Is eBay serious about stopping fraud?

I have sent a report of this auction (listed under Japan!) to eBay's special coin fraud reporting link, with citations to the pages of Krause where the 1833 franc (KM#748.1) and the 1804 Draped Bust Dollar are pictured, and a request that if they really want to clean up coin fraud on their system, they should do something about it.

Anyone want to bet that they will

 

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I have just reported this auction:

# 3928792772

I explained that these fakes are easily identifiable by the diagonal scratch/gouge on the shield.

I also explained that this is being advertised as a "Liberty Seated Dollar" (which it is not), and that it is a violation of the Hobby Protection Act.

Ebay claims to have a "community of experts" who are looking into these complaints. Well, I'm not an expert, but I can spot a scam from a mile away.

Check out this seller's extensive listing of fakes. If nothing else, maybe it will prove to be educational.

 

I've reported the seller in your post at least a half-dozen times before the recent claims by eBay that they were serious about eliminating coin fraud. He's still going.

He's much more polished than the seller referred to in my first post to this thread, but they are both on my list of sellers that I trust so highly I would not bid $1 with free S/H on a PCGS slabbed St. Gaudens! (Even if I did collect U.S. gold )

 

It appears to me that Ebay will continue to wave thier hands at this crap a not do anything substantive until they get sued by a clever class action law firm, or get regulated extensively by the Feds.

Either would be a shame, as in most businesses effective self regulation is preferrable to onerous government regulation or rampant lawsuits.

I'd like to see the ANA step up here as well -- the Ebay/ANA thing a few days ago was not terribly encouraging, though.

 

Bogus seller in PA

This Ebay seller ****************** (known on ebay as quickshiper) has fraudulently advertised a coin on Ebay as being a near perfect coin, when in fact the coin was not in very good shape at all. It had been cleaned and placed into a fake PCGS rectangular coin holder. I verified the PCGS serial numbers were fake on the PCGS web site and also had the coin appraised by a professional (40 years in the business). Further, this seller claimed a 100% money back guarantee and after 6 months I have seen or heard nothing from this seller. This man needs to be investigated for stealing and fraud. I have the ebay item print outs, photos of the coin as I received it, close ups of the serial numbers, and a signed verification of return receipt of the coin.

 

wow, fake PCGS holder now???
Unbelieveable!!!

 

Welcome to the forum ebizme.

Here's the site for reporting mail fraud to the U.S. Postal Inspectors. It's time for you to use it.

 

fraud reporting

Actually I found www.IFCCFBI.gov and registered a complaint with them since it was for over $3k for a 1892-S Morgan Silver Dollar advertised as MS65, received in a fake square PCGS labeled coin holder with MS63 rating mark and serial numbers crossing to a 1942D 10c piece in MS66FB on the PCGS web site!!!

 

Another good choice. My only thought is that the FBI is so busy with terrorism that your complaint may have a very low priority, which wouldn't necessarily be true of the Postal Inspectors.

 

well, even if ebay isn't serious about stopping it, at least the folks here are. I don't think I would ever make another coin purchase online without at least running it past this website for a few comments, first.

 

This is what I can't understand.

Everything I've ever reported is OBVIOUS to anyone who is an "expert" and should take an "expert" about five seconds to conclude, "yep, this needs to be shut down."

Heck, I'm pretty knowledgeable, but not an "expert," and these fakes and scams are plain as day to me.

So when I never get a response, or when several days pass, I wonder if they're that under-resourced or if it's all about lip service?

 

i ticked none of the above because i think one day they will have to sort it out.They are delaying the inevitable.

with there paypal/ebay fees there raking in about 10% of the selling price of every item.I know thats what i base my selling price on.

This is a lot of money and certainly enough to have proffesionals going around looking at auctions and removing them.

to me this just stinks of total utter greed.I truly wish for competition to ebay to appear this is like microsoft and ATT,intel all over again.

 

I really don't think it's so much greed as fear. When auctions are pulled, if the seller decides to legally argue it, whoever pushed the "kill" button had better know what they're doing and have solid evidence to back it up. I am thinking that maybe there aren't many who have the guts to pull the plug on an auction. The other thing is that, since the CCW is only comprised of about 6 members and I think the number of reports they're getting would probably keep 50 people busy all day, a lot of reports are not addressed until the auction is over. Many of the scam artists are running 1 and 3 day auctions. For the most part, this guarantees that their auctions will get to run full term, especially if they start it on Friday night to run to Monday night. I have seen very little response to any reports over weekends. Actually, Monday morning seems to get the most response from what I've seen. I think we all need to keep in mind that eBay has taken the first step but changes do not happen overnight and I think it's going to get worse before it gets better. I am encouraged that the effort is being made. I have spoken with representatives at eBay and the ANA and the effort is a real one. Let's remember that eBay and the ANA teamed up very recently. I think the best thing we can do is continue to report everything and hope that some of it gets addressed. Patience is a virtue but I've always been for instant gratification (which is never fast enough)

 

Susan, you're a fair bit more optimistic than me, but let me say that I hope I'm wrong and that I can say that you're right. How often does a man say such a thing to a woman, after all?

Seriously, though, you're really pushing this hard and that's a good thing. I admire your tenacity on this matter.

 

Change is never quick. You have to take into consideration the number of auctions that Ebay hosts on a daily basis. Now consider the number of actual people working for Ebay that have any authority. Now consider what Susan mentioned about covering your butt. Many people take advantage of the fact that they can move merchandise quickly and easily using sites such as Ebay. It takes no effort to create an account, and begin selling. Couple this with the fact that the vast majority of people buying on these sights are searching for the best possible deal, and you have the makings of a scam artists dream come true. This is no different than the many sellers that are pushing the low end certified coins, and homemade certified coins. Anytime you have many people searching for a deal, there will be people searching to take advantage of them.
While the ANA has taken on a major task, it will only succeed if everyone pitches in. The good buyers and sellers of Ebay have to be on guard. It is going to be a long hard battle, but one that can be won.

 

Don't get me wrong. I'm going to keep reporting things when I see it. Both at home and at work I have the reporting form bookmarked on every browser installed on my computers in those locations. I just admit that she's more optimistic than I am about it. Then again, it's folks who are passionate about making changes that get it done. History has proven that time and again.

 

Rah! Rah! Go Team!

 

I agree, but I also think it is important that each person reports only the auctions that he/she is absolutely certain about, and can provide a source for the watchers to verify the information. It just seems to me that a focused attack will do more good than a generalized one.

Personally I report a lot of phony auctions involving the modern Japanese coins that I have some slight expertise about. Because of the similarities I also feel comfortable reporting some of the Chinese silver frauds, but the only non-Asian coin I have reported was a U.S. item dated almost a century before they started minting them.

I never report the ones where the only evidence I have is an instinctive feeling.

As Susan has pointed out, the CCW is a small group, and dumping auctions on them that can't be easily corroborated as fake just slows down the whole process without any measurable benefit that I can see.

 

complaint filed

satootoko - thanks for the pointer to the USPS, I filed the complaint there as well. I hope someone stops this guy, this is the first PCGS forgery I've seen, I started buying coins off Ebay this year and have made some great purchases. There are many good dealers out there, I guess I just have to stick with them.

It's good to hear that Ebay may actually do something about all the scams run through them. There should be some kind of penalty on Ebay - to maybe force them to toughen up their Seller verification process.