@upgradedendmills wrote:
I think one seller getting scammed in any way is 2 too many. It is obscene for us to look the other way on this if there is anything we can propose or start to curb it. I am aware of how much a program like this would cost but it might turn out to be a (small) risk/ (great) reward thing.
But that's just it ... what you are proposing won't fix anything. It will not stop scammers, and it will take sales away from honest sellers.
Let's play along and you will understand why I say this ...
a) eBay sets up a "sting" item like Beats headphones at an attractive price
b) a scammer finds the "sting item" among the sea of other items and buyers it
c) the scammer returns an empty box, and eBay cries "Eureka!" and ...
... then what?
The scammer still has a valuable item that he can re-sell and make most of his money back. And since eBay has no way to stop a scammer from purchasing again with a new payment method, the scammer will simply buy a new pre-paid visa card from WalMart and do it again. A minor inconvenience to the scammer at most.
Not only that, but te chances of that same scammer getting caught a second time are tiny ... unless eBay casts a new wide enough net to catch him again. That means the eBay sting operation would have to be offering a massive number of desirable at attractive prices, and would make eBay a large retailer of those items.
But unfortunately, most of the eBay "sting" sales would go to honest buyers who are happy and do not commit fraud. So the eBay "sting" operation would nbeed to be so massive that it also damages the businesses of the very sellers it is trying to protect.
