POLL: How much fraud is there on Ebay?

Barry

From the Forbes article, mentioned in another thread, I quote,"When it comes to quantifying the rate of fraud, eBay likes to throw around a figure of about 25 out of 1 million transactions."

If that number wasn't so outrageous, it would be funny. How much fraud do you think there is on Ebay?

tlhoy

10%

nwcs

I really don't think it's that much when you consider the full quantity of items sold. So I estimated <0.1%

bgrice

I agree with 10%. Probably a lot higher in the coin, gems & autos for sale sections.

BAJJERFAN

No more or no less than elsewhere in society.

RYK

Too hard to answer with a number. It really depends on how strictly you define fraud. Is a VF coin advertised as XF fraud? Or is it fraud when you purchase the coin, and they do not send it to you.

At any rate, I think fraud is far more rampant in the coin area than, say, used books or clothes.

ms71

I'd say on the low end of the 1%-10% range. Probably 2% to 3%. That's for deliberately deceptive practices, doesn't count the incompetence such as unknowing mis-descriptions, sellers unable to do a decent job keeping up with sales & shipping in a timely manner, etc., etc.

mrearlygold

Wow that's hard to say but I think it's quite a bit just based on some of the listings and how they are presented. And I don't think it's any more rampant in coins than it is say in antiques, art, etc .


Be careful!


Tom

mr1931S

I'd say definitely at least equal to 1 but less than 2% of sellers on ebay are dishonest.

flaminio

Very little, I would say. The problem is in the perception. Every time the Savannah Scammer or some d00d in China posts an auction, a new thread gets created here. But for each of those, there are thousands upon thousands of listings from reputable dealers, regular sellers, and just plain collectors unloading some extras. We ignore the thousands of good auctions and focus on the several fraudulant ones.

mr1931S

1- <2 % are "downright" dishonest, downright thieves.

mr1931S

Good points, flaminio. The bad news is what really gets people's attention but it's not all bad news.

LindeDad

I'll agree that it is less than 1/10 of 1%. And that's because of what flaminio says there are several thousand auctions being run right now by us board members that are honest. And there are a lot of dealers that don't hang out here that are honest.

mr1931S

I would consider that if one downright dishonest seller is running, say, 100 auctions at any given time, some of those auctions might be "okay."

If one fundamentally honest seller is running 100 auctions at any given, all of those auctions are "okay" in my way of thinking, even if some of those auctions might have, what appears to me, to be"mistakes."

For my money, I'll take my chances with the fundamentally honest seller every time even though the dishonest seller might have, what appears to be, some "okay" auctions.

pf70collector

I have a total of about 90 items bought on ebay-all coins and haven't been cheated yet. I stick to sellers who I know are honest and give me no problems. Though once in a while I will bid on an unknown sellers auction-relying on the feedback. But reading the article in Forbes tell me this may not be so reliable.

lonelyp

I got stung on this coin (token) But can't say if it was fraud or honest mistake.

Seller claimed he knew nothing about the coin. True or false who can say.

I knew nothing about it and bought it anyway

mr1931S

"reading the article in Forbes tell me this may not be so reliable."

I think the key is in understanding the feedback, at least to the extent that it is understandable. Yes, positive feedback can be padded so that negatives become obscure.

The Toolhaus site is easy to use a brings the negatives into the light of day. Every ebay buyer should visit this site when considering dealing with a seller with whom he or she has no experience.

Forget the easily seen feedback rating numbers. These numbers are not key to understanding the feedback.

ARCO

It has been five years for me on ebay with over 1000 transactions. $10.00 worth of junk mercury dimes are all that have been lost in the mail, and I have had two non payers and zero sellers take my money and fail to deliver as promised.

Most of the fraud can be removed by sticking to common sense rules on which auctions to participate in and which to avoid.

Tyler

Russ

Outright fraud? Probably well under 1%. Sleazy selling practices bordering on the line, but maybe not quite crossing it? Probably 10%. In coins, anyway. As RYK noted, some categories are more prone to it than others. Computers is another that has a high sleaze factor.

Russ, NCNE

orie

I’ve had around 400+ transactions without a problem. I don’t do business outside the US, review feedback to see if it’s solid(not perfect) , stay away from sellers who have the conditions all their way(oneways), and something that scares the hell out of me. A lot of feed back from the same buyer.
I really don’t think there’s much fraud in the scam of things. Less then 1%

relayer

It depends on what your definition of fraud is.

HJP

Hi,

Out of about 2000 transaction on ebay in the last year or so, I had 5 that turned out to be fraud. Each time it was a PayPal transaction. Fortunately, I followed the shipping rules for PayPal & have only had to eat a couple hundred dollars.

HJP

EJB

There's a lot of good people sell on E-BAY, It just seems like most of the crooks sell coins and collectables...

anablep

At or lower than 10% of the users. I've been lucky so far and have dealt with honest sellers... so far...

markglicker

When your the one who gets burned, it is 100%.

Ryana

The amount of fraud (as in counterfeits) is actually much higher in some categories. Designer clothes, watches, jewelry, handbags, probably software and movies, etc.

dunerlaw

Criminal fraud about 1%. Coin misgrading, cleaning, altering fraud a minumum of 20%.

Dave99B

Easily under 1%.

Dave

Ryana

Check out this article

"A study of certain pieces of "Tiffany" jewelry sold on eBay this year showed that 73 percent of the jewelry was counterfeit, Mark Aaron, a Tiffany spokesman, said Monday in a statement about the lawsuit, which was filed Friday afternoon in U.S. District Court in New York."

Of course, they probably ordered stuff that seemed suspicious from sellers that seemed suspicious. Still, I think outright fraud is actually much higher in some other categories. I say never buy designer ANYTHING off Ebay.

mrearlygold

<< <i>Check out this article

"A study of certain pieces of "Tiffany" jewelry sold on eBay this year showed that 73 percent of the jewelry was counterfeit, Mark Aaron, a Tiffany spokesman, said Monday in a statement about the lawsuit, which was filed Friday afternoon in U.S. District Court in New York."

Of course, they probably ordered stuff that seemed suspicious from sellers that seemed suspicious. Still, I think outright fraud is actually much higher in some other categories. I say never buy designer ANYTHING off Ebay. >>







Anyone in the jewelry trade can also tell you that a 14K, 18K stamp is available at Kassoy or any good findings or supplies store. There were slimeballs in the jewelry business down the Jersey shore when I had my shop who would use those stamps on items that weren't even gold.

What went on with diamonds was incredible. Imagine the crap that goes on online nowadays. And just TRY to prove that the seller was aware.

Be careful!

Tom

ElectricEye

<< <i>"A study of certain pieces of "Tiffany" jewelry sold on eBay this year showed that 73 percent of the jewelry was counterfeit, Mark Aaron, a Tiffany spokesman, said Monday in a statement about the lawsuit, which was filed Friday afternoon in U.S. District Court in New York." >>



This case will be the litmus test for eBay's defense, "we're not liable, we're just a venue". The state eBay is located in, California, put this defense to bed when swap meets tried to claim no liability when venders were found to be selling stolen property.

291fifth

In over 1500 transactions on eBay over a five year period I have had only one that was outright fraud (it involved a US gold commem purchased from Canada. I ended up losing $50 after eBay insurance paid my claim). One more was borderline fraud (a so-called unsearched lot that obviously wasn't, out of California. I got my money back in full after several very harrowing weeks!) A third was possible fraud on the part of a buyer who claimed non-receipt (a non-numismatic book, sent to a California address. I lost $50.)