Even as eBay touts celebrities using its service this holiday season, the company is facing growing online fraud and complaints of foot-dragging.
The end-of-year holidays are important for Internet retailers, and eBay definitely wants access to the spending frenzy as it issues press releases touting celebrities’ successful purchases, including consumer electronics grabs by Jessica Simpson, Sela Ward, and Eva Longoria.
However, a less pleasant side of eBay is emerging: strong increases in hijacked member accounts, auction fraud, and counterfeit goods being sold over the service. According to the BBC, eBay’s director of trust and safety Gareth Griffiths admitted to “extreme growth” in the number of account hijacking and fraud incidents during 2005, and another company spokesperson refused to deny that the number of compromised and hijacked accounts might number in the tens of thousands.
Naturally enough, the BBC’s reporting focuses on the U.K., reporting that eBay is drawing the ire of both brand manufacturers and law enforcement officials for the amount of fraud on the site and the amount of time eBay takes to respond to requests for information or reports of criminal activity. For instance, Adidas told the BBC up to 40 percent of 12,000 auctions for its goods the company monitored were selling counterfeit items, and clothing brand Ben Sherman said eBay took five days to close a series of counterfeit auctions, by which time many of the items had been sold. Law enforcement officials have reportedly characterize eBay’s slow response times as “obstructive;” North Yorkshire Trading Standards claimed eBay took two months to provide information on suspects.
Some of the problems faced by eBay are created by criminal enterprises and fraudsters, rather than by eBay itself. So-called “phishing” schemes trick eBay members into revealing their account information, and eBay in part characterizes the growing problem as external to the site and the fault of its users for responding to schemes and not maintaining up-to-date security software.
“Phishing” attempts usually take place via email purporting to be from eBay, requiring users to update their account details. However, the links embedded in the message take the user to a site controlled by the fraudsters, who collect the requested account information and use it to take over the user’s legitimate eBay account, or sell the information to those who will. (And these phishing email messages are very common: my personal spam folder contains more than 600 such messages I’ve received since July, 2005
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RSSi would love to see the ebay close for good
i bet all people who don,t use ebay will agree with me ...what do you think?
do you agree?
if yes let me know on here
why because i paid to a guy in usa
and they dodn,t do noithing over 3 month
and guess what..i got money back by canada post office after 3 MONTH and then just 2 days ago after i got my money back after 5 month
i recieved a e-mail from ebay that they is going to call F.B.I and CIA about it
me i got proof that i was on only once
but me i never go on ebay more then 8 month now
and guess what
just like a man says on here
ebay sucks? yes it is true ...it is very sucks
that i never never go back there again
that is a damn promise
so buyer ...don,t go on ebay
don,t even go there
but what is being done to recover my loss NOT A DAM THING.
I want the account closed and ebay won't even do that.
AND THEY WONDER WHY THEY HAVE FRAUD AND PROBLEMS....EBAY DON"T DO CRAP TO PREVENT IT.
BUYERS BEWARE!!!! THERE ARE MANY OUT THERE READY TO TAKE YOUR MONEY WITHOUT GIVING IT A SECOND CHANGE AND ONCE THEY GET IT THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT.....
TRY AMAZON... YOU MIGHT HAVE BETTER LUCK!
I could suggest 1 thing to solve abit of there problem..
Password that ISNT SAVED on system, or cookies.
Most of the stolen ones, are from Phishing/bots and the sort.
There is nothing secure about storing passwrds on a computer.
another trick would be to have those that have joined, to ONLY be able to run a special browser. It could log you, and SHOW everything a seller installs on the site. And send tracks to there location. MUCH less fraud. Cant put up a sale without the software, and its tracker.