eBay in 2007: Bidder1, Bidder2, Bidder3 - Safeguarding Member IDs Project

[pendragon1998]

I'm not so sure that this is a good idea. Seems like it will make shilling much easier. Thoughts?!

[gmarguli]

I recently bid on a somewhat expensive item. I got FOUR second chance offers that were fake. These came from four different people. I'm sure they sucker a lot of people. I was actually considering making all my auctions expected to end above $300 private to prevent this. I think this is a good move by eBay.

[Wihlborg]

One of the things I’ve never liked about eBay is that anyone who knows your user ID can see what you are bidding on, or have won. I would like to see all bidder user ID’s become anonymous to anyone other then the seller, as well as have the items you’ve won no longer visible on your feedback page.

 

John

[LuvToCollect]

The only positive for me as to seeing who is bidding on a item is that it allows me to guage how determined a bidder is on a specific item.I do believe that whatever they do will only slow the hackers as they will always find an angle to spam.

I would prefer that would not be the case but I know it is a reality.

[DC Dawg]

I'm not so sure that this is a good idea. Seems like it will make shilling much easier. Thoughts?!

I don't think it will have any effect on shilling. You cannot tell who is shilling when you do know the user name. Because I sometimes bid up auctions I am interested incrementally, weighing each succeeding bid, I have been accused of shill bidding. So you really cannot tell.

 

What this will do is take away some of the phishing scams. It will be more difficult to find out who is bidding on what and user ids to attack. The problem is that the scammers have already mined valid names and addresses. This will not stop the scams from those who have already been targeted. I am sure, it will not stop the number of phishing attempts that I receive and have been receiving, but I think it will slow future scams.

 

It's not a perfect move... but it may be good for eBay to do something rather than let the status quo continue.

 

Scott

[gmarguli]

I reread it: Hello….I hope you'll take a moment and read about an important Trust & Safety initiative that we will be launching soon on eBay Motors in the U.S.

[pendragon1998]

Our first step is to launch on eBay Motors in early November. This decision is based on Community input in these categories, especially in Motor Vehicles, where the rates of member reported spoof and fake Second Chance Offers have been higher than in other categories. As November and December are slower months for vehicle sales, we believe this is the right time for implementation.

 

If all goes well, we could implement the Safeguarding Member IDs project on eBay.com in early 2007.

 

[SuperDave]

I'm not sure I really care about shilling on Ebay. Yes, it's wrong, but Ebay's tacit endorsement of the alphabet slabbers is far more detrimental to the market as a whole. Neither of those factors represent any threat to you or I, who have a clue about how it all works.

 

If the problem of false Second Chance offers is that significant (I don't know - I've never received one), then so be it. Even a small step in the right direction is a step.