It's been over a month since I posted on here, disappointed to see the apathy I spoke of continue, but that seems to be the way it is.
Since I last posted I've been very active in busting scams on eBay. Mainly they relate to hacked eBay accounts, but occasionally they involve a scammer setting up a one-off account so that in theory the buyer does deal with the seller and no other party is involved.
It's the hacked account type that's the big one, though. Over the past 6 weeks, this is what I've done or discovered:-
There are two (unrelated) groups of people involved in hacking accounts and listing tractors, diggers etc. At the beginning of my involvement, there were typically about 6 listings a day. On Monday of this week that number had risen to 34 (i.e. on that one day) almost certainly because I have been getting the scams shut down much more quickly.
Both groups have similar styles and methods. The much more active of the two, who I call The Bozzers simply because I heard that they are from (or based in) Bosnia, have utilised about 200 hacked accounts and often operate in multiples or stacks, probably to make life difficult for scambusters like myself. It does get pretty intense at times.
The 'usual' method of reporting to eBay is very ineffective - even eBay have admitted this although they did not give a reason. On average, a reported scam listing takes about 5 to 6 hours to be taken down. By contrast, if the hacked-account owner receives my email warning (it is sent at the same time as the 'report item' option), things happen more quickly - probably less than 2 hours on average.
But over the past week I have resorted, where possible, to telephoning the hacked account owner (HAO) in person. This often has dramatically faster results. On Tuesday for example a CAT mini-digger was listed by the Bozzers at 1.04pm, I found it at 1.20pm and phoned the HAO who deleted it at 1.28pm. Total exposure time to fraud was therefore just 24 minutes. I've had only a handful with down-times as fast as that, sad to say. The upside though is that without exception, the response has been (apart from the shock/surprise) grateful and courteous. Since I don't work for eBay, it must seem a bit odd to receive a phone call from me about such a thing, but the bottom line is: it works. It gets scams removed very much more quickly than leaving it in the hands of eBay. I would say that the average down-time when I've managed to make verbal contact with a HAO is about 30-45 minutes. This is my main objective I suppose - minimising the exposure of the scam. The scammers were probably enjoying exposure times of 24-48 hours until mid-April; now it's hugely improved (from a scam-busting POV) and I am in no doubt that, over the past 6 weeks, the scammers' revenue has taken a big hit. This explains their sometimes frantic actions in getting as many scam listings up and running simultaneously; the biggest I've seen is 24, which is intensely challenging to deal with as so many things have to be done as quickly as possible. I've had quite a few HAOs phone ME back, to ask more questions, to thank me, all sorts of things.
The smaller and less active group I call The Galway Gang because they claim to be based there. I don't yet know where they are from but it's very unlikely to be Ireland or the UK. One suggestion has been Ghana; this is because I traced an email address they regularly use to a Ghana website, albeit some details posted in 2006. The Galway Gang only list about 10 scams a week, but they operate in pretty much the same way.
An interesting discovery I made only yesterday was that if a HAO removes a listing him/herself (I should add that the majority of HAOs are female), they are charged listing fees. They may appeal against that, but I don't yet know how many bother to do so (amounts are usually less than £5) or what eBay's reaction is. What I do suspect though is that eBay deliberately take 5-6 hours to remove scam listings as unofficial company policy; if eBay delete a listing, I'm guessing that they do not apply any fees because they have acknowledged that a third-party hacked into the account. So by waiting much longer than they need to, they devise a way of generating an income from scam listings. Frankly it would not surprise me if this were to be the case - very difficult to prove though.
I could continue doing what I'm doing but I'm more interested in seeking legal redress against eBay for breeching The Fraud Act 2006. This extract makes food for thought:-
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Fraud by abuse of position
24. Section 4 provides that the offence will be committed if a person:
occupies a position in which he is expected to safeguard, or not to act against, the financial interests of another person,
dishonestly abuses that position, and
intends by means of the abuse of that position –
to make a gain for himself or another, or
to cause loss to another or to expose another to a risk of loss.
25. Section 4 does not define "abuse" or "position". However regarding the former concept the section states that an omission will be enough for an abuse of position to take place. An example given in the Explanatory Notes is of an "employee who fails to take up a crucial contract in order that an associate or rival company can take it up instead at the expense of the employer".
26. The Law Commission's Report offers some assistance with the "position":
"The necessary relationship will be present between trustee and beneficiary, director and company, professional person and client, agent and principal, employee and employer, or between partners. It may arise otherwise, for example within a family, or in the context of voluntary work, or in any context where the parties are not at arm's length." (para.7.38)
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I am also occasionally active in busting Autotrader scam listings, the type where images are used to display email addresses. I guess 99.9% of the surfing public know they're scams, but just 0.01% are too naive to know. Just one 'hit' makes for a nice little income for the scammers.
I still find it frustrating that nobody seems to care about all this.
One thing's for sure though: I do.
oh yes - 'Police Forces' and 'Fraud Squads'. I mean yesterday a fraudster made headline news for making fake bomb detectors. Great! One for the team on the good side of the fence: NICKED. But every minute of every day someone gets duped into sending hundreds or thousands of £/$/Euros whatever, and no-one seems to care - least of all eBay, who clearly allow it to go on right under their noses.
