eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) CEO Meg Whitman last week outlined eBay's current three-prong approach for battling the phishers and scammers who continually prey on unsuspecting eBay users. Red Herring reported that this past Thursday at the VISA Security Summit in Washington, DC, Ms. Whitman made it known that in the continuing effort to restore basic user security to their site would remain proactive and reactive. What I found to be a startling contrast to former eBay attitude on the subject was Ms. Whitman's admission that in this continuing effort eBay could not go it alone, as evidenced by her request for involvement in the anti-fraud efforts by the filtering of e-mail by ISPs, something which is unlikely to happen.
The three-prong approach that eBay is implementing is focused on protecting eBay users from unwittingly divulging important personal and financial information to people who have no business obtaining such data. The plan involves a key fob that accesses randomly generated passwords, the blacklisting of known fraudulent websites, and a request that ISPs only forward e-mail from recognized domains. On their face the conjoined ideas sound legitimate but analysts remain highly skeptical as to their usefulness effectiveness and implementation.
Losses from e-mail phishing and other data diversion tactics topped $2.8 billion for 2006. Reports say that the three major targets are PayPal, eBay, and commercial banks. Gartner analyst Avivah Litan said that eBay is "at the center of this hurricane for fraudsters." While eBay is certainly not at fault for the continuing onslaught upon their membership, this writer maintains that it needs to be far more transparent about its problems, far more helpful to its members, and far more aggressive in the successful prosecution of the individuals who continue to pillage eBay membership.
Key fobs are for keys. Prisons are for scammers. Let's get with it eBay.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-25-2007 @ 4:58PM
Mitt Romney's Bint said...
A read of this thread will reveal the scale of the problem Ebay are facing with security at the moment:
http://pheebay.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1192&start=0
3-25-2007 @ 5:00PM
Linda Harvell said...
Well said, Gary! As a Power Seller on eBay, I get close to a dozen spams a week and forward them to spoof@eBay and spoof@PayPal, always getting the same canned response from both. I can only hope something is triggering an alarm somewhere within the bowels of the organization to track the spammers down. The spammers/phishers (is that what they're called?) are definitely getting more professional and for someone new starting out on eBay or PayPal, I can see how they could easily be fooled and led into divulging personal information. This isn't a new problem - it's one that both buyers and sellers have been complaining about for a very long time... I applaud you, Gary, for reporting the latest news on this issue...I didn't realize how long it's been since I've read a report on what eBay is attempting to do to get this problem under control.
3-25-2007 @ 11:58PM
Amber said...
Thanks for the info, Gary, and please keep us updated! As someone who derives most of their income from an eBay store, I get dozens and dozens of the phishing emails a month. I have given up forwarding most of them as I am not convinced that eBay or PayPal does anything with them. I consider myself a seasoned user of the internet, but was fooled a few weeks ago by one reporting to be my invoice from eBay. As it was the time of month I usually received notice of my invoice, I clicked on it without really thinking. I immediately realized my mistake though, and ended communication. To be on the safe side, I changed my passwords on eBay and PayPal. A new user can easily be fooled by some of these missives, and eBay needs to step up and take some responsibility in the protection of its members. Thanks again for the article!
3-26-2007 @ 4:08PM
Sally Johnson said...
Why doesn't eBay add Letters of Credit to its payment options? For big ticket items this tried-and-true banking method would eliminate the scammers -- no pink slip, no money. Letters of Credit have been around for 500-odd years. PayPal and its silly $500 limit just doesn't work for the big ticket items. The bankers know how to do this. And this small change would open eBay up to global trade so they would make a lot of money too.
3-27-2007 @ 12:19PM
Sally Johnson said...
Why doesn't eBay add Letters of Credit to its payment options? For big ticket items this tried-and-true banking method would eliminate the scammers -- no pink slip, no money. Letters of Credit have been around for 500-odd years. PayPal and its silly $500 limit just doesn't work for the big ticket items. The bankers know how to do this. And this small change would open eBay up to global trade so they would make a lot of money too.
3-28-2007 @ 12:56PM
firemeg said...
Sorry, too long of a URL, disregard that...
use this: http://tinyurl.com/2fyjxv
3-29-2007 @ 12:19AM
Gary E. Sattler said...
Thanks FireMeg!
I've been in there already. Any eBay discussion posts from user ID "bearsvaluebaby", that's me!
(513 feedback @ 100%)
3-29-2007 @ 12:24AM
firemeg said...
eBay has been pulling posts from that thread. At least six that I know of for sure. I have posted some of the pulled posts on my blog at:
http://firemeg.blogspot.com
4-07-2007 @ 1:49AM
firemeg said...
Gary, you might want to check out the questions being asked for this month's town hall.
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?messageID=2005933921�