Fraud on Ebay

dragon1952 · Post by **dragon1952** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 7:04 pm

It appears that there is no way to report a suspected fraudulent auction on Ebay. Or at least nothing comes up immediately on a "Help' search of the subject. They pretty much tell you to stay out of other people's business. I guess they'd have too many false claims to deal with or something. There's one on there now from a guy who appears to deal quite a bit in guitar related items acting all naive about an 'old, beat up Fender' that he's supposedly selling for a friend and neither one knows anything about it. Yeah right!

jnbass · Post by **jnbass** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 9:32 pm

ebay nor paypal gives a rat's a_s about fraud or customer service.

unless it affects their fees...

IMHO

bails · Post by **bails** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 11:46 pm

These can be reported to eBay, but you have to navigate through a hell of a lot of links to get to the right page. As Rob suggests, it's probably like this on purpose, so that they don't "have too many false claims to deal with"...

They have recently introduced a "Report this item" link at the bottom of each auction, but after clicking about five different links, it still tries to direct you to the help page, rather than actually report the item. Heaps better than it used to be though.

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 4:17 am

There is a quick way. I use it occasionally when what I see really outrages me...

They send me the usual "Thank you for your Safe Harbor report" e-mail.

Then the auction runs its full course.

jnbass · Post by **jnbass** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 8:31 am

see comment above...

atomic_punk · Post by **atomic_punk** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 9:30 am

I'm furious with Ebay right now for yanking TWO of my auctions for an OLP Guitar I am selling, one for using the name "Van Halen" in my title (even though he designed and played it) and another (after revising the title) for the word "Axis" in my title. I see probably 100 fraudulent auctions every DAY and they yank mine for THAT? Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

Not only that, but there is no chance to "revise" the auction, it gets deleted and you have to start all over again! Write the description all over, etc. That SUCKS.

johnhall · Post by **johnhall** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 9:46 am

Actually, eBay won't act on their own for something like this; your auctions would likely have been flagged by Ernie Ball/Musicman. Just don't make a mistake again; three flags and they'll close your account, unless you're a Power Seller, in which case they'll defer until other folks also complain.

atomic_punk · Post by **atomic_punk** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 10:03 am

I decided to hang onto it for a while. I was a powerseller for a while, until I went a month or 2 without selling anything and they took it back. If I do list it again, it will be "OLP MM1 Guitar."
I did actually write them and complain after seeing 6 active auctions using the same words they pulled mine for, I expect nothing to be done about it, but I had to vent.

doctorwho · Post by **doctorwho** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 10:49 am

Steve, with evidence like that you could file a discrimnation lawsuit against eBay ... and wind up with a long drawn out court case.

I try to keep my titles short and to the point, and in the description I try to provide all the facts about the item. Oh, I also keep a plain text copy (a .txt file) of the ad in case I have to repost the item due to a non-paying bidder - all I have to do is cut and paste the title and description into the new listing.