First, how "secure" is ebay's security? Most of this is repetitive, but worth mentioning again.

1. UNRESTRICTED EBAY ACCESS BY SCAMMERS: because EBAY DOESN'T BLOCK I.P. ADDRESSES OF SCAMMERS OR certain HIGH SCAM COUNTRIES (like Nigeria, Romania, and Indonesia), these ootUS scammers can just BOOMERANG back again and again (with one stolen CC after another with MULTIPLE I.D.'s OR phishing for & hijacking ebayer accounts) trying one new tactic after another(after all, if they fail to scam you, it doesn't cost them anything; they don't get punished and blocked from ebay or the internet. And if they succeed in scamming you just once, they're RICH!!)
2. UNRESTRICTED AUCTION LISTINGS: EBAY PUTS NO LIMITS TO HOW MANY AUCTIONS a seller can run. 0 feedback Scammers can run pages and pages of scams on the very first day they "register" with their stolen CC or the first time they list with an ebayer's hijacked acct. You'll see entire fields where just about every single listing is an acct hijacker or 0 feedback scammer listing an expensive item.
3. EBAY HISTORY OF "GUARANTEES"--EBAY GUARANTEES YOU $1,000 BACK IF YOU GET SCAMMED? I don't think so. According to this article,

   "Consumers say they were lured into buyers computers from eBay seller Liquidation Universe because they believed SquareTrade offered them $1,000 in fraud protection.

   But the logo, consumers say, was deceptive. It included the words $1,000 protection. Many consumers believed they would be reimbursed up to $1,000 if they ran into trouble with their auction. But actually, buyers have since learned, SquareTrade's protection was capped at $1,000 per seller, not per buyer leaving a tiny pool of cash to be spread among victims.

4. STINKY VERIFICATION: ebay has NO real overall IN-PERSON continuous monitoring system to VERIFY ALL SELLERS. They have a "verification" program for those sellers who volunteer to be verified, but the verification is NOT IN PERSON IN THE FLESH and there have been people scammed even buying from sellers who are "verified." Also, ONLY A VERY FEW ebayers are verified.

   As one poster posted,

   "eBay does NOTHING to protect the buyer! Fraud protection is a joke because if item didn't cost more than $25.00(per auction), they won't touch it. There is a ring of sellers of fake diamond rings from China who a group of us have been keeping track of for about 2 months. At least 20 ids have been shut down (by him) and now he's selling using at least 19 new ones. These rings have generated thousands of dollars in just the shipping. All the ids have been turned in to eBay MANY times by many different bidders. Most of the bidders are new to eBay and have sent money orders or wire transfers (a definite no-no). Descriptions of rings under all the different ids are identical and tags are even showing in a lot of the auctions showing 18KRGP (rolled in gold plating). If someone from eBay cared enough to just LOOK at the auctions they've been told about MANY, MANY times they would see what's going on.They send back acknowledgments stating complaints are taken very seriously, but NOTHING has been done!!! When the different ids start getting negative feedback, they're shut down by the seller and new ones are opened. Complaints have been made to eBay, FTC,and Postal Service(mail fraud) but in the meantime rings are still being sold and he continues to make thousands of dollars from bidders who THINK they're protected by eBay. We're not supposed to contact bidders to warn them, but eBay does nothing to stop the seller. Who is the protected one here? It's certainly not the buyer.

5. UNSAFE PAYMENT METHODS: payment is dictated by the seller and so can be made in any way such as WU(Ebay has set up an email warning of WU transfer but no one reads it this after-auction automatic email. To be fair, ebay no longer allows WU-only sellers, but there's nothing stopping scam sellers from emailing bidders that they want payment by WU), bank transfer, cash, etc. and so once a bidder sends payment, the bidder doesn't realize it's an unsafe payment method and finds out later he lost his $$$'s
6. MULTIPLE I.D.'s: an ebayer can have more than 1 user i.d. so if one is found, he can go to another one with another CC or stolen CC.
7. NOT SO GREAT "FADE": they've just instituted the "FADE" software system to track scammers by the way they scammed before, but there are people still being scammed.
8. IF YOU WARN OTHERS ON EBAY, EBAY MAY SUSPEND YOU BECAUSE OF "AUCTION INTERFERENCE" OR STRIP YOUR FEEDBACK OR JUST PUT YOU ON "IGNORE" WHEN YOU COMPLAIN ABOUT TRUTH IN ADVERTISING. That's right!! If you try to warn other bidders by email that the seller is a scam artist or bad seller, you can get kicked off ebay. Want to post the scam seller's user name on the title of a thread on an ebay forum board to warn others? Forget it. Ebay will delete your post for "auction interference" and/or suspend your posting privileges.

   Think this is a biased opinion? Well ebay does A LOT of things that make it so buyers can't really inform other ebayers of fraud. Your feedback to the seller can be removed by him if he is smart enought to know the rules. Any feedback that mentions swear words or links like "click here for my side of the story" or "call me for details" or an investigation, like "I am getting the FBI to investigate" can automatically be removed if the seller requests it.

   You know that there are standards(possibly governmental) to various advertising yet ebay puts you on IGNORE and does nothing to stop the various frauds. Here's another example with the jewelry category by one of the honest sellers:

   A case in point: It took two years of eBay members complaining, advising, suggesting on the Jewelry Discussion Board and finally complaining to the Federal Trade Commission, before eBay finally relented and admitted that many of the terms used in thousands of jewelry listings, on a daily basis by "Power Sellers" and others, (like "diamond cz", "cz diamond", "platinum silver", etc.) were in violation of the FTC guides for the jewelry Industry. Up to that point, eBay was actually encouraging the use of these deceptive terms (especially "diamond cz"), despite having been advised by their members - over a period of almost two years - that these terms violated the FTC Guides!

   eBay finally instituted a new policy banning these deceptive terms from eBay's jewelry listings, and they announced late last year - to appease the FTC - that anyone using them after January 15th, 2005 "will have their listings ended".

   Here we are, April 20th, 2005 - more than three months later - and there are still about SIX THOUSANDS (6,000) daily listings - auctions, stores - with "diamond cz", "cz diamonds", "anystone cz" without the required qualifiers (imitation, simulated). Tens of thousands of OTHER violations of the FTC Guides - and of eBay's policies - are also allowed in eBay jewelry listings on a daily basis without any serious enforcement. eBay could easily program their systems to deny the listings that contain many of these deceptive terms - I checked with several computer experts - but they won't do it, because they (eBay) don't want to lose the revenues generated by these deceptive listings, in my opinion. In the meantime, their reputation - and that of the honest sellers by association - continues to deteriorate with the buying public, with each passing day, and with each misleading auction/listing.

   Trust & Safety indeed!... If there is no SAFETY for the consumers, how van we expect them to TRUST the sellers?!!

9. I.D. THEFT SO EASY ON EBAY: So you now know ebay doesn't verify the many users on ebay. Well, now the scammers are stealing other people's identity and ebay does NOTHING to prevent it from happening. And the worse thing is that every user should be alerted ANYTIME some other user is using their same address and/or phone number!!!

   I can’t believe this happened to me and there is NOTHING I can do about it!! Last night I received a phone call from a seller wondering what week I waned to have for my winning bid. She told me I had bid and won her auction for renting her vacation home by Disneyland!! I was shocked! I never bid on a vacation home in Florida. After some investigation I found out that someone had registered a new ID using all MY personal information. They had used my name, my address and my phone number! After speaking to an Ebay rep I found out that this person had also bid on a vacation house, a pick-up, Barbie dolls,.... you name it. All using a fraudulent ID registered with my contact information. Ebay removed that user ID. This morning I received another phone call from yet another seller that I had the winning bid to a home in Ohio!! Called Ebay again just to find out that there was yet another ID using my name and address again! That ID has also been removed my Ebay along with 3 others.

   Here is the frustrating part. Did you know that ANYONE having your name and address can register and GET a user ID on Ebay???? All they need is a name, address, and an email address. Ebay has NO safe-guards to see if the person registering the ID is actually THAT person!! I have always been extremely careful never answering spoof emails or clicking on any links... Being safe did not help me one bit with this situation.

   This has been a nightmare! I have spent hours trying to get this taken care of. There is NO way to protect myself! Ebay cannot block anyone from registering an ID using my name or address (or your's)!!! This person can continue to register with my info as many times as they want!! There is NOTHING I can do!! There is nothing Ebay WILL do. Everyone may think that there is a 4 per user ID limit... NOOOOOOOOO Ebay actually told me you can register as many ID’s as you want! Last night my account had at least 6 user ID’s (it should have had just one!!)

   I want to know why Ebay has NO safe-guards to prevent this from happening?? Then if it is done why can’t they do anything about it to prevent it from happening again??? I requested to them to flag my account and not allow any more ID’s using my name and address to be registered... They told me that they can’t do that! Why the heck not??????

   There is no way I could have prevented this from happening. There is no way ANYONE can prevent this from happening to them. BEWARE!!

10. Once a scam seller is NARU'd by ebay (more than probably because other users have complained) and you're in the process of dealing with the seller, there's
    NO REAL WARNING OF NARU AND WHY on the user's profile. Let's protect the scammer's privacy, why don't we??!! As one poster posted, "It's also interesting, that the wording of "Not a registered user" does not have any typographical treatment on the page! There is no large red font, nothing to draw your attention there on a crowded page. From my own experience: it took me a while to notice it at all!
11. ERROR OR DELIBERATE NEGLIGENT BUGS IN THEIR SOFTWARE?? There seem to be bugs such as the Pay button working even after the scam seller has been NARU'd and no notification to the buyers to stop payment to a scam seller.

    One ebay poster posted "I purchased several item on EBay over the years, without any problem. This seems to be the past: this month I was a target of 2 scams by EBay sellers form US$370.00-3.000.000 value! In both cases it was only my extra cautious approach and - I hate to say this - some luck, that prevented me to get me running after my money.

    Needless to say, my trust in EBay is in a verge of collapse.

    During these two incidents it has become obvious, that current EBay practices just can't provide sufficient protection against the criminals, who have discovered EBay as a perfect platform for conducting fraud.

    Beside this, the EBay software is not helping either. In my second case the status of my seller changed after the bidding finished to "not a registered user".

    First of all, a status change like this should automatically send out a warning email to any buyer who just recently won any action, conducted by the seller.

    This is not happening now!

    To make things worst: the Pay Now button is still functional, after the seller's status has changed to "not a registered user".

    I should say, that one could argue at court, that these two "bugs" is the EBay software would amount to "negligence".

    EBay should be held accountable for any losses that result from
    1) not notifying recent buyers of sudden account status change of a buyer
    2) Still making the Pay Now button available after the seller's status changed to "non registered user".

12. VIRTUALLY NON-EXISTENT CUSTOMER SUPPORT: Think if you get into trouble with scammers that all you have to do is call the 1-800 ebay number?? Forget it!! It doesn't exist. It may exist if you look hard enough, but they HIDE their phone number just like they HIDE FRAUD and HIDE HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM FRAUD and HIDE WHAT THEIR OBLIGATIONS, ACTUALLY I SHOULD SAY NON-OBLIGATIONS, TO YOU ARE IF YOU GET SCAMMED. They pay virtually $0 for customer support, relying on their seller volunteers on the forum boards who can give you all sorts of "advice" but not your money back from the scam seller.

13. WE'RE CLOSED ON WEEKENDS TO SCAM VICTIMS--NON-EXISTENT CUSTOMER SUPPORT:Want to report that Plasma TV scammer and it's Sunday night? Forget it. Most scammers have auctions that begin and end over a weekend, since eBay customer support is light during those days.

    Here's one poster's posting:

    I've been reporting fraud listings from time to time, and it seems that when I report them during the week they get pulled pretty fast, in less than 24h.

    If I report it on Thursday-Sunday, they're not gone until Monday or Tuesday! Listings are active, sellers up and running, then on Monday listings get pulled and sellers NARUd.

    So is it true that ebay staff is away on weekends? I can undesrtand Saturday and Sunday, but almost two days before?!

14. -UNFAIR SQUARETRADE: Squaretrade is sh*t since the seller has to agree also to removal of feedback and ebay will not force the issue and just collects your $20.

Complaints by epinions.com ebay users regarding security:

Terrible Company
Sep�11�'04
Very dodgy company. I made about 100 sales over a one year period. Two items didnt go thru with the buyer and resulted in a credit on my account. Its been 3 months and they still wont give me a refund. Have filed in small claims court. They dont respond until you take legal action.

I also have 6 email accounts. I only get phishing emails to my Ebay email. The email that I only use for Ebay. They have zero security and do nothing to protect our privacy. Sadly there is not much choice out there.

� Recommend shopping elsewhere.
Jun�19�'04
Before buying from eBay check out your local stores and reputable companies with/without websites. Many of the items sold on Ebay can be purchased for the same price and less (and that's not even including the shipping & handling charges).

The scamming is getting worse and worse and eBAY protects them. It seems that eBay will only remove a seller after quite a few complaints regarding non-performance.

However, they have very strict rules regarding the buyers.

Many of the items are used, refurbished and not in good condition.. I (and several others) send emails to sellers regarding the fact that their prices are higher than the retail stores (including WalMart!) and to eBay bidders about higher than usual prices.

very poor fraud follow-up by security
Dec�17�'03
Ebay's security dept is lacking in response and protecting buyers from unregistered sellers. When I contacted security they did not reply within 24 hours and when they did reply their answer was totally irresponsible regarding a fraudulent transaction with an unregistered seller. When I tried to leave feedback on this seller I was rejected because he is unregistered, leaving other buyers to the mercy of this seller. When contacted, security said they could not leave feedback on an unregistered seller and then stated in the next paragraph that unregistered sellers were not allowed to buy or sell on ebay. Very unhappy and have not had any follow up response from security, as promised, at this time.

EBAY'S LAUGHABLE BUYER PROTECTION PLAN:

For any item $25 or under, ebay's Buyer Protection Plan doesn't cover it.

If you pay the seller in cash, that's not covered.

There are MANY loopholes:

--LOOPHOLE "NARU": Ebay's $200 or $500 "BUYER PROTECTION PLAN" can not be used once you complain to ebay and have the scammer kicked off since the scammer is now NARU and so ebay's buyer protection policy says the buyer can not be reimbursed by ebay since the auction involved NARU sellers not included in the buyer protection. (When I and another bidder contacted ebay about the video scammer, ebay kicked him off but i and the other victims weren't able to collect on the buyer protection plan because of ebay's policies for buyer protection->>>>>NARU + WU payment) So you lose your money even though you were able to kick the scammer off ebay. The seller can then get back on ebay with another user i.d. or other stolen CC card.

--LOOPHOLE "30 days from end of auction": Let's say your seller keeps delaying shipment because of one "valid" excuse or another or better yet, let's say your item is from an international seller outside your country which means the item will take a LOOOONG time for you to receive it, well if you don't file your complaint WITHIN 30 or whatever policy days starting from the end of auction date, then you LOSE buyer protection and you don't get reimbursed by ANY amount.

Another ACTUAL case that has already happened is scam sellers selling tickets for major events:

Here are some posts:

I, like the majority of users, find EBay transactions to be pleasurable and safe. Yes, the feedback offers a snapshot of the sellers performance. Yes, EBay and PayPal offer protection for both sellers and buyers whose actions are unacceptable.

Unfortunately, this protection only lasts for 60-90 days. After which, both EBay and PayPal "wipe their hands clean" of any responsibility. In my instance, I purchased tickets for a game at my alma mater, the University of Michigan. To ensure that we had tickets, I purchased these tickets in June for a November game.

The seller stated that the tickets would be sent 2 weeks before the game. However, they have not been. And it appears that the seller has done this to several other buyers.

My concern is that seller out there understand the system. In this instance, this scam artist knew that if he built up a feedback reputation and could get buyers to purchase items that would not be expected until AFTER the 60-90 day umbrella, he would not have to worry about EBay or PayPal security issues - because by then, both entities will have turned their back on the buyer.

It is in the best interest of EBay and PayPal to protect their buyers not for a pre-set period of time but for the full length of the transaction. EBay should monitor the shipping details of the seller and protect the buyer for the length of time that is agreed upon from point of purchase to delivery of product. More sellers will strategize that delivered product not expected until 60-90 days after the "EBay protected time period" will not be subject scrutiny by the website. Therefore, other scam artists and fraudulent sellers will see this loophole and be able to create an "exit strategy" from their endeavors on EBay by fleecing other unsuspecting buyers, and then closing up shop knowing that EBay and PayPal will not take any action.

I hope this suggestion hits home. I, for one, will not trust EBay or the sellers anymore until this has changed. I will convince others to do the same. Hopefully, a site will appear that offers better protection for buyers and doesn't have such glaring loopholes in their security.
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I am one of the many buyers who has been scammed for Michigan tickets. Apparently there are over 60 members who were scammed by the same seller for an approximate $40,000 for tickets to the same game. The scam seller has received over 40 negative feedbacks in the past 3-4 days alone and is no longer a registered member as of Monday 11/14. I personally wasnt able to leave feedback because of eBay's ridiculous policy "you only have 90 days after the auction ends to leave feedback for a buyer/seller". So I'm sure there are a handful of members just like me who werent even allowed to throw this fraudulent scumbag under the bus. eBay should NOT have such a policy if they are going to let a seller post tickets for an event that is more than 90 days away. Like the opening post says, he was able to scam people out of money by using ebay's stupid policies against us! I will never buy another ticket off eBay as long as I live and I hope the rest of you can learn from this and you it to protect yourselves in the future.

an extemely pissed-off ebayer,
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Hey, I am another ebay memeber who got scammed for michigan tickets. I paid 414 dollars for two tickets back on august first. I recieved a reciept from the guy and everything looked legit. This policy of ebay not helping get frauded buyers money back is a load of crap. He stated when I bought the tickets that they would be shipped two weeks before the game. How was I supposed to know within 60 days that he was going to stiff me? This is a load of crap. I am 23 years old and in college and I can't just be throwing 414 dollars away like that. Ebay needs to take a stand and help all us VICTIMS get our money back. I have spent nearly two thousand dollars on ebay over the last few years and have never had a problem. This needs to be taken care of!
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"eBay is not the police; that's who all of you should be talking to." -ebay forum chat "helper" who is pro-ebay-venue

Listen Mr. eBay lover, were not asking eBay to be the police, were asking them to open their eyes and realize how easily people are being scammed. If ebay/PayPal are going to stand behind these 45 and 60 day policies, then they shouldn't let a seller post an auction for something like tickets for a game that takes place 4-5 months later. We have already contacted police and we are doing our best to right this. So go piss up a rope.
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2. Ebay's got an awful lot of exceptions to its buyer protection coverage and I doubt that one claim in 100 is actually paid. That is not "not being god" that's ebay making a business decision that borders on false advertising. If ebay is "only a venue" then ebay should stop advertising buyer protection. The fact is that, if ebay didn't advertise protection, then ebay would be out of business.
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--LOOPHOLE NON-MATERIAL products or services: Let's say you buy software from a seller who emails it to you or has you download it, you think you're covered under buyer protection?? Think again!! Think you're covered if you have a watch seller (repairer) who provides you with bad repair service? No way. Think you're covered with buying Game-online(e.g. Sim City) only "reward" or other "stock" items? No way. Software or other products & services that are not "real items" that you can touch and feel with your hands will fall under this loophole.

--LOOPHOLE "NOT SIGNIFICANTLY AS DESCRIBED:" Let's say you get an item that is not as described which happens OFTEN on ebay(100% honesty is in short supply with many sellers), well it has to be SIGNIFICANTLY not as described for you to get your money back. Let's say you fall for an obvious scam like the scammer "selling" you a PlayStation(PS) "box" and not the entire PS set as you expected--well guess what, that's considered "as described" since the ad stated you only get the box and said nothing really about getting the PS and controllers and cable, etc.. So you've been scammed AND you can't get any money back for that if ebay chooses not to give you that money. Or how about auctions that run "mystery boxes" offering a chance at rewards--there again, if the ad said you get a key and map and that's what you get but you didn't find any reward or the key doesn't open up to anywhere, you are OUT OF LUCK. That will be classified by ebay as "AS DESCRIBED" since the ad sent you what it stated. You could continue on......Let's say you see many pics for a boat you'd like to buy and NONE of the pics shows a large hole on any of them because the seller knew the boat would go for much less if the side of the boat with the big hole were to be included, then when you pay for it and get that boat, ebay will classify that as "AS DESCRIBED" since nowhere on the ad did the seller deliberately lie. He only told a HALF-TRUTH--To you and me that's a lie, but to the law and ebay, YOU'RE the one at fault for not reading carefully and/or not being PSYCHIC enough to know what DETAILED questions to ask the seller.

Other LOOPHOLES: There are other loopholes such as payment and other ways you may fall under the LOOPHOLE which is why i never endorse any of ebay's "protection/security/safety/safe plans." Again, be picky with the seller you're dealing with and the amount you'll spend with them and be picky with how you pay. (In an MSNBC article, some ebay computer victims complained to the media and so ebay was embarrassed and gave them buyer protection to $200 minus their $25 fee, BUT EBAY ONLY DID THAT BECAUSE THE MEDIA SPOTLIGHT WAS ON THEM. To you and me as average joe's, forget it!!)

CLICK HERE FOR SERIOUS ILLUSTRATION ON EBAY/PAYPAL BUYER PROTECTION PLAN

$$$ LIMITS: Remember that if the seller screws you by not sending you the item or misrepresents, in order to get ALL your money back if >$200 or >$500 (remember ebay's buyer protection is limited to $200 or $500 and there's a LOT of loopholes in the "protection"), YOU YOURSELF HAVE TO FILE WITH THE FRAUD AGENCIES (who usually don't do anything but the Post Office is vigilant) TO GET THE REMAINDER OF YOUR MONEY BACK and then you have to FILE SMALL CLAIMS COURT IN THE SELLER'S STATE, NOT YOUR OWN STATE. So if the seller is in Michigan and you're in a state far away, you will have to pay travel expenses to go there and back.

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