Online auction fraud

[Zeus]

Aparently in the news the other day, I heard that online auction fraud accounted for the highest number of fraudulent business practice complaints. According to the FBI, over 45 000 complaints were filed last year . Any thoughts?

[sku_u]

I think that Ebay needs to be held more accountable for the items put up for auction. I can't think of anyone who actively uses Ebay who hasn't been screwed in some form.

[CPUWIZ]

That statistic is online auction fraud in general, not just eBay and 45000 out of several millions of transactions isn't really that bad. Personally I get ripped off more often at the friggin supermarket.

[MacGurl]

We reported a lot of eBay auction fraud last year. People were buying computers and software on stolen credit cards from us and putting the merchandise up on eBay and having people wire the money to them via Western Union. What sucks for those people is not only are they out the money when we figure it all out, but unless they return the computer they paid for, they're in posession of stolen property

 

I'm wondering if this sort of thing is reported in those figures you gave.

[Zeus]

I wasn't trying to single out any particular company, just thought it was a scary statistic, illutrating why I don't buy stuff online.

[MacGurl]

The majority of people who have their identities stolen and their credit cards stolen have not made any purchases online. There's a ton of different ways these jerks can get your credit card # or even social security #. The fastest growing trend is sending emails to people at AOL and PayPal asking them to go to a website to confirm their information at a site that uses the logos of those companies. These morons do it (even though we've all been told a billion times no one will ask for your password). Once you enter that password, they have it now, and they can go into your account and get all the info they need to open up accounts in your name.

 

There's also a trend of stealing credit card statements out of people's mailboxes and also the credit card#'s off receipts you leave on the dinner table at a restaraunt. Unfortunately, there's no sure fire way of protecting yourself. I've dealt with fraud orders for people that have been dead for years...older people who don't own a computer, so obviously they didn't get online and order anything