Ebay's Responsibility?

[grzpdlr]

What is the name of your state? CA
Been an Ebay buyer a long time, should have known better than buy from a seller with no feedback. Got burned, I'm a big boy no problem. Report to Ebay, immediately I notice the sellers items are gone, he's now an unregistered user.
Looking for the item again, see an ad, different user name, identical to the other add, report it to Ebay, he dissapears also.
My question is, Ebays says they will immediately suspend, temporarily or permantly any fraudulant users (they identify!). Will they persue them through the legal system? I don't think so.
If not what about all the victums of these fraudulant sellers, don't we deserve our day in court? I ask Ebay to provide me info so I could persue the mater, they declined sighting privacy concerns. What message does this send crooks? Go ahead, steal $$$$$, the worst that will happen is I have to come up with a new identity.

 

[divgradcurl]

If not what about all the victums of these fraudulant sellers, don't we deserve our day in court?

Sure, you can take the people who scammed you to court.

I ask Ebay to provide me info so I could persue the mater, they declined sighting privacy concerns. What message does this send crooks? Go ahead, steal $$$$$, the worst that will happen is I have to come up with a new identity.

Most (if not all) states will allow you to file a "John Doe" complaint; once the complaint is filed, you can subpoena eBay's records, they will give them to you, then you can ammend the compplaint with the person's actual information.

This actually makes sense, if you think about it. If eBay just handed over the info, how are they to know whether or not you are some kind of homicidal maniac or something? If you got the info from eBay, and went over and killed the guy who scammed you, do you think the grieving family and their attorney's would hesitate to drag eBay into a wrongful death suit?

This way, at least eBay knows you are pursuing legal channels...

BTW, this is not at all uncommon. Few companies will give up personal information on someone else simply at another's request -- most require some sort of court order (a subpoena) before they will divulge personal information to a member of the public at large.

Unfortunately, most big companies are more than willing to give up (for a price) our personal info to telemarketers and the like, but that's another story...

 

[grzpdlr]

Ebay's Responsibility

Thanks for the quick response, great info!!!

But I still ask what is Ebays Responsibility. In this case, as in many other similiar one, this is a con man, multiple offender and Ebay is more aware than I of the magnitude of his transgressions. Is it right that they take no responsibility at all. I mean, how hard could it be for them to drop a dime on these guys?

 

[Zephyr]

Thanks for the quick response, great info!!!

But I still ask what is Ebays Responsibility. In this case, as in many other similiar one, this is a con man, multiple offender and Ebay is more aware than I of the magnitude of his transgressions. Is it right that they take no responsibility at all. I mean, how hard could it be for them to drop a dime on these guys?

but ebay has no grounds to take these people to court, ebay is not the victim, in cases where fraud is pretty obvious ebay does report the person to law enforcement.

 

[divgradcurl]

Thanks for the quick response, great info!!!

But I still ask what is Ebays Responsibility. In this case, as in many other similiar one, this is a con man, multiple offender and Ebay is more aware than I of the magnitude of his transgressions. Is it right that they take no responsibility at all. I mean, how hard could it be for them to drop a dime on these guys?

In addition to what Zephyr wrote, the more eBay takes a role in policing their boards, the more liability they potentially take on. If, as is the case today, they only take action when they are notified appropriately, if someone gets ripped off on eBay and eBay hasn't been notified, they can say with a straight face "hey, nobody told us, we didn't know" and avoid any liability themselved. If eBay decides to start actively policing the boards, then it's a lot easier for someone who gets ripped off to say that eBay reasonably SHOULD have caught the person first, and therefore eBay has some directly liability.

Burying your head in the sand is generally only effective to limit your liability when you keep it buried all of the time. As soon as eBay starts actively partipating in fraud monitoring, they could be held partially liable if they miss something...

 

[racer72]

Most often those that rip folks off on eBay supply false information. The only thing eBay checks is that a valid email address is given. I can come up with at least 50 sites no problem that offer no confirmation email addresses. If and when eBay supplies the sellers information, it will probably be false anyway.

 

[grzpdlr]

Ebay Responsibility

Actually, the loss was through Paypal, Ebay's sister company, so they must have a credit card on file.

 

[dmprisk]

did you pay with your Credit card on PayPal?

I'm confused. When you paid the seller with PayPal did you use your credit card? If you did you can try for a chargeback through your credit card.

 

[racer72]

Actually, the loss was through Paypal, Ebay's sister company, so they must have a credit card on file.

Not always. You have to have a credit card or bank account. Most scammers use offshore internet banks that allow accounts to be opened without ID verification. I found a bunch online very easily.

 

[ablessin]

this all sounds way too easy

 

[PandoraZx]

File Complaint with PayPal

Try filing a complaint with PayPal (asking for a full refund due to non-receipt of goods), they seem to respond much faster than eBay and you have a chance of avoiding court all together.

 

[dallas702]

Something to consider: In the past year there has been a fluury of scammers who seem to have found a plethora of Ebayer's with too much money and not enough common sense. Especially in cars and collectibles you will find phony sellers, phony auctions, goods that do not exist or have been captured from other auctions or internet media advertising and put under the name of a fraudulent seller....the list goes on. For any internet buyer to have a reasonable chance to get what he thinks he is buying he must request current (new) photos of the item, proof of ownership of the item (especially cars), a location where the item/car can be seen, and of course a good look at the record with Ebay.