Have any of you had a successful outcome when you report a Fradulant Listing?
Summary: kebr-250 expressed frustration with reporting fraudulent listings on eBay, explaining that despite using expertise as a jeweler, responses often come from AI dismissing the reports. shire123 noted that eBay relies on its money-back guarantee and questioned whether eBay could be considered an agent for sellers. eburtonlab and kensgiftshop shared experiences where some reports led to listing removals, though it is unclear if their reports were the reason. one.iota recounted difficulties in reporting counterfeit items and receiving dismissive responses. The discussion highlights concerns about eBay's reliance on AI and the challenges of combating fraudulent listings.
Re: Reporting Fradulent Listings.
Just curious have ANY of you been taken seriously when you report a Fradulant listing?
I am a jeweler with over 25 years of experience. In the last couple of weeks I have filed formal complaints against scammers who lie, misrepresent, and defraud the Buyers. (A "22 carat natural diamond" for .99 cents, a "202 carat flawless Tanzanite for 25 bucks". An ounce of ".925 sterling silver" earring components listed for $28.00. (When silver is currently selling for over Sixty Dollars an Ounce) a "45 carat Natural Sapphire" for 19 bucks.
No matter WHAT I report as a complaint, I receive back an email from "AI" telling me "it does not violate ebay policies".
Consumer protection is a serious matter. Apparently Ebay has shifted ALL respinsibility to protect consumers off on AI. There is NO "plan b" when AI makes a mistake. NO human you can contact.
When Bad Foreign Sellers lie and misrepresent items for sale, and NOTHING is done by Ebay, they tell bigger lies and make bigger mistrpresentations.
one.iota
·3 weeks agoAbout a year ago, i had noticed a whole bunch of counterfeit Peace dollars. Im not a professional counterfeit identifier. These were BAD. They had Liberty looking like Bullwinkle. Lots of different sellers, all brand new from the same town in china and all were selling Liberty Bullwinkle.
Well, ill have to do my part in keeping ebay to be a safe community and all that bs that ebay says. So i started reporting. As i was working on the fourth one, i get a response off the first one: Thank you for helping to keep eBay safe blah blah blah. However this listing is not in violation of ebays policies. I got the same response from the other three.
Next day i get an email from ebay stating that a Morgan dollar in my listings that is slabbed and graded by ISC was found to be counterfeit and therefore was removed and dont even think about sneaking it back on ebay through another listing. This determination was made by a human. Thank you for being a part of the enay community for eight years. Do not respond to this email. BYE!
kensgiftshop
·3 weeks agoI've reported a few listings that I thought were fraudulent and the listings were removed.
When you report them, what reason do you select?
eburtonlab
·3 weeks agoI have reported listings and seen those listings removed, but obviously I have no way of knowing if the removal was related to my report. I have also reported listings and gotten the same AI form letter saying the listing does not violate policy.
Not every scam listing has obvious policy violations in the listing itself that can be spotted by someone with no particular experience with such items. Keep in mind that with few exceptions, eBay never sees the item the seller ships or the item the buyer receives. And eBay is unlikely to take the word of a random user that might be a competing seller.
In many cases, the scam only becomes apparent when something else is delivered, not what was described.
It is not against eBay policy to list expensive items cheaply -- it is an auction site, after all -- though buyers would be wise to do their own due diligence and avoid deals that are obviously "too good to be true", particularly when dealing with new or inexperienced sellers, or sellers that have drastically changed behavior recently.
There are plenty of suspicious listings that do not violate any listing policy. Reporting such listings may or may not cause eBay to take any action. And even when eBay removes a listing or suspends a seller, that rarely deters a scammer from relisting using a different eBay account. Dedicated scammers can list items much faster than eBay can spot them and take them down, so buyers must always be on guard for such listings no matter how quickly eBay acts.
eBay will take action when buyers report items are not received or are not as described, or when rights owners file official take-down notices for infringing items.
kebr-250
OP3 weeks agoYou make some excellent points. I think that the public assumes that the same Consu,er Protection Lawx apply to Ebay that apply to ever other Business in America. It does not take a "rocket scientist" to know that many of these foreign listings are total scams. An ounce of "genuine .925 Sterling Silver" for $29.95... when silver is selling for over $64.00 an ounce..
shire123
·3 weeks agoAs eBay does not have the product nor are they experts in anything nor can they tell who is lying they totally rely on their money back guarantee.
It is up to the buyer to file a not as,described case for fraudulent items.
Plus eBay cannot rely on anyone's "expert" opinions. For all they know the reporter is a competitor driving to get items removed.
Therefore, it is largely a waste of time to report "potential " fraud
It us always buyer beware
kebr-250
OP3 weeks agoUnder California Consumer Law, Ebay is acting as an Agent for these Sellers.
That means they are required, by law, not to allow any misrepresented or Counterfeit items be sold on the site.
When one Bad Apple scams the Buyers, every other Seller of Similar Products loses credibility. Accurate descriptions are important for any Seller.
shire123
·3 weeks ago@kebr-250 So then why has ebay never been held accountable for that. I am guessing ebay's army of lawyers have figured that out.
It's been this way for years and years.
Not a lawyer here but I wonder if ebay is truly an "agent" for the sellers. They are a platform for sellers but other than providing the "space" are they what is termed an "agent"?
eburtonlab
·3 weeks agoUnder California Consumer Law, Ebay is acting as an Agent for these Sellers.
That means they are required, by law, not to allow any misrepresented or Counterfeit items be sold on the site.
How can eBay -- or anyone else -- prevent a third-party seller from advertising one thing and delivering another, when the seller ships directly to the buyer and no one else ever sees the item?
eBay can ensure that buyers have the opportunity to invoke a money back guarantee after the fact. But buyers need to be able to recognize when something is "not as described" and take action.
There is no real alternative to buyers knowing what they buy and buying what they know.