eBay fraud noise picking up.

I don't know if it's the holidays or what, but all of the sudden eBay fraud appears top of mind.  The various ebay message boards, etc.  It's starting to hit some of the more popular blogs as well.

Example, this ebay phishing article popped up on digg this am.  This one is pretty bad where even eBay can't tell that the email sent out was phishing. 

It will be interesting to see what the new competitors like Google Base and Microsoft Fremont do to minimize all the different flavors of fraud.

Comments

[Jeff Paul Internet Business]

I totally agree with you on this but still because of some people you can't blame whole Ebay still there are person who are loyal and always use pay pal so if he frauds you so you can get the transaction back by canceling it/

[Dave]

I purchased a car from a eBay member and got well ripped off and eBay don’t help when it comes to tracking the person down and are happy to allow someone to sell five cars a week and still claim to be a private seller and when they do give you the sellers details they only provide a partial address so you are on your own.

My trouble started with a Mr Garry Horton from Oldbury who is a very over weight gentleman with short graying ginger hair and tattoos and it turns out after a lot of effort on my part that other eBay members had been conned by this man and they had managed to have six of his eBay accounts closed down.

eBay could track his IP address or assist by providing partial details from the person credit card to enable people like me to get a bit of justice but they don’t so it must be assumed they are happy to assist the criminals to keep opening one account after another.

[Kaz]

My partner and I were subject to an ebay scam recently here in the UK to the sum of £1200. We have been considering suing ebay as we felt they were negligent by allowing their website security to be breached, particularly as this sort of scam has been happening for years (the fraudster hijacked another user's name). I cannot find any evifence that anybody has managed to take ebay to court let alone win. does anyone know of a case??
Thanks all

[Lisa]

LET'S SUE EBAY FOR KNOWINGLY PROTECTING BUYERS WHO PERPETRATE FRAUD!!

I was recently the victim of fraud by John & Heidi Harrison, doing business as Green-Benz, LLC on eBay. I bought a car for $7500, but the car I received is NOT the car featured in the listing photos. I have now made contact with at least six other buyers who were also defrauded by this same seller through eBay. Several of us sent emails and filed disputes through eBay. I offered to send photographic evidence of fraud, and begged eBay to investigate.

Instead, eBay retracted ALL of the negative feedback ratings for the seller, who still shows a "100% positive feedback rating," despite the fact that he has already been sued once for fraud by an eBay buyer (the case was settled, and the seller had to make restitution) and is currently being sued AGAIN by another eBay buyer.

Auction fraud is a felony, but no one will help us. I've contacted the police in my hometown and in LA, where the seller resides. I've contacted the Internet Crime Complaint Center, the Federal Trade Commission, the FBI, the Better Business Bureau and the District Attorney's offices in California and here in Texas. They all tell me it's a civil matter, which is BS. Thankfully, the latest victim found one of my online posts about my experience, and contacted me before paying the balance due on her recent purchase from Green-Benz. She was able to solicit the help of a sympathetic detective and a few of his fellow officers in her home county in Northern California and set up a sting. Last week, the detectives went with her (undercover) to pick up her car, and busted Harrison in the act for auction fraud when he tried to transfer title and accept payment from the victim for a car that was substantially different from the car he had advertised.

I'd like to get a class action suit going against eBay for continuing to retract negative feedback ratings after receiving multiple reports of fraud against a single seller. Any takers?

Please contact me directly for more info: swinggrrly@yahoo.com (and no, it's not THAT kind of swinging...I used to teach swing dancing!)

[Kurt Malerich]

In June 07 I purchased a Suzuki ATV from an eBay auction. As far as I could tell it was all through eBay. The eBay ‘website.’ had positive feedback buyer and protection authorization. I checked email and links on the ‘eBay site’, etc. It turns out that the site was fraudulent and eBay did shut the original auction down. They stated that they advised everyone that had bid on the site that it was closed but they didn’t contact me. I had asked the seller a question and they responded back to me with a very elaborate eBay website. When they contacted me through my email and used a fake eBay web page I never knew it wasn’t eBay. EBay states that it’s not really their site so I have no recourse but that they will be happy to assist law enforcement with any investigations. Big Deal!
EBay did have records of me contacting the ‘seller’ through eBay email but they never contacted me. I contacted the FBI and local law enforcement and supplied them with pages of documentation. The only response I got was lack of evidence precludes further investigation. I paid the ‘seller’ through a Western Union transfer, something I now know you’re not supposed to do. Don’t the Western Union offices have video surveillance so that they could at least see who picked up the money transfer? They had the exact time of pickup and had to have government issued photo ID of the recipient. It took me several days of searching eBay to find all of their fraud prevention information conveniently hidden in their security section. I believe they intentionally hide important safety information from buyers so that they don’t lose any legitimate business due to caution or fear factor. If you are taken by a fraudulent ‘seller’ you have no recourse with eBay. They are content to rake in billions in commissions but do little if anything to prevent buyers from being defrauded. If there are any class action suits to force eBay into protecting buyers then let me know so I can sign up!

[Andy Arbiter]

Here's one. Don't Laugh. I bought a Rolex 18k and SS watch with a Buy-it-Now price of $500. I paid for the item which was being sold by a woman from Washington State. Minutes after it was paid for on PayPal, eBay stopped the auction and sent me a TKO email advising me to file a claim to recover payment from PayPal. I did so, but several days later, a party from Hong Kong shipped me a watch and told PayPal that it was shipped. What I received was a counterfeit Rolex. Unfortunately PayPal closed the dispute because the seller shipped it to me. I was not allowed to update my dispute or open a new dispute because PayPal's policy is one dispute per item. I'm out $525, but here's the real scam: A seller can sell an item, say a watch and withhold shipment until the buyer issues an ITEM NOT RECEIVED dispute. Once this is done, the seller can go ahead and ship a bag of coal to the buyer. So long as the seller can prove that he shipped something, PayPal will close the dispute and not allow a buyer to open a new one....bag of coal, Folex...they are worth about the same. I'm looking into a class action lawsuit. IF anybody has fallen prey to this debacle, let me know.

[pumkin soup]

Sorry forgot address www.thebaysidediner.com.au

[pumpkin soup]

Ebay fraud just continues to get worse. Read above website hundreds of Australian frauds since november 2005. And ebays responce? Try to close site down.

[goldees]

been on ebay for 7 years , thousands feedback, good reputation, ebay store, and Yesterday ebay suspended me. No email, no one has contacted me. tried every email support and sent, talked to live support. after all these years of fees. cut off without word or notice. I have done nothing wrong. ebay needs live phone support.

[josh]

scott,

this was in the mercury news today.

/josh

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Phishers attack eBay using new technique
By Michael Bazeley
Mercury News
420 words
12 December 2005
San Jose Mercury News
English
(c) Copyright 2005, San Jose Mercury News. All Rights Reserved.
Scammers have found a new way to try to trick eBay members into giving them their personal information.

The new technique effectively hijacks links on listing or search results pages, taking people to an official-looking eBay log-in page that is actually phony.

In one example the Mercury News viewed this week, several listings were added to eBay's ``Totally bizarre'' category, a section intended for offbeat items, with the title ``Movie!With me and Laura!My best friend!Sexy show!1$''

When eBay users clicked on the listing titles, their Web browser was immediately redirected to the fraudulent log-in page. Making matters worse, the phony page appears to download a virus onto users' computers.

EBay said the people behind the scam appeared to have added malicious JavaScript code to their listings that redirected people off eBay's site. EBay allows members to include some types of JavaScript in their listings for things such as interactive photo albums or tools to help buyers calculate shipping charges.

EBay has tools that automatically scan new listings for computer viruses and malicious JavaScript, spokesman Hani Durzy said. In this instance, the hacker apparently used code that sneaked past the screening process. He added that this technique is ``very rare'' on eBay's site.

Durzy said the company would update its screening tools. The offending links appeared to be gone Friday.

The practice of trying to dupe Internet users into revealing their personal information is known as ``phishing.'' The eBay and PayPal services are two of the more popular targets for phishers.

Typically, phishers will send out phony e-mail messages directing people to official-looking eBay or PayPal log-in pages, where they are asked to provide user names and passwords. In some cases, the phishers then hijack the accounts and sell phony or non-existent items on eBay. In other instances, they download malicious computer viruses or programs known as keyloggers onto computers. The hidden keylogger software captures log-in names and passwords as people type them into sensitive Web sites and then sends the information to the attackers.

Durzy said this latest phishing technique is evidence that other forms of phishing are becoming less effective.

``I think they are trying to become more and more inventive because it's becoming harder and harder to do this,'' he said.