or be stupid, they offer a lot of checks on the user your going to purchase the item off, if these aren't taken into account then thigns can happen...some people dont emial backj, because they just ship the item out and want a quick process they cant be bothered with emailing every sinlge person that buys from them. Alot of other people think eBay is brill, you also find its the newbies to eBay that it happens to because they dont do the revevant checks like cvhecking feedback and where there location is and what payment issues they have to offer..

via Facebook 11 December, 2004 01:21
Reply

In my opinion, Ebay routinely MAKES a LOT of MONEY on fraud. Here's how: When a seller lists an item for sale and the auction is won by a fraudulent (Non-paying) buyer, the seller has only 3 chioces: 1. send a second-chance offer to the next-lowest bidder, if there is one, thus.Ebay makes the full fee 2. Re-list the item in a new auction and Ebay makes the full fee PLUS certain non-refundable charges from the first, unsuccessful auction. In this case, Ebay makes the MOST money because they keep the funds for the first auction, refunding only a portion, and then they make FULL-FEE a second time on the second one 3. Give up and pay the listing fee and apply for a refund on the listing fee MINUS certain fees charged by Ebay- these charges can be significant and they keep the money they DO refund to the seller for over 2 weeks!
I just had a $200-plus auction won by a person with a negative 2 feedback rating that Ebay has permitted to stay registered for FIVE YEARS! The first time they won an auction athey never paid and the next time was 3 years later then now, 2 years after that. Ebay has no telephone support and weak-as-hell on-line live customer support, just sending cheesy form letters that never realy address the actual problem. I think some of these fake buyers are Power Sellers, using this to elliminate smaller individual sellers with whom they compete. I also would not be surprised if Ebay hasI emplyees maintaining multiple identities and doing this type of thing in order to maintian a strong cash-flow. They will demand their $50 fee for a my auction and then give a small refund 2 weeks later. Multiply that times a few thousand transactions ber day and you see how Ebay protects fraud, LIKES fraud, and, most importantly, MAKES MONEY with Fraud.

via Facebook 1 April, 2005 03:24
Reply

I believe there is a scammer selling camper vans Item number: 4585524652, I will not register with ebay so cannot find a way of reporting this. The seller claims he lives in italy and is selling up everything but this is the second camper he has offered. You get a reply that always seems the same about sending money. You cant bid but must email him/her. I checked the other items for sale for this customer and it is cameras and they are based in Ohio USA. Can someone please report this for me as this is now the second time they have done this and unbeliably they are using the same email so if ebay are aware the should have stopped thgis ad.
I suppose you have remember buyer beware and if it seems to good to be true then it probably is.

via Facebook 27 October, 2005 16:47
Reply

paypal offers little or no protection to items that take a while to complete (artists renderings or drawings, written papers or poetry, etc) Be aware if purchasing these that paypal will not investigate your claim once this date has passed. Paypal also only covers you for $1000 outside of ebay, something that is only mentioned in the small print of your user agreement with them.

via Facebook 27 October, 2005 18:25
Reply

sold a camera on ebay through paypal this was payed for with fraudulent funds, I have lost my camera and had to reimburse paypal after receiving many threating emails the holy sorry affair has me £900 out of pocket and do they came not in the slightest.

via Facebook 1 February, 2006 16:11
Reply

the same with me my cheque was cleared 629 pounds sterling at the fraudsters own bank, along with others some over 1000 ,ebay dont want to know the bank hide behid data protection, the person must have his statments sent to some address , and we are left with a flea in our ear from the banks for simply asking where was a crossed cheque cleared ,

via Facebook 13 February, 2006 18:06
Reply

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