eBay… a Favorite Among Crooks and Scammers?
Have you ever considered why eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) sometimes offers deals on merchandise that seem too good to be true?
For example, how am I able to buy, say, a high-end $250 pair of Oakley sunglasses for only $20 on eBay (brand new with tags)?
Here’s how… It’s stolen merchandise.
While eBay still monopolizes the online auction space, it’s quietly dealing with a fraud problem.
Shoplifting costs businesses about $12.1 billion nationally, says the National Retail Federation, which releases an annual survey.
And a lot of those stolen goods find their way onto eBay.
Couple that with all the counterfeit products coming out of China, and I’m personally a little leery of buying a big-ticket item on eBay, like I so often did 10 years ago.
Does anyone share my concerns here?
Let me know by leaving a comment below.
Ahead of the tape,
Robert Williams
Publisher, Wall Street Daily
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eBay is committed to running the best, safest and most trusted online marketplace in the world. In my role as the Senior Director of Asset Protection at eBay, I am committed to working together with the retail and law enforcement communities to protect the eBay user community and help fight retail crime.
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As with every channel of commerce, some criminals will try to take advantage of the system. ??The vast majority of eBay sellers are honest people, many are small businesses trying to compete during tough economic times. Insinuating that something is stolen simply because it is a good deal is both inaccurate and unfair. ??These small business often utilize exceptions in the supply chain, such as buying overstock or making wholesale purchases, to sell goods at discount.
I wish you would have reached out to eBay to get the real story, before discrediting the hundreds of thousands of honest, hard-working small business people who use the eBay platform.
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Kris Reply:
August 23rd, 2011 at 10:49 pm
I find the comment above from an eBay representative rather comical since it is virtually impossible to find anyone at eBay to reach out to. Your customer service representatives are incompetent. Your customer service supervisors are non-existent, and I have been unable to find a name of anyone on your website with any authority at eBay to whom to voice my concerns. So if the author to whom you are referring didn’t reach out to eBay, perhaps it was because he grew frustrated at not being able to find anyone at eBay to reach out to. I know I have.
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