eBay Fraud - 15 ways to avoid (and some thoughts)

As eBay's user growth has slowed, I've been getting lots of questions from sellers, wall st. and other folks in the eBay ecosystem asking why I think buyers are not activating or de-activating.  Like anyone in the eBay ecosystem, I travel a good bit and meet lots of online shoppers in my travels.  I always like to ask if they buy/sell on eBay and then dig in based on their answers.  In the last 2-3 years, the overwhelming number of people I've talked to fall into two camps:

1. eBay is too time consuming, I'd rather shop from amazon or somewhere vs. bidding.
2. I used to buy on eBay until...

And then the ... after until turns into a sad story that runs the spectrum from a bad seller/item experience all the way to out-right fraud.

Personally, I think that 50-70% off ebay's problems are not the finding experience, slow-shipping sellers, high-shipping sellers, etc., it is the perception of fraud on eBay.

In the last year Trust and Safety (TnS) has made some good moves on these problems with SMI, etc., but there's still a lot more room for improvements.  For example, there's a continuing account takeover problem on eBay that could very easily be solved.  Much of the phishing could be eliminated through some simple changes as well.

I was reminded of the problem today by this excellent post by a UK eBayer, Trevor Ginn, titled - 15 ways to avoid fraud on eBay.

This post is interesting to me for a number of reasons.  First, it reminded me that fraud associated with eBay is still a major problem and I believe the number one reason buyers are leaving in droves.  Secondly, it shows that as eBay hits a success point in any of the newer geographies, that fraudsters will come into that market in droves.  Finally, it reminded me that everyone in the eBay ecosystem needs to continue to push eBay to fix these problems for the greater good of the community and ecosystem.

Comments

[shirley]

hello...I need some help with a loss...I purchased a brooch from someone in the UK for 900 pounds...it did not arive...they said they went to the po but here is not the correct record of it...they tell me not to worry...but will not communicae with me...the other day an envelope came with the correct address and the declaration ticket on it stating that they were shipping a brooch for 900 pounds value...but the small vanilla envelope was empty with a note fom the post office taht it was received opened and empty. I am haing a hard time having the party in UK that I sent the money to to respond..I want to know how and when I will get my money back..Please help...thanks very much!

[Robert Carlson]

Fraud will always be an issue at eBay BECAUSE it's eBay's selling tool for PayPal. eBay is the loudest messenger of fraud on their site. Consumers that would never consider fraud as an issue are bombarded by eBay's constant reminder of being leary and scarred to death of their evil sellers. This propaganda has turned around to bite eBay right in the wallet. As a PowerSeller for years with a 3rd party checkout we're constantly bombarded with emails saying we're not using anything but PayPal/eBay checkout because eBay warned us about all you phishing sellers. eBay told us not to trust 3rd party checkouts. eBay told us not to use our credit cards on your secure auction checkout. I could fill this blog with the crap we hear from buyers convinced that eBay gives a rat's a** about their security or safety. We all know this PayPal nonsense isn't more secure than using you own credit card but do you think eBay will ever admit this? PayPal offers nothing more than pass-through protection that all these buyers already have but eBay loves to promote it as they're offering something more. To do this they insult, slander and belittle every seller on their site by warning all their customers to avoid giving us any information. We have buyers that think their address and email is personal information that we don't need! eBay has done a great job painting all the sellers as theives and now they'll pay the price for this propaganda. Amazon paints us all as professional and if any problems do arise they'll step in and take care of it. eBay needs to take some lessons.