As online auctions explode in popularity, more crooks are muscling in on the territory.
Complaints about Internet auctions were the fastest-growing category in an annual Federal Trade Commission report on fraud released Tuesday. They almost doubled to 98,650 in 2004, up from 51,000 in 2002, and accounted for 16 percent of all complaints.
The total number of complaints about Internet-related crimes -- including fraudulent auctions, Internet services and scams in which the consumer was contacted or responded via the Internet -- was 205,568. The crimes cost consumers $265 million, with a median loss of $214, the FTC said.
Despite the rapid rise in Internet fraud, identity theft -- through credit card, bank and phone fraud -- continued to be the largest source of complaints. The FTC said 246,570 people reported that they were victimized, up from 161,890 in 2002.
Overall, consumers reported losing more than half a billion dollars to fraud last year, the FTC said. The agency received 635,173 complaints, up 57 percent from 403,688 in 2002.
"There's a certain percentage of our population that are con artists and scammers, let's say it's about 3 percent,'' said Rosalinda Baldwin, CEO of TheAuctionGuild.com, an upstate New York site that acts as a watchdog and information provider for online auction users. "As those people get more Net savvy, their business in the analog world is just going to move online."
"It behooves a person who is thinking about transacting business online to become educated," said David Steiner, president of AuctionBytes.com in Massachusetts. "It's not an innocent little playground anymore."
Some online auction fans have gone even further. Frustrated that auction leader eBay, as they see it, isn't sufficiently proactive about hunting down con artists, they've taken matters into their own hands.
False bids, fake receipts
Self-styled auction vigilantes try to combat online scammers by giving them a taste of their own medicine. Some submit false bids to auctioneers they believe are crooks, including sending fake Western Union receipts to trick the auction-holders into thinking they've landed a sale.
"We bait (scammers). We waste their time," said Keith, the moderator of a site called TheScamBaiter.com. He declined to give his last name for fear of reprisals from scammers.
"This weekend, a friend and I 'bought' 30 or 40 Super Bowl tickets from Romanian scammers," he said. "If we get four or five people baiting a single scammer, he has his hands full. He thinks he's going to get all this money."
Keith said he spends a couple of hours a day "baiting" auction scammers, fitting it in around his job as a Virginia building contractor.
"We've done a lot more damage to the scammers than eBay has ever done. We have it down to a science, where we're really confident whoever we're going after (is a fraudulent seller)," he said.
Keith said scam baiters also will launch "denial of service" attacks, in which hundreds of computers flood fraudulent sites with messages, effectively shutting them down.
The baiters have an unusual way to measure success.
"We also try to get death threats from (scammers)," Keith said. "Among scam baiters, a death threat is considered a trophy. That means you're doing your job, you really pissed them off."
EBay spokesman Hani Durzy said the company does not condone such practices.
"We believe there is a very clear line between community activism and vigilantism," he said. "Anybody who takes what we consider to be un-eBay like actions against other users because of an assertion they have, we request our community refrain from doing that."
Only a small fraction of 1 percent of eBay listings is confirmed to be fraudulent, Durzy said. Last year the company hosted 1.4 billion listings, including both auction and fixed-price items.
"In the grand scheme of things, it's a very rare occurrence on eBay," he said. "Fraud is not completely eliminated on eBay nor on any other open, transparent market."
Some eBay watchers say the company does all it can to downplay fraud complaints because it doesn't want to scare customers away.
"EBay is horrible," said Baldwin of TheAuctionGuild.com. "If you report too many scam sellers on the site, if eBay does anything about them, it's a miracle. And if you get too vocal about it, especially if you talk to a reporter, eBay suspends you. That's crazy. They don't want people hearing about fraud."
EBay said it takes complaints seriously.
"We look at every fraud report that comes into us," Durzy said. "We rely on the community to alert us to instances where they feel they have been wronged."
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(ME SARCASTIC)Yeah, as if a bunch of seller volunteers can monitor millions of auctions per day. We know you respond right away because same said volunteers many times have to email you AGAIN AND AGAIN DAYS AFTER TO GET RID OF THE SLEAZEBALL SCAM SELLERS ON YOUR SITE AND EBAY STILL DOESN'T DO ANYTHING AGAINST THESE SLEAZEBALLS.
Posted are comments from ebayers who have become sick & tired of reporting to ebay when ebay does nothing about most of these scammers anyway:
20-03-05 06:01 GMT
Hi and Good Morning,
Please realise that I am ONLY asking a question and in no way, form or shape agree with scammers and their tricks to con people out of money.
Saying this though, Why do peeps waste time in reporting these 'lowlife'..??
No.1..People are not stupid nor illiterate and make their own choices either to participate in these schemes or not.
No.2..Ebay will probably remove these auctions but it's a no win situation as the scammers will start up with a new id again and again and again, hence 'vicious circle'.
No.3..Surely the 'reporters' have so much more important things to do than looking for these scammers to report them..Do they work for ebay..?? (This last question is in relation to no.2)
Well, just thought i'd ask.
Sits patiently waiting for ear bashing..!!
20-03-05 08:05 GMT
4 of 26
Alas #1 is true and due to eBay's advertising as the place for 'bargains', a lack of education in avoiding scams and occasionally sheer greed there will always be people who fall for scams. For many of us having spent so long on the boards has given us a slight edge in that area and we can spot suspicious patterns and listings quickly and hopefully get them removed, especially those that are intended to decieve and show themselves as a legit product like o_o_o said
20-03-05 09:21 GMT
8 of 26
The question should be why do ebay only make a token effort to stop scammers and pirates.
20-03-05 09:37 GMT
10 of 26
OP - Ebay would not remove anything unless they were told to, and even. Even reporting scams and fakes does not mean they will be removedm it seems to take a long time. If nothing was reported you can bet that the place would be completely full of scams,fakes,stolen items etc. At that point higher authorities would probably intervene, and it would be bye bye ebay.
20-03-05 09:40 GMT
11 of 26
Well I had a nice long chat with Customs and Excise about ebay assisting in the evasion of VAT so hopefully the authorites will intervene.
20-03-05 09:45 GMT
12 of 26
#11 You mean from the VAT angle? I have seen the argument on here that ebay is only a 'venue'. Well there was a venue (car boot sale) locally which the police closed because of the amount of stolen goods and fakes being sold. I guess they have probably moved onto here.
20-03-05 09:50 GMT
13 of 26
C&E stated that they had recieved new guidelines to go after those that assist. I explained that these people were stating they would ship into the country on their listings. Not only were ebay allowing them to do this and not stopping the auctions when reported but were also taking payment from the smugglers. When I told them because of the numbers this was probaly costing £1000's per day they were very interested.
20-03-05 10:01 GMT
15 of 26
I think that's a very interesting question OP.
And another thing I don't understand is why e-bay make a token effort to remove listings. For example if a seller has 5 listings with "it's a link" embedded in the description of a mobile phone, and you only report 4 - they will only withdraw 4.
If e-bay's "just a venue" - why do they withdraw any of them. If they don't want to carry scams, why not make that tiny bit of extra effort and look at the seller's other items?
I've given up reporting - but still e-mail bidders of "embedded links". I think education is more useful than doing e-bay's work for free.
20-03-05 10:32 GMT
19 of 26
Well I pity them. I think these bidders are nice people who wouldn’t rob someone else and are just not expecting it to be done to them.
When I was mugged one afternoon, I was so confused that at first I thought that my bag must be falling off my shoulder and this bloke must be helping me pick it up. And then, when a car drew up, I assumed it was someone coming to help – it never occurred to me that it would be the accomplice.
And although it's technically not dangerous to lose a couple of hundred pounds, my experience is that being mugged/scammed makes you feel depressed a few weeks later.
20-03-05 10:51 GMT
20 of 26
Why do peeps waste time in reporting these 'lowlife'..??
i dont anymore for 2 reasons
1. ebay make it too easy for the scammers to return
2. you cant fight against peoples own greed
20-03-05 11:34 GMT
21 of 26
I agree, why bother, I'm fed up with reporting scams its up to Ebay to put their house in order, they know what goes on, they know all the scams and fake/copied items, do they care, I dont think so.
20-03-05 11:45 GMT
22 of 26
I used to come on these threads and argue in support of reporting. But I've changed my mind. My apologies to anyone I ever agued with. You were right. It is a waste of time and just delays the day when e-bay will decide to do it themselves.
20-03-05 12:04 GMT
23 of 26
Ebay won't do it themselves unless thet are forced to. Howabout for the whole month af April we all report as many scams and pirates as possible. Keep copies of all the reports and mark them with ebay's action. At the end of the month one experienced person collates them. We the forward tyhem to all the media and to the companies that are being hurt by the fakes. If it's big enough and we point out to the companies that ebay are making huge sums of money and doing very little to stop it, the big boys might go after ebay.
20-03-05 12:55 GMT
24 of 26
No disrespect to those who do report the scammers but it's just so easy for them to start up again under a new id, over and over.
Hence, What is the point..??
Like I said, it's a vicious circle and will probably be ebays downfall in the end unless they get a grip and start to come down heavily on these people, instead of raking in and giving nothing in return.
To ebay, have you ever heard the saying..'Money is the root of all evil'??
20-03-05 12:57 GMT
25 of 26
That depends on how many people would do it. If we can show it's happening thousands of times a month the media would jump all over it. �
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