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ebaY on Fraud & Editorial
 

User: aw@ebay.com
Date: 09/07/00
Time: 20:21:04 PDT
*** Fraud - eBay Responsibility ***

We have been watching discussions on our boards concerning fraud. We definitely hear what you are saying and honestly care about your trading safety. eBay's success is dependent on the community's ability to successfully complete transactions. It is true that we have certain limitations in what we can do when fraud occurs. However, we have implemented and will continue to implement features and programs that help prevent fraud and help members should it occur. Fraud continues to be a very small percentage of the total transactions on eBay, however, we understand that when a user is impacted it does not seem to be a small percentage since it is 100% of that transaction.

Our existing programs and services can be used at various points throughout a transaction to guide users and enhance a safe transaction.

Prior to Bidding

- The Feedback Forum can be used to research a seller's past transactions and obtain a sense of how smooth they were. We strongly encourage members to not only review the FB rating but to research the details, e.g., number of negatives, number that are related to selling, comments, and types of items sold.
- Check to see if the seller is ID Verified (uses personally identifiable information to help confirm that a person is who they claim to be). Some sellers use this feature to compensate for a low FB count. This feature identifies who the seller is, but does not address their reputation as a seller like feedback does.
- Request and review Contact Information to determine the location of the member and even contact the member by phone before placing a bid.
- Buyers can use one of our recommended authentication and grading services to evaluate an item before bidding on it.

After the Transaction

- i-Escrow can be used to facilitate a smooth exchange between buyer and seller.
- Should a dispute arise, we recommend using SquareTrade, an independent, neutral third party that can help resolve the issue.
- In the cases of actual fraud, free Insurance is available up to $200.
- Payment options abound that can also protect additional levels of protection. Protection against loss or frauds is generally available with credit card transactions. eBay Online Payments provides members with payment options that offer these protections. Learn more about payment options on eBay by going to the following location:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/buyerguide/paymenttips.html

We are working on changes that will allow us to remove anonymity on eBay and other changes that will allow us to keep unsavory members off of eBay once they are suspended. We will continue to work on additional safeguards with an emphasis on prevention.

We are also working on changes that will help honest sellers to increase their trading success. This includes improvements to the Non Paying Bidder process, addressing inappropriate bid retractions, and offering options that ensure payment, e.g., electronic check payment option.

When serious fraud does occur, eBay helps law enforcement investigate the matter fully, find the user responsible for the fraud, and prosecute the case fully -- such investigations deter criminal conduct, punish those responsible for abusing our system, and may even help victims recover some or all of their losses.

In order to help facilitate these investigations, eBay has built a team of employees with law enforcement backgrounds to work with local, state and federal law enforcement officials. eBay doesn't have the authority to investigate fraud cases or individual disputes ourselves. But we can help police officers do their jobs by quickly providing eBay records and other assistance that can help bring wrongdoers quickly to justice.

Recently eBay assisted law enforcement in investigating and resolving a number of fraud and theft cases. Below are a few of the results from our cooperation with law enforcement:

Former eBay seller Bobby L. Campbell was sentenced to four months in-home detention, three years probation and was ordered to pay victim restitution after pleading guilty to mail and wire fraud.

Former eBay buyer Andrew Talone plead guilty to one count of Grand Larceny in the third degree in Queens, New York and was ordered to pay victim restitution.

Former eBay seller, Carl Lightfoot plead guilty in Gainesville, Florida to charges of Grand Theft and Telecommunications Fraud. Mr. Lightfoot was sentenced to 6 months of probation, the forfeiture of his computer and ordered to pay back all of the victims.

Former eBay seller Charles Sweet received two years of probation and was ordered to pay restitution after pleading guilty to one count of Grand Theft in Monroe County, Florida. Mr. Sweet was also ordered not to own a computer or hold an Internet account or go online in any way.

Any individuals who believe they may have suffered a loss due to the activities of Charles Sweet and have not yet filed a complaint with the Miami Office of the FBI or the Monroe County sheriff's office may do so by sending an e-mail to wcc.2.miami@fbi.gov

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Indianapolis recently arrested two former eBay sellers and charged them with Theft and Fraud in connection with fraudulent auctions. Both of the suspects admitted their complicity in receiving payment from auction bidders and failing to deliver the merchandise.

In addition, eBay's guided assistance to law enforcement also proved to be successful in numerous cases where prospective defendants avoided arrest by cooperating fully with ongoing investigations with their admission of guilt and by agreeing to make full voluntary restitution. Such cases resulted in several victims receiving restitution due to auction non-performance.

Finally, eBay has teamed up with State Attorney General's (AG's) Offices throughout the country to lend valuable assistance in filing civil lawsuits against sellers who have violated consumer protection laws as a means of getting victim restitution. The AG's Office in Ohio is presently awaiting a declaratory order and injunctive relief against two eBay users.

These are only a few of the examples that demonstrate that eBay does not tolerate fraud and is committed to improving member safety. Although fraud occurs in only a small percentage of the transactions that take place, we want to ensure you that we are working very hard on solutions to help prevent fraud from occurring in the first place. We welcome any feedback you may have to offer on effective ways of doing this.

Thank you,
eBay

Please review our Rules and Safety page by going to the following location: http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/index.html for more information on our services.

EDITORIAL-
TAG's analysis of ebaY's Fraud post-
ebaY thinks the following will make for safer transactions.

Prior to Bidding

1. Check the Feedback Forum. TAG's take is that ebaY recommends you check actual comments but their system makes it impossible to sort comments so that you can realistically view the ones of concern.

2. Check to see if the seller is ID Verified. Some sellers use this feature to compensate for a low FB count. This feature identifies who the seller is, but does not address their reputation as a seller like feedback does. TAG sees this as an unnecessary fee based feature and should only be used by people who do not have credit cards. All other sellers are verified through their credit card accounts and membership in the OAUA is the best form of verification. TAG feels ebaY should accept OAUA verification.

3. Request and review Contact Information to determine the location of the member and even contact the member by phone before placing a bid. Tag feels the hypocrisy here is incredible, since ebaY will suspend a user from their boards if that user posts ebaY's phone numbers. Contact should be through email and contact info used only in situations where email contact has failed. This becomes particularly true as buyers are encouraged by ebaY to call sellers, and do so without consideration of time zone. Encouraging users to pull contact info also gives users easier access to complete addresses through reverse lookup services readily available on the net. ebaY does not provide this information anymore due to safety issues, but they are providing the means for users to access this information with people who are not even engaged in a transaction.

4. Buyers can use one of our recommended authentication and grading services to evaluate an item before bidding on it. TAG sees this as another way for ebaY to get more fees and believes users should get these services off ebaY.

After the Transaction

1. i-Escrow can be used to facilitate a smooth exchange between buyer and seller. TAG again thinks this is a fee gouge and almost universally unnecessary. Need extra protection? go off ebaY to find it.

2. Should a dispute arise, we recommend using SquareTrade, an independent, neutral third party that can help resolve the issue. TAG feels ebaY needs to do full disclosure as to their financial relationship with Square Trade. The idea might be sound but again not as a service run by ebaY.

3. In the cases of actual fraud, free Insurance is available up to $200. All the anecdotal evidence TAG has heard about this service appears to make this a fairly useless feature.

4. Payment options abound that can also protect additional levels of protection. Protection against loss or frauds is generally available with credit card transactions. eBay Online Payments provides members with payment options that offer these protections. Learn more about payment options on eBay by going to the following location: http://pages.ebay.com/help/buyerguide/paymenttips.html TAG feels that there are less expensive and equally safe ways of paying for items.

5. We are working on changes that will allow us to remove anonymity on eBay and other changes that will allow us to keep unsavory members off of eBay once they are suspended. We will continue to work on additional safeguards with an emphasis on prevention. TAG thinks that until ebaY has a valid appeal process in place for suspended users, anything they do in this area is suspect. This is another area probably better served by an independent outside agency.

6. We are also working on changes that will help honest sellers to increase their trading success. This includes improvements to the Non Paying Bidder process, addressing inappropriate bid retractions, and offering options that ensure payment, e.g., electronic check payment option. TAG will believe this when they see it.

7. When serious fraud does occur, eBay helps law enforcement investigate the matter fully, find the user responsible for the fraud, and prosecute the case fully -- such investigations deter criminal conduct, punish those responsible for abusing our system, and may even help victims recover some or all of their losses.

Please review our Rules and Safety page by going to the following location: http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/index.html for more information on our services.

TAG is amazed that ebaY flagrantly violated their User Agreement by publishing full names etc, an offense any user could be suspended for. We would need to see much more documented proof before we believed any of the claimed actions by ebaY. Though we support ebaY helping law enforcement stop fraud - and one area we feel they are very lax in is Shill Bidding- their credibility level is very suspect.