Algorithms are the only thing that stands between users and scams>Customer Service Could Care Less

[lowlandmarket]

In my phone call with Customer Service I told the lady about a scam attempt. The lady literally gives me a "Mmmhhm" and paused. So I continued on. At the end of my next sentence she did the same thing..."Mmhmm". So i said one more line and my hand before God she did it again.."Mmmhmm" except this time she asked what was I wanting and expecting out of the phone call!!! That she cant do anything, that I need to go back to the "Report a Buyer" page on the webpage!! She was acting like shes heard this same ole song and she was just waiting for me to finish. Like she couldnt be bothered with it. 

So how many people have to be scammed before something is done. 5? 10? 20? 100? The users losing time and money doing their research for them when it should be the people getting paid to help doing something about it THE VERY FIRST TIME it happens. If a seller can prove with a message that another user tried to take the sell off-eBay then the person trying to take the sale off-ebay should have their account immediately suspended. If this sounds unfair then have EVERY single person who makes an account have to put their e-signature on a line that states "IF YOU TAKE THE SELL OFF EBAY YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE SUSPENDED". The person trying to take the sell off-eBay should have to fight to get their privledges back the way a victim has to fight to handle the scammer. 

Algorithms should NOT be the only deterent to scammers. Its ridiculous. And LAZY on eBays part!! This forum "Ask the community is great! I have had alot of questions answered by very helpful nice users. (shout out to esperreso and a.c.). However there should be a PUBLIC forum that says "ASK THE EMPLOYEES AT EBAY" so that we can ALL see how they handle the hard questions and issues. 

The main question is "Can more be done to prevent scams by eBay?"....the answer is YES. If not then why is someone i reported 2 days ago (I have messages to prove it) still upstanding with a valid status on their account? I bet if you break a rule that prevents eBay from getting their share they will take action IMMEDIATELY. Bet.

[donsdetour]

you have a blocked bidders list to use. use it when these scammers want you to text em...

Not even worth the time of day to toast em: just make a bunch of new ids to do it with.

Learn and move on.

[buyselljack2016]

If it makes you feel better report the buyer's  ID's action. That is how it works.

No need to "call eBay" expecting someone to do something.

As dons posted, block, and move on.

They would need a dedicated phone #, and a room full of CSR's just for that if every seller that had a buyer message "text me" wanted eBay to take action per the phone call, as there would be thousands each, and every day..

[espresso_warehouse]

---

@lowlandmarket wrote:

In my phone call with Customer Service I told the lady about a scam attempt. The lady literally gives me a "Mmmhhm" and paused. So I continued on. At the end of my next sentence she did the same thing..."Mmhmm". So i said one more line and my hand before God she did it again.."Mmmhmm" except this time she asked what was I wanting and expecting out of the phone call!!! That she cant do anything, that I need to go back to the "Report a Buyer" page on the webpage!! She was acting like shes heard this same ole song and she was just waiting for me to finish. Like she couldnt be bothered with it. 

So how many people have to be scammed before something is done. 5? 10? 20? 100? The users losing time and money doing their research for them when it should be the people getting paid to help doing something about it THE VERY FIRST TIME it happens. If a seller can prove with a message that another user tried to take the sell off-eBay then the person trying to take the sale off-ebay should have their account immediately suspended. If this sounds unfair then have EVERY single person who makes an account have to put their e-signature on a line that states "IF YOU TAKE THE SELL OFF EBAY YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE SUSPENDED". The person trying to take the sell off-eBay should have to fight to get their privledges back the way a victim has to fight to handle the scammer. 

Algorithms should NOT be the only deterent to scammers. Its ridiculous. And LAZY on eBays part!! This forum "Ask the community is great! I have had alot of questions answered by very helpful nice users. (shout out to esperreso and a.c.). However there should be a PUBLIC forum that says "ASK THE EMPLOYEES AT EBAY" so that we can ALL see how they handle the hard questions and issues. 

The main question is "Can more be done to prevent scams by eBay?"....the answer is YES. If not then why is someone i reported 2 days ago (I have messages to prove it) still upstanding with a valid status on their account? I bet if you break a rule that prevents eBay from getting their share they will take action IMMEDIATELY. Bet.

---

It's evident that eBay, as a company is either incapable of keeping their platform updated or just doesn't care. These ridiculous messages are trivially easy to detect and should be removed before even hitting a seller's inbox.

There should be a report and block option in messages as well until they manage to get these scam accounts under control.

[espresso_warehouse]

---

@donsdetour wrote:

you have a blocked bidders list to use. use it when these scammers want you to text em...

Not even worth the time of day to toast em: just make a bunch of new ids to do it with.

Learn and move on.

---

Grandma comes here, gets scammed and you make excuses. I guess that's better than straight up blaming grandma for 'not knowing what she is doing' like someone did a few days ago.

[espresso_warehouse]

---

@buyselljack2016 wrote:

If it makes you feel better report the buyer's  ID's action. That is how it works.

---

How? There's no option to report a buyer who merely sent you a message without calling is there?

[lowlandmarket]

That would be a big help. All in one. Report,  block, and move on. My thing is is I love to see results. I want and expect someone to do something. I picture the next person the scammer hits. I honestly don't care too much about myself. I KNOW LOL that my mom would be like "Yes I sure will call you honey just give me a few minutes,  yes sir honey ill send you my email you just hang on..." Cause she's 80 and her computer when she was little was 10 fingers and 10 toes. Anyway yeah your right though the easiest way would be an instant Report and block box. I hate switching screens to do anything. I've only posted one item in 2 days it seems from having to scam proof all my existing listing and being on here whining and complaining lol. But if they would stop giving me a reason to whine I promise I would stop.

[chapeau-noir]

I sell mostly on a social media-ish selling site (Posh), and you still have to deal with your own tire-kickers and text scammers, the site isn't going to intercept this and do it for you. Also, they go away once you get some sales and feedback under your belt - I want through the same thing there.  It was annoying, but that's about it.

[downunder-61]

The thing is eBay policy prohibits any personal messging in their policies - all members are aware of this (or most certainly should be) so as long as you never fall for the attempt at taking you off eBay all should be well.

As to reporting a buyer I thought you could report from the message you received? although I am not sure of that, someone else will be able to confirm or deny.

eBay will never tell us the outcome of any reports that are made, so do as others suggest - Ignore Block and move on (you can curse if you want to as you do it LOL)

[popblox]

Hi, your diligence in attempting to forewarn others of potential threats to their security is commendable, but scams are literally a way of life. Grandmas have been losing their life savings to scammers for a very long time, even before the internet. 

Consider this: you receive an email that insists you click on a link to receive lottery winnings of $10,000. All you have to do is fill out a questionnaire and provide your banking details, DOB, SSN, full name and address. You know this is a scam, but do you call Google and insist you speak with someone about this scammer? If you did, what kind of response do you think you'd get?

There are warnings against communicating outside of eBay everywhere on this site. I was flooded with scam texts when I started selling here, but I ignored them because I knew this. It is the responsibility of the buyer/seller to comprehend these type of policies before buying or selling anywhere.

As much as you try, you can't protect all the grandmas. Trust me, I know - despite 20 years of warnings from me, my mom has fallen for scams THREE times since she opened a Facebook account. However, you might consider looking into working with online fraud agencies, they could definitely use the help.

[katzrul15]

---

@downunder-61 wrote:

The thing is eBay policy prohibits any personal messging in their policies - all members are aware of this (or most certainly should be) so as long as you never fall for the attempt at taking you off eBay all should be well.

As to reporting a buyer I thought you could report from the message you received? although I am not sure of that, someone else will be able to confirm or deny.

eBay will never tell us the outcome of any reports that are made, so do as others suggest - Ignore Block and move on (you can curse if you want to as you do it LOL)

---

They unfortunately removed the "report" button from the emails you receive.  Probably because they were inundated with reports.  

[espresso_warehouse]

---

@downunder-61 wrote:

The thing is eBay policy prohibits any personal messging in their policies - all members are aware of this (or most certainly should be) so as long as you never fall for the attempt at taking you off eBay all should be well.

As to reporting a buyer I thought you could report from the message you received? although I am not sure of that, someone else will be able to confirm or deny.

eBay will never tell us the outcome of any reports that are made, so do as others suggest - Ignore Block and move on (you can curse if you want to as you do it LOL)

---

Nope. It's been a decade since that was an option. Are you still selling?

[espresso_warehouse]

---

@popblox wrote:

Hi, your diligence in attempting to forewarn others of potential threats to their security is commendable, but scams are literally a way of life. Grandmas have been losing their life savings to scammers for a very long time, even before the internet. 

Consider this: you receive an email that insists you click on a link to receive lottery winnings of $10,000. All you have to do is fill out a questionnaire and provide your banking details, DOB, SSN, full name and address. You know this is a scam, but do you call Google and insist you speak with someone about this scammer? If you did, what kind of response do you think you'd get?

There are warnings against communicating outside of eBay everywhere on this site. I was flooded with scam texts when I started selling here, but I ignored them because I knew this. It is the responsibility of the buyer/seller to comprehend these type of policies before buying or selling anywhere.

As much as you try, you can't protect all the grandmas. Trust me, I know - despite 20 years of warnings from me, my mom has fallen for scams THREE times since she opened a Facebook account. However, you might consider looking into working with online fraud agencies, they could definitely use the help.

---

This isn't the kind of world we should accept.

[downunder-61]

---

@espresso_warehouse wrote:

---

@downunder-61 wrote:

The thing is eBay policy prohibits any personal messging in their policies - all members are aware of this (or most certainly should be) so as long as you never fall for the attempt at taking you off eBay all should be well.

As to reporting a buyer I thought you could report from the message you received? although I am not sure of that, someone else will be able to confirm or deny.

eBay will never tell us the outcome of any reports that are made, so do as others suggest - Ignore Block and move on (you can curse if you want to as you do it LOL)

---

Nope. It's been a decade since that was an option. Are you still selling?

---

Not here in USA, I have only ever sold in Au (15 years) and have never had any scams so not sure how to report buyers that cause that kind of trouble.

I know there is a Report Buyer Link, but no idea if it actually achieves anything or if you have to be in an actual transactionn to do it - hence my ''someone else will be able to confirm or deny.''

Thanks for explaining.

[espresso_warehouse]

---

@downunder-61 wrote:

---

@espresso_warehouse wrote:

---

@downunder-61 wrote:

The thing is eBay policy prohibits any personal messging in their policies - all members are aware of this (or most certainly should be) so as long as you never fall for the attempt at taking you off eBay all should be well.

As to reporting a buyer I thought you could report from the message you received? although I am not sure of that, someone else will be able to confirm or deny.

eBay will never tell us the outcome of any reports that are made, so do as others suggest - Ignore Block and move on (you can curse if you want to as you do it LOL)

---

Nope. It's been a decade since that was an option. Are you still selling?

---

Not here in USA, I have only ever sold in Au (15 years) and have never had any scams so not sure how to report buyers that cause that kind of trouble.

I know there is a Report Buyer Link, but no idea if it actually achieves anything or if you have to be in an actual transactionn to do it - hence my ''someone else will be able to confirm or deny.''

Thanks for explaining.

---

You keep making that same claim over, and over and over.

But you don't sell here in the US if you sell at all. So you have absolutely no frame of reference for what we are dealing with here.