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Judge raps eBay over fraud

Graeme Wearden ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 07 Dec 2004 17:00 GMT

Ebay was criticised by a UK judge on Monday for not doing enough to protect its users from the dangers of fraud.

Judge Richard Bray said it was "hardly surprising" that eBay was targeted by criminals, given the measures it has put in place to protect users. Judge Bray suggested that letting customers register negative feedback about other users wasn't enough.

"Provided you don't have fraud against you on eBay, you are all right as a fraudster -- you can get on and sell anything you like," Judge Bray said, according to reports on Tuesday.

"It seems to be extremely easy to commit fraud on the Internet," Judge Bray added.

The Judge was residing over the trial of a woman convicted of taking £3,000 from five separate eBay customers for non-existent tickets to the Glastonbury music festival.

EBay insists that its systems are safe and secure."Fewer than 0.01% of all listings on eBay result in a confirmed case of fraud, and when used properly the site is a safe and secure place to buy and sell," said an eBay spokesperson.

"EBay employs approximately 1,000 people at eBay and PayPal [which is owned by eBay] with backgrounds in law enforcement, customer support, advanced computer engineering and analysis, who are dedicated to making eBay one of the safest places in the world to trade. We encourage all users to report any suspected fraudulent activity to customer services who will investigate," the spokesperson added.