Inspector Stuart Dark, of Sterling.Fraud on eBay ranges from

spoof emails asking for your eBayaccount details (phishing), tomoney transfer scams, and thesale of counterfeit and illegalgoods, as well as medicalproducts that should be soldonly by trained specialists.

The General Optical Council(GOC), for example, is set to takeeBay to trial in March for ‘aidingand abetting’ sales of contactlenses without the involvementof a qualified optician. Contactlenses must be sold by, or underthe supervision of, a registeredoptician or doctor.

GOC registrar Peter Coe said:

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NEWS & VIEWS INVESTIGATION

With over 50 millioneBay items for saleworldwide at any

one time, eBay is the definitiveinternet success story: a greatidea that’s captured people’simagination on a global scale.

The vast majority of eBayersare honest; in 2004 the companyestimated that for every dodgysale there were 10,000 legitimateones. However, this means thatof the three million items listedon eBay UK at any one time,around 300 will be fraudulent.And that doesn’t count instancesof fraud that occur ‘off site’.Scammers often approach thosewho bid unsuccessfully for anitem with the chance to buygoods of a similar nature beforedisappearing with their cash.

Even if you discount estimateslike the ones above, fraud isoccurring on eBay at an alarmingrate. According to the MetropolitanPolice’s economic crime unitSterling, 129 crimes specificallymentioning eBay were reportedevery month in London alonein the 18 months til October2005. ‘We believe this levelof crime is mirrored acrossthe UK,’ reveals Detective Chief

UNDERDISCUSSION■ Should eBay domore to prevent fraud?■ What you need toknow to stay safe

Is eBay the victim of its own success or could the online auction housebe doing more to protect its customers from criminals and fraudsters?

‘[eBay] have the means to stopthese items being listed. Thepublic are being put at risk byunsupervised sales.’ eBay UK’spress officer Victoria Biggsrefused to comment on this case.

An even hotter area of illegalityis phishing. A recent UK scamsaw a gang of phishers jailed forconning eBay users out of almost£200,000. Six men sent emailsclaiming to be from eBay, trickingpeople into revealing theirpasswords and account details.The gang then assumed theidentity of eBay vendors with areliable sales history and offerednon-existent goods for sale, onlyto disappear with the money.

So what is eBay doing toprotect you? On the anti-phishingfront, eBay UK has launchedMy Messages – a secure servicebuilt into each user’s password-secured ‘My eBay’ page thatsummarises their activity on thesite. If a message isn’t replicatedin ‘My Messages’, it’s not genuine.

On another positive front,eBay and Microsoft are workingtogether to stop the sale of piratedsoftware. According to Microsoft,more than 21,000 suspectsoftware sales were removed

from the UK eBay site betweenAugust and October 2005.

The eBay Toolbar (http://pages.ebay.co.uk/ebay_toolbar)provides another measure ofprotection against fraud. Builtinto your browser, the toolbarcomes with Account Guard, afeature that warns when you’reon a potentially fraudulent(spoof) website. But if you’rea Mac user, you’re out of luck,as the toolbar is Windows-only.

eBay claims that its SafetyCentre, which contains eBay-specific information on securityand scams as well as advicefrom the Government’s Get SafeOnline initiative (www.getsafeonline.org), means that vitalsecurity information is ‘just oneclick away’.

300the estimated number

of fraudulent transactionstaking place on eBay UK

at any one time

Fraud on

While the Safety Centre isprominent on the home page,the reality is that most eBayerszip straight to the auction pageswith barely a second look at thehome page. Many ‘bookmark’favourite eBay areas, such asbooks or DVDs, meaning theydon’t visit the home page at all.And if you ‘google’ eBay, theirsponsored link bypasses thehome page altogether, goingstraight to a listings area.

Even less impressive is eBay’sclaims that all auction pagescontain a Safety Centre link.They do, but finding the tinytext link at the foot of the pageis like looking for a needle ina haystack. Most readers won’tscroll down the page far enoughto see it, and if they do the linkis too small to attract manyvisitors. Surely on the auctionpages – where hard cash changeshands – the Safety Centreshould scream, not whisper.

To help combat fraud onanother front, eBay UK hasbanned the use of moneytransfer providers, such asWestern Union and MoneyGram.

Money transfers are designedfor quickly sending money tofriends or relatives abroad. Suchservices are inappropriate forsending funds on blind trustto strangers.

So how should we buy andsell? eBay’s head of trust andsafety UK Garreth Griffith saysthat ‘trading on eBay usingsecure payment services suchas PayPal is very safe’. PayPal isundoubtedly much more securethan money transfers. Theservice allows you to send andreceive money online withoutgiving your bank account orcredit card details to strangers.However, where PayPal, whichhas earned eBay revenues of US$233 million since its purchasein 2003, is given prominenceon eBay’s home page, equallyvalid payment methods likecredit card, banker’s draft,money orders and escrow, areburied in its Safety Centre.

Police welcome eBay’s anti-fraud measures, but say thesecan go only so far in battlingeBay fraud, and that educatingcustomers about potentialdangers is of equal importance.

‘The majority of people seeeBay as a little bit of fun, a bitlike Friends Reunited,’ says DCIDark. ‘Many feel winning aneBay auction is like winningthe lottery, but the reality isall they’ve won is the right to dobusiness with someone they don’tknow for goods they haven’tseen. It’s the point at whichcustomers are most at risk.’

And the risks are increasing;according to Sterling, criminalsare turning away from activitiessuch as drugs and robberyin favour of low-value, high-volume, low-risk crime suchas that found on eBay.

DCI Dark adds: ‘Whileacknowledging the work eBayhas done on safeguarding theircustomers, we are encouragingthem to join forces with us inmaking these messages louderand clearer. A key area is forthem to be more proactive,rather than just reacting toillegal or fraudulent transactionsafter the event.’

eBay UK’s press officer VictoriaBiggs responded by saying:‘eBay is an online marketplacethat allows registered users to

NEWS & VIEWS INVESTIGATION

COMPUTING WHICH? MARCH 2006 11

Christopher Little Literary Agency,which represents Harry Potterauthor JK Rowling among others,criticises eBay for failing to takesufficient preventative action tostop the sale of pirated goods.Blair says: ‘If a rights holdercomes to eBay and is able toverify categorically that specificgoods are pirated, eBay shouldact in advance. Most HarryPotter fans are kids who can beeasily duped into buying piratedebooks etc that may containviruses or pornographic content.eBay has a duty to its customersto ensure goods listed by eBayusers are safe and genuine.’

eBay has long argued thatit’s the responsibility of thecopyright holder to report anylistings that violate their rights.But Blair says, ‘pirates takeadvantage of the slowness,for example, of eBay’s currentsystems. They post their goodson a Friday knowing that theywon’t be reported over theweekend. By the time eBayacts, the auction is over.’

A US suit against eBay byjewellery maker Tiffany & Cocould force the company tochange its stance. Tiffanyclaims that eBay failed to takeadequate steps to remove fakeTiffany jewellery from the site.It will attempt to prove thatbecause eBay advertises itemsposted on the site, the defence

that the eBay is a neutral venuerather than an interested partyshould not stand.

VERDICTNo one’s denying that eBay isquick, fun and easy to use. Butthere’s plenty of opportunity forthe unscrupulous to cash in, too.eBay needs to educate peopleabout the dangers of using thesite and be more proactive inthe fight against fraud.

buy and sell goods. The vastmajority of listings on eBay arelegal. However, there will alwaysbe some items that may breachour listing policies. It’s simply notfeasible for eBay to monitor and

check every item on our site.’ She goes on to add that

although eBay isn’t obligedto monitor their site for illegalcontent (under the E-commerceRegulations 2002), ‘eBay willtake down any prohibited listingpromptly once we’ve knowledgeof it. Once an item is takendown, the seller is warnedor suspended, as appropriate.In addition, a facility calledCommunity Watch enablesusers and third parties to reportprohibited listings to us, andthese reports are promptlyreviewed and acted upon.’

However, Neil Blair of the

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01992 822 800

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{All they’ve won is the right to dobusiness with someone they don’tknow for goods they haven’t seen}

How to staysafe on eBay■ Don’t get over-excitedat ‘winning’ an auction.All you’ve ‘won’ is the rightto buy unseen goods froma total stranger■ Don’t do business ‘offsite’.Once you leave eBay, you’renot protected ■ The contract of sale isbetween you and the vendor,not eBay. eBay reimbursesup to £105 (or £500 if youuse PayPal) only if fraud hasoccurred and the fine printis fulfilled■ Use a proper escrowservice (which holdspayment in trust) forexpensive purchases ■ Visit eBay’s Safety Centre(http://pages.ebay.co.uk/safetycentre) and the Met’sFraud Alert site (www.met.police.uk/fraudalert)■ Use eBay’s My Messagesservice and its Toolbar toprotect against phishing

Time to actConsumers need eBay to■ Be proactive in identifyingillegal or counterfeit items forsale on its site■ Warn customers aboutthe dangers of fraud■ Stop the unlicensed sellingof medical products such ascontact lenses■ Make the Safety Centreprominent on auction pages ■ Educate customers aboutsafe alternatives to PayPal■ Make Account Guard andthe eBay toolbar availableto Mac as well as PC users