What is the name of your state? TX
I apologize for the length of this description but it is a complicated story with a lot of detail. The summary is that I fell victim to an ebay account takeover and want to know if I can hold ebay responsible for it's grossly inadequate security, misrepresentation and failure to provide critical information. Now for the long version...
I was recently defrauded of several hundred dollars in an ebay auction. Yes, I was stupid to send my payment by wire transfer but that's not the real problem - the seller was a well-established member with excellent feedback and had completed an auction by money transfer before.
The real problem is that the seller's account had been hijacked by a criminal without the owner's knowledge or complicity, the email had been re-routed to the criminal and he completed at least 5 big-ticket auctions over at least a week. I actually checked that the seller received email I sent through ebay's "secure" system and that the response came from the registered email account as provided by ebay when I won the auction. Ultimately, ebay did notify all bidders of the fraud but not until long after all the auctions had concluded the thief had received all of the money (mine was the last of his 5 auctions). In fact, based on the timing I think ebay notified us only when the thief restored the account to its original state after receiving all his money. An interesting note is that the thief didn't retrieve my payment until a full 24 hours after I made it; when I reported this to law enforcement, the officer commented, "wow - that's unusual - he obviously wasn't at all worried about being caught."
But even more infuriating is that ebay's response has been thoroughly incompetent and inappropriate, forcing me to follow its standard "item not received" process. In fact, although ebay confirmed with the account owner what happened and removed the items from its site long ago, its customer support morons have dragged this out for weeks encouraging me to try to work this out amicably with the seller and to open a standard dispute with the seller if necessary. I have told ebay that I would love to work this out amicably if ebay can tell me who the seller is! ebay has also refused to provide any information on what happened or when/how ebay figured it out despite several requests; virtually everything I know is from my contacting the account owner directly. ebay repeatedly cites unspecified "privacy issues" but I believe the only privacy ebay is protecting is its own!
In a long and infuriating series of emails with ebay, I have claimed that this is not simply a standard "item not received" as ebay is trying to claim. In a standard "item not received," ebay functions properly and connects two known members; I can accept that ebay cannot control the behaviour of its members and I would pursue its standard procedure if it were appropriate. Furthermore, I could press charges or file a small claims suit against the known seller.
In this situation, ebay allowed an unknown thief to take over an account - and switch the email address to an untraceable anonymous account - with absolutely no identification or verification other than a password. I find this absolutely unacceptable for a company involved in financial transactions given the known prevalence of password hacking, phishing etc. Furthermore, ebay missed an obvious pattern of criminal activity: an account that had only sold one or two things for very small amounts in over a year of membership suddenly switched to an anonymous email account and became a power-seller, selling at least 5 items for between $600 and $1300 in one week (fortunately mine was at the low end). Even with this pattern ebay neither verified the update nor notified bidders of suspicious activity. In fact, ebay's system hid the fact that the account had been updated and I didn't see the other auctions because they had already ended by the time I found my auction. And of course, I have no legal options against the seller because he is unknown - there is no one to press charges or file a small claims suit against.
ebay's user agreement claims that in the event of a dispute between a member and ebay, ebay prefers direct negotiation but also offers various forms of alternate dispute resolution such as mediation and arbitration. However, ebay won't let me initiate any of these processes - all of my emails get worthless responses from first-line email support idiots telling me to follow the standard "item not received" process. ebay has also told me - with no explanation - that this does not qualify for negotiation or dispute resolution. I don't see how ebay can claim to offer neutral means of dispute resolution but then control when they are available - that isn't very neutral.
Do I have any realistic legal options against ebay? I am now more angry with ebay's incompetence and untrustworthiness on priciple than about the money (which although annoying doesn't really end my life - I've had bikes stolen and various similar nuisances that cost me the same and more).
Can I file a small claims suit against ebay claiming negligence because of its inadequate security? I can accept that ebay is a different sort of business but surely it must still be responsible for its own security and operations. Anything about ebay misrepresenting a thief as a well-established member? Or failing to notify us of suspicious behaviour - I want to know when ebay first suspected the account but it won't give me any details. Or about the implicit contract created by the auction and the fact that one party to the contract was misrepresented? And what about location issues - I'm in Texas and it obviously isn't worth flying to California over a few hundred bucks.
Thank you!
I apologize for the length of this description but it is a complicated story with a lot of detail. The summary is that I fell victim to an ebay account takeover and want to know if I can hold ebay responsible for it's grossly inadequate security, misrepresentation and failure to provide critical information. Now for the long version...
I was recently defrauded of several hundred dollars in an ebay auction. Yes, I was stupid to send my payment by wire transfer but that's not the real problem - the seller was a well-established member with excellent feedback and had completed an auction by money transfer before.
The real problem is that the seller's account had been hijacked by a criminal without the owner's knowledge or complicity, the email had been re-routed to the criminal and he completed at least 5 big-ticket auctions over at least a week. I actually checked that the seller received email I sent through ebay's "secure" system and that the response came from the registered email account as provided by ebay when I won the auction. Ultimately, ebay did notify all bidders of the fraud but not until long after all the auctions had concluded the thief had received all of the money (mine was the last of his 5 auctions). In fact, based on the timing I think ebay notified us only when the thief restored the account to its original state after receiving all his money. An interesting note is that the thief didn't retrieve my payment until a full 24 hours after I made it; when I reported this to law enforcement, the officer commented, "wow - that's unusual - he obviously wasn't at all worried about being caught."
But even more infuriating is that ebay's response has been thoroughly incompetent and inappropriate, forcing me to follow its standard "item not received" process. In fact, although ebay confirmed with the account owner what happened and removed the items from its site long ago, its customer support morons have dragged this out for weeks encouraging me to try to work this out amicably with the seller and to open a standard dispute with the seller if necessary. I have told ebay that I would love to work this out amicably if ebay can tell me who the seller is! ebay has also refused to provide any information on what happened or when/how ebay figured it out despite several requests; virtually everything I know is from my contacting the account owner directly. ebay repeatedly cites unspecified "privacy issues" but I believe the only privacy ebay is protecting is its own!
In a long and infuriating series of emails with ebay, I have claimed that this is not simply a standard "item not received" as ebay is trying to claim. In a standard "item not received," ebay functions properly and connects two known members; I can accept that ebay cannot control the behaviour of its members and I would pursue its standard procedure if it were appropriate. Furthermore, I could press charges or file a small claims suit against the known seller.
In this situation, ebay allowed an unknown thief to take over an account - and switch the email address to an untraceable anonymous account - with absolutely no identification or verification other than a password. I find this absolutely unacceptable for a company involved in financial transactions given the known prevalence of password hacking, phishing etc. Furthermore, ebay missed an obvious pattern of criminal activity: an account that had only sold one or two things for very small amounts in over a year of membership suddenly switched to an anonymous email account and became a power-seller, selling at least 5 items for between $600 and $1300 in one week (fortunately mine was at the low end). Even with this pattern ebay neither verified the update nor notified bidders of suspicious activity. In fact, ebay's system hid the fact that the account had been updated and I didn't see the other auctions because they had already ended by the time I found my auction. And of course, I have no legal options against the seller because he is unknown - there is no one to press charges or file a small claims suit against.
ebay's user agreement claims that in the event of a dispute between a member and ebay, ebay prefers direct negotiation but also offers various forms of alternate dispute resolution such as mediation and arbitration. However, ebay won't let me initiate any of these processes - all of my emails get worthless responses from first-line email support idiots telling me to follow the standard "item not received" process. ebay has also told me - with no explanation - that this does not qualify for negotiation or dispute resolution. I don't see how ebay can claim to offer neutral means of dispute resolution but then control when they are available - that isn't very neutral.
Do I have any realistic legal options against ebay? I am now more angry with ebay's incompetence and untrustworthiness on priciple than about the money (which although annoying doesn't really end my life - I've had bikes stolen and various similar nuisances that cost me the same and more).
Can I file a small claims suit against ebay claiming negligence because of its inadequate security? I can accept that ebay is a different sort of business but surely it must still be responsible for its own security and operations. Anything about ebay misrepresenting a thief as a well-established member? Or failing to notify us of suspicious behaviour - I want to know when ebay first suspected the account but it won't give me any details. Or about the implicit contract created by the auction and the fact that one party to the contract was misrepresented? And what about location issues - I'm in Texas and it obviously isn't worth flying to California over a few hundred bucks.
Thank you!
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