When you click `Report Spam', does it really do anything that simply clicking `Delete' doesn't? I can't remember reading of any spam merchants being prosecuted, or having their computers `accidentally' catch fire or anything................

sorry,report spam where?

just more AOL bumph.TBH loads of ISP's do shut down accounts sending spam but then they open more again.was listening to a phone in on radio 2 a few weeks ago about phising emails

custard said:

just more AOL bumph.TBH loads of ISP's do shut down accounts sending spam but then they open more again.was listening to a phone in on radio 2 a few weeks ago about phising emails

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Bit like Ebay I suppose. Rather than try to do anything effective about fraudulent listings, they hide behind `confidentiality' to avoid telling their customers how little they do. They get their listing fee whatever happens, so what do they care?

combwork said:

Bit like Ebay I suppose. Rather than try to do anything effective about fraudulent listings, they hide behind `confidentiality' to avoid telling their customers how little they do. They get their listing fee whatever happens, so what do they care?

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:yeahthat:

Ebay's 'protecting bidders identities' when auctions go over £100 policy is totally flawed and is a cop out. Only very blatant 'bid shilling' can be picked up, whereas anyone crooked enough to do this will be opening and closing bidder accounts daily...

I recently saw this happen because I was watching an auction before it went over £100. As a result I collected the information and reported the two Ebayers concerned to Ebay. This is what I got back (another cop out):


"Rest assured that I have now investigated these members with the
information you provided and compare it to our records of bidding
patterns and other activity involving the reported accounts. We will
take appropriate action (such as a warning or account suspension)
against the involved accounts to ensure eBay remains a safe and
reputable place to shop.

Please understand also that there are certain policies and procedures
framed by eBay which we have to abide by. Due to eBays privacy policy,
we can't share details of the action we take. "

As I still had the details of both seller and bid shiller, I checked them a few days later. Both were still trading and no evidence of the bid shilling could be seen now in the original auction (it was the listing pictures of dodgy bidder's last transaction taken in the same place as the car he was bidding on! And now you couldn't see who he was or what he'd sold because his ID was hidden...)

I'll do a new post with all the details to show what was going on.

However, on the internet I think 'reporting spam' really does work. Quite often I get dodgy emails, especially 'Royal Bank of Scotland needs you to confirm your details' at the moment. Sometimes I go to the websites just to put in bogus information and write rude words as passwords. However when I tried doing this over the past few months I get the 'Page cannot be displayed' error. Obviously these phishing sites ARE being shut down or blocked so something good is coming out of the report spam facility

Ebay still makes me mad though. Why do they only protect buyers privacy when the auction goes over £100? Why not below that? Basically what they're saying is that they don't give a damn about your privacy under £100, and over £100 they don't give a damn about (and don't want you to see) bid shilling.

Grrr.....

the report spam button is used so helpless people can feel as though they have done something about it. problem is AOL will get several million spam reports each day, and unless they hired everyone in london they could never block all the spammers from sending future emails.

end of the day crap will come through your letterbox, your phone and your email, the best way to reduce it is to keep your visiblity low. use one email address for silly things like signing up for stuff and use a seperate email address for personal email. never post your personal email anywhere, never give it to anyone except people who you want to email you, and then you should be almost spam free.

1986Uno45S said:

Ebay still makes me mad though. Why do they only protect buyers privacy when the auction goes over £100? Why not below that? Basically what they're saying is that they don't give a damn about your privacy under £100, and over £100 they don't give a damn about (and don't want you to see) bid shilling.

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scammers dont bother with second chance offer scamming for low value auctions. they do it a lot on higher value auctions. that is the only reason for anon bidding.

what's 'bid shilling'?

bidding on your own item so people have to pay more, it happens A LOT on ebay, much more so since they started to hide bidder's details.
some people even outbid everyone so they can see what your maximum bid was, then give you a second chance offer for that much after it ends.
good idea from the seller's point of view.

I thought it might be that.
I know someone who did this recently, he doesn't make a habit of it apparently but he was selling an item that was worth alot more than the maximum bid so he called a friend and asked her to push the price up. If she won he would've just relisted it but luckily it worked.
Very dodgy.

jug said:

scammers dont bother with second chance offer scamming for low value auctions. they do it a lot on higher value auctions. that is the only reason for anon bidding.

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Personally I think Ebay does this so they don't get inundated with reported bid shilling listings rather then truly protecting the seller. There are too many ways to get round their current system now that won't show up on the 'bidding activity' with the seller concerned. The auction I witnessed was a prime example.

Just another one of Ebays "Don't care" policies...