eBay: Fraud is an 'Internet Problem, Not an eBay Problem,'
EBay is not responsible for criminals who abuse its online auction service, said a company spokeswoman after CBC News reported on a Calgary man who lost $20,000 on an eBay transaction.More here.
"That's an internet problem, not an eBay problem," Erin Sufrin said Monday about criminals engineering scams through the service.
Shaqir Duraj, a Calgary bakery owner, won an eBay auction for a car in October from what he thought was a reputable seller. But someone had actually taken over the seller's page in a scam known as hijacking.
Duraj wired $20,000 from his bank account's line of credit, thinking he was using PayPal, eBay's protected payment service. But the thief actually sent Duraj a fake duplicate PayPal site.
There is no sign of the car or the money.
posted by Fergie @ 12/04/2007 12:50:00 PM
1 Comments:
In reference to your recent blog post about eBay, please allow me to clarify and provide the correct facts of the situation. In particular, that this was not an eBay transaction. It was done through personal email. The alleged fraud occurred outside of eBay.
The listing in question was clearly fraudulent and was removed by eBay within hours of it being posted.
There was no winning bidder, as the listing was removed before the auction closed. When a suspicious listing is removed, all bidders are notified that eBay believes the listing to be fraudulent, and are warned not to complete the transaction off eBay. Regrettably, in some cases (as in this one), buyers continue to deal directly with sellers “off eBay” via personal email to complete a transaction.
eBay continually cautions its buyers not to pursue items – particularly expensive ones - that appear too good to be true. We also advise buyers against wire transfers. In fact, instant cash transfer services are banned on eBay because they are unsafe.
eBay has a global Fraud Investigations Team (FIT) who collaborates with law enforcement to assist in their investigations to take action against buyers and sellers committing any illegal activity on our site.
Furthermore, the RCMP officer referenced in your article is a member of PhoneBusters, which eBay is also a member of. Had we received any correspondence from either the RCMP or the CBC regarding this issue, we certainly would have responded.
Again, let me say that we are sorry to hear about Mr. Duraj's difficulties.
Erin Sufrin,
eBay Canada
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