eBay

sodium419 · ‎07-11-2021

Here's how eBay could be used right now for criminals to find homes with known expensive items and break in and steal those items.

Starting many years ago, eBay started showing the title of all items you sold on your feedback page. The feedback is very useful for buyers, but showing the items sold is a huge privacy and security concern, which I'll explain how it can be used against you.

Let's say you're fairly well off and collect expensive jewelry. You like to buy new jewelry and sell jewelry on eBay you no longer wear. Sounds harmless. But the problem is a criminal can use this information against you.

A criminal lists a bunch of items for sale on eBay at cost. You (and many others) buy something from him. He now has your address. He then creates a list of addresses and uses your selling history to compile a list of homes and probable items that could be in each home. You filter to the top of his list as you're only 60 miles away, it shows you've been selling expensive jewelry for years, and you happen to have an $15,000 piece being sold right now (so he knows it's in your possession). He scopes out your home and breaks in, stealing not only the $15,000 piece that was for sale, but the rest of your collection. This can be made far worse if there's a criminal network setup across the country doing this, as it maximizes the chances of finding someone local and easier to target.

I know you can hide ALL your feedback, which also includes hiding items sold. But you really need to be showing feedback if you're selling something (it may even be required). What I suggest is eBay add a new feature to hide all items sold but still show feedback. I've had an eBay account for 24 years and have 100% positive feedback. I never want to hide my feedback. But hiding the items I've sold is a huge security and privacy concern of mine. As shown above, this could easily be used to target eBay members. And a network of criminals could really create a nationwide (or even worldwide) problem.

I currently turn off displaying feedback when I'm not selling something, then turn it back on just for when I have something for sale, then turn it back off. That only minimizes my chances. The only current way to totally prevent this is to turn off all feedback forever and only use eBay for buying. Probably not what eBay wants.

So, eBay, please add a feature to hide items sold. I see it as a major security and privacy issue.

maxine*j · ‎07-12-2021

@sodium419 wrote:
Not trying to convince anyone here with 3 month old eBay accounts. It's to draw the attention to eBay so they fix the security hole. It's quite obvious that people here are not capable of understanding the gravity of this.

And you do not seem capable of understanding that posting here does not reach anyone in eBay who makes any decisions. These forums are not even created, maintained, or moderated by eBay but by a company that eBay hires to do it.

As others have said, if you want to reach someone in eBay who makes decisions, do so. You are perfectly free to do so, by any means you care to use. They might even like your idea. Who knows? But those people are not reading these posts, and they never will.

Put your money where your mouth is, and take your case to where it belongs if you actually want action, or at least a decision, on it.

=

kh-leslie · ‎07-12-2021

Hi everyone,

Since this thread has gotten a bit off-topic, please bring the discussion back to subject established in the original post.

Thank you.

mtgraves7984 · ‎07-12-2021

Screenplay 301. We were up to Act 4, Scene II. But we're expecting Guest Speaker, Quentin Tarantino. Class dismissed.

sin-n-dex · ‎07-12-2021

@maxine*j wrote:
@caldreamer wrote:
You do realize that you name and return address is on the label when you ship the item. Never had a problem with customer hunting me down to rob me.

Life is a gamble...
And anyone with any security or privacy concerns uses a Post Office Box, anyhow. No street address. Problem solved.

=

My PO Box is 40 miles from where I live (but a mile from where I work).

US sales come from Niagara NY from the freight forwarder (although the PO box is provided in the package in case of returns, I don't want someone to assume they should just send it back to the freight forwarder, they don't like that).

C.

sin-n-dex · ‎07-12-2021

@1tuna wrote:
theft of valuable merchandise is a problem ebayers shoud be aware of.
whether its left in the home or a buisness its shoud be locked up securely

I like ISM safes.they are the best you can get suposedly
I do not worry about my house burning down or getting burgled if I am not home

most of the dealers who get robbed are robbed on the highway.......parking garages or coming and going between shows and airports and hotels.

My safe is a concrete room inside the B&M store with a vault door made of steel. The store is fort knox, and at one point when there was a break in they came through the bathroom window. They solved that loophole by putting up plywood and painting over top to make it part of the wall (after putting bars in the window). The thieves stole some gold chains. They couldn't get into the safe or the backroom. The building was bought and renovated to be very secure.

C.

sin-n-dex · ‎07-12-2021

@7606dennis wrote:
Actually, one of the biggest ways to invite thieves to your home is to leave the boxes from your high end purchases by the curb awaiting trash pickup.

The thieves would be so disappointed in my house... I'm a scavenger. I have 25-50 year old furniture everywhere. The only new thing in my house is my bed. I took all my partner's furniture when he needed to clear out his place for reno (25 year old leather couches and glass coffee table). When I bought this house I made offers for any furniture I wanted as part of the purchase because it was an estate sale and they were getting rid of everything. I didn't get much furniture in the divorce and had to buy all "new" stuff, but rather went to thrift shops picking up nice looking stuff that was old. We also have very little in the way of electronics.

C.

sin-n-dex · ‎07-12-2021

@sodium419 wrote:
Nothing really high-end is an a branded box that you throw out.

No, but most break ins are to steal electronics and things that are easy to move. (And done by young persons).

I worth with property insurance adjusters and we see all sorts of theft claims.

C.

moondogblues · ‎07-13-2021

OP keeps mentioning PayPal...it's Adyen now. Not to mention beating the dead horse to a bunch of Sellers NOT eBay itself. Maybe likes to hear themselves type?

Burglers are gonna burgle...doesn't matter if you sell on eBay, Etsy or at the Flea Market or not at all.

vintagecraze50 · ‎07-13-2021

PO BOX ADDRESS SOLVES THE PROBLEM. DO not use your home address on here.

*madison · ‎07-13-2021

@soh.maryl wrote:
Why would anyone be so reckless as to invite a total stranger into their home?

Loads of people do it if an item is being collected from the home.

I've collected items and been invited into the home many times.

maxine*j · ‎07-13-2021

@*madison wrote:
@soh.maryl wrote:
Why would anyone be so reckless as to invite a total stranger into their home?
Loads of people do it if an item is being collected from the home.

I've collected items and been invited into the home many times.

I answer the door to strangers, and I've invited more than one of them in. And I frequently make arrangements for this and that, that will entail a stranger entering my home, sometimes even in my absence.

If Iived in other parts of the U.S., I wouldn't do so. I know that crime can happen anywhere, any time, but statistically I'm quite safe.

Using a common crime index that weighs serious crime more heavily, the U.S. average is 270.6 incidents per 100,000 population. In Baltimore, MD, it is 662.0. Where I live it is 24.2. In the largest city near me, it is 68.9. Really, there are some pretty peaceful places in this country, hard as that must be for people outside the U.S. to believe. 🙂

=

sodium419 · ‎07-13-2021

I do understand. And understand that getting this information out can bubble to the top when there's 228 (as of now) posts. So I thank you and the others for helping.

sodium419 · ‎07-13-2021

That's not the type of crime I'm discussing here. I'm talking about using eBay to find marks with high-end goods. If you only have old furniture in your home and nothing to steal, this isn't about you. But those who have very expensive items can be target by using eBay as it shows a pattern of sales, which identifies someone as having expensive items.

varebelrose · ‎07-13-2021

Just curious what index you are looking at? You made me curious, Googling turns up the FBI index which says the US average in 2019 was at 366.7 per 100k. I ask because I would like to look up the number for my locality and compare to previous years.

maxine*j · ‎07-13-2021

@sodium419 wrote:
I do understand. And understand that getting this information out can bubble to the top when there's 228 (as of now) posts. So I thank you and the others for helping.

I've never know that to happen but let's assume it does: Of the 228 posts, several dozen are in jest. Another dozen, at least, are from the phantom copy-and-paste posters trying to earn Badges. Of the rest, maybe half a dozen sort of, vaguely, slightly, agree with your position. Nearly every serious and thoughtful reply, from experienced sellers, is to the effect that your idea is cockamamie. How that "bubbling up to the top" would help you, I cannot imagine.