How scammers run rings round eBay

Found on The Register on Monday, 15 November 2004
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Everyone knows that buying and selling on eBay is precarious. Even eBay admits this and gives basic advice on its site that it believes helps eliminate most fraud.

Buyers and sellers agree not to go through the more secure PayPal system because it costs more to do so. So buyers take the risk of sending the money to the seller who either doesn't send the goods or sends shoddy or fake goods. The sellers protect themselves against prosecution by claiming loss, or disputing the buyer's version of events. The amounts involved - though not insignificant to the buyer - are too small for eBay to want to take the matter further.

There is one other common factor in all these stories. Though the buyers report the matter to eBay they are invariably frustrated at standard email responses and being steered towards a mediation system which costs the buyer £15 and even then may or may not lead to resolution. Alternatively, sellers can claim compensation through eBay and may get a maximum of £105 - if they claim between 30 and 90 days after the event and meet the criteria for payment.

I wouldn't buy anything above $50 there (even for bargains I check the seller's feedback). Ebay itself doesn't do much to improve its service. They allow multipe accounts, snipers and cancelling an auction (and we all know it's not really an auction anyway) one minute before it ends. And it would be easy to fix all this: address verification, random text graphics (like for those free email accounts to prevent auto-creation) and a cancellation time. It's no fun to be beaten by two snipers, who raise the price from $5 to $80 in the last minute; or be the only bidder at $1, and the seller cancels just one minute too early.