Expert: Marvinator - 1/12/2006

Question
Hello,
I was wondering what eBay does to prevent fraud on its site. I 've noticed that it is very easy to make a fake account and that there is absolutely no identity control. Aren't there ways to make registration more restricted? Is eBay working on a more secure system than PayPal? And is there a possibility that they will be working with registration of buyers and sellers by electronic ID's?

Greetings,
Tina

Answer
Yes, there is fraud on Ebay. There is fraud in the hospitals and fraud on the streets.  Fraud is part of our society and to think that it woulnd't find its way into such a business oriented website would be a mistake.  

Ebay is a venue.  They do a lot for security and your statement seems to say you don't think they do ANY.  The mere fact that Ebay accounts have passwords speaks volumes against that.  There is an entire section of ebay dedicated to this subject and people are constantly bombarded with warnings in every email.  Even when you sign on, Ebay gives you a bit of information about security of which Fraud is a minor part.

Ebay's system cross checks your account information with the bank account information you input. Although there may be ways of creating a fake account, I'd suggest it's not as easy as some could think. If you feel someone has made a fraudulent account, you should report it.  Live Help is available from the Ebay.com main page, the link in the upper right corner.  

As for what Ebay/paypal is working on or planning for the future, we can only go buy what is on the Announcement section of the system.  This can be accessed from most pages with a link at the bottom of the page. I don't work for Ebay or Paypal, and would not be privy to any of that information.   

Thank you for writing.