First off, if you have not already done so, please read the first two articles about Cornerstone Supply's eBay seller account mystery block by following the links above...

OK, back now?  I have been sipping some coffee, waiting patiently... Good Coffee

Now that you are "up to speed" on what has transpired previously with our client Cornerstone Commercial Supply... I must apologize, because our last article left you the reader hanging, with Cornerstone blocked from listing on eBay and eBay not returning calls or emails for over 10 days...

Lets end this cliff hanger!

Let me first reveal happily, Cornerstone Supply is now back listing items and selling on eBay! The block has been removed...

The pressure is off, the clients eBay block has been removed! Yet eBay Trust & Safety still has not returned an email or a telephone call.

That's right! We have now over 20 days have elapsed, without a single reply from Trust & Safety (promised reply within 24-72 hours). (eBay never even confirmed the block had been removed, when we found the cause of the problem).

Why Was Cornerstone Blocked from Selling on eBay?

We received many fine suggestions from the community of eBay sellers about why Cornerstone's listings might be blocked?

• Some said it was the video which displayed a link to a free video editing program - removed those videos, that was not it...
• Some said it was the telephone number and address in each listing... Not the problem
• Some said it could have been the linking to suppliers from the me page -  nope...
• Others suggested interesting and odd things, but basically everyone was off base by just a smidge...

Since I could not get any information from eBay, and believe me, I tried... And the client Connie Carpenter tried... Remember Connie?  The Christian Missionary?

Connie said this in an email to me... "It still upsets me that we have not received any e-mails or communication from eBay at all. I think they needed to talk to us and let us know what is going on. I have e-mailed them once and you e-mailed them. You did a live chat and I did 2 live chats. I even talked to a supervisor and was promised I would get a response from them. Absolutely nothing. That furiates me. At least it is fixed"

Yes, it is fixed, but really, we can not give eBay any credit for helping us resolve what ended up being a very minor problem in Cornerstone's listings, which in turn became a two week ordeal and loss of income.

eBay started out by giving us some very well documented stone walling.

After our attempts at normal channel communications, I made some high level inquiries within eBay corporate via some friends I happen to have.  Unfortunately I do not have a direct Trust and Safety hot-line or contact.

Apparently, neither do my friends at eBay corporate headquarters in San Jose (who will go nameless). My friends and contacts were also powerless against the "black hole" of communication which encircles eBay Trust & Safety.

One of my friends at eBay did return with what he said was direct word from Trust & Safety....

This "word" was that my clients account had been compromised.

The account had been breached by a hacker in Romania and... even if they had received any contact from the eBay member, they could not respond, because it could be the hacker trying to breach their security.   Now this sounded serious, yet fantastical.

• If a Romanian hacker had breached Cornerstone Commercial Supplies account, why had there not been any fraudulent buying or selling? - There had not been...
• If eBay or eBay Trust & Safety had enough concern about this situation to block the account from selling, why would they not also block the account from buying or transacting any business at all?
• If eBay Trust & Safety was so concerned and they could not communicate via email with the account holder because of this breach in security, why did they not pick up the phone to call the customer at the established business telephone number, on file with eBay and posted on each and every page of the eBay store?
• Why not call immediately to tell the eBay client, the eBay member, eBay's customer, that they have a possible security problem which could also reach into other aspects of their business and life?
• Why not contact the business for over 20 days? Are they trying to catch the Romanian red handed in the account?

The answer is simple, there was never any Romanian, no security breach, and my friend at eBay was lied to by someone at Trust and Safety. Simple as that...

Why do I know this?

Because I worked at figuring out why my clients listings were blocked by eBay.  None of this made any sense and when eBay did not respond for over 10 days, I stopped waiting for them to help us with an answer.

• The answer would have been so simple to give...
• The answer was not a breach of security, it was no massive violation...
• The answer was one word.

Turns out, it was as simple as that... Cornerstone, as do all my clients, uses default text for payment preferences, shipping information, return policies and the like.  This information is entered as defaults in our AuctionLogic software suite for each client.

Bidpay was a payment processor accepted on eBay until they went out of business in December 2007.

Effective December 31, 2007, BidPay.com, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of CyberSource Corporation, discontinued operations.

eBay decided it would tell sellers that they must remove all references to Bidpay in the payment options text for each auction or listing.  We did this... But we missed one instance in another tab where this word existed in Cornerstone's listings.  The word Bidpay had been inserted somehow in the shipping information.  No link, no fraud, no real breach of security...

Just one word... BIDPAY

Yes, eBay had said they would need this reference removed in a general statement some time ago. But they never told Cornerstone this was the problem preventing them from listing on eBay.  The "Live Help" person could have revealed this information on the first day of the block when we contacted eBay to find out why listings had been blocked. I mean, really... why all the cloak and dagger tactics with Trust and Safety?

Bidpay is no longer in business!

No one could possibly lose money or process a payment through this non-existent payment service, so why was this a T&S issue at all?  Why does eBay consider the mere mention of a defunct payment processor, buried within the shipping terms of a small business, reason to shut that business down and not tell them why for over 20 days? Are they that protective of PayPal that the mere mention of a former competitor can cause this much damage?

My client, one of eBay's newest brick and mortar small business customers, is very disappointed in eBay's role in this fiasco.

Yes, we missed a word in Cornerstone's default listing text, our bad... But with all of the possibilities of what could have been the problem, from videos, to me page links, to suppliers and then Romanian hackers (information provided directly from eBay - incorrectly), who was looking for one small word?

And how easy it could have been for the person at "Live Help" to have said.. "Oh yes, your account is blocked because your mentioning a former competitor of PayPal who is no longer in business in the shipping section of your default terms & conditions with font size 8 text and no link".  "There's your problem"

We would have said, "oh.. wow, OK eBay, that's an easy fix, lemme get rid of that nasty little word for you right now".  We would have resolved this problem in 10 mins instead of about 2 weeks and dozens of hours on the line with "Live Help" and in writing emails to Trust and Safety. Why would this small problem be so highly guarded and protected from the only people who could resolve it?  The eBay seller controls the text in each listing, so why not communicate with the seller to say... "Seller - We Have a Problem", remove this text from your listing.

COMMUNICATION -  ALL WE NEEDED

We needed to hear something from eBay, some kind of information that was not disinformation or ominous references to "Trust and Safety must speak with you about this issue".  When the stated policy is to return emails within 24-72 hours, how can eBay justify a 20 day and counting lack of communication?  How can eBay possibly tell its sellers that we need to communicate better with our buyers, when instances like this one, are not rare at all when dealing with eBay San Jose?

Damages?

Cornerstone Supply could not really show any significant damages in this case, (unless stress and worry are considered) simply because they are so new and they don't yet sell a massive volume of goods. Frankly, the people at Cornerstone are not at all interested in such discussions, they simply wanted to try and continue to build the eBay business they had started.  They wanted to know how to fix the problem, and how to avoid it in the future.

They never found out... Because eBay never bothered to call or write.

Step it up eBay - fix your own communications problems, before determining the sellers need to fix anything else.  We can not work with you, if you will not even speak with us.

Certainly I am pleased that our Trading Assistant Journal has had a great deal of helpful comments and interest expressed in my recent article about Cornerstone Commercial Supply.

Find the Article Here: Live Help - Communication at eBay

The last comment in that thread was posted by a regular and valued contributor to our comments, Henrietta of the Red Ink Diary.

Henrietta is adding to the conversation here at the Trading Assistant Journal with helpful suggestions regarding reasons why Cornerstone may have been blocked from listing any new items on eBay. I appreciate Henrietta's suggestions as well as John's (who suggested a link to a free video editing software suite seen in a you Tube video displayed on the item pages could be the problem - great suggestion, but why? and how will we know if eBay does not tell us?)

12 Henrietta

Is there any possibility that this is related to the telephone number and email address on each listing and his About Me page? Soon to be prohibited.

I know we do not have an actual implementation date beyond the ‘July’ mentioned in the May 19th announcement. Typical of the eBay way, however, you will recall TnS started removing digital delivery sales 8 days before the stated cut-off date of March 31st.

It will be July in 4 days.

I started to reply to the comment, with a new comment under the same article, but as is often in my case, a quick reply morphed into a long article of its own...

@ Henrietta & @ John

Both of you have offered good observations and we have had the same ideas...

Yet without hearing from eBay Trust & Safety to know exactly what the problem is, it is difficult to go changing things within live listings and not know what it is we should be altering to get the listing block lifted. Any changes we make will be in the dark, and we are unable to test individual changes because all listings have been blocked. Yet eBay told us it was not a serious violation of policy... Now over 72 hours later we feel they are incorrect in their classification of this incident.

I would also like to address the point of removing telephone numbers from eBay listings and eBay stores.

Let me please go on record with the view that this ban on telephone numbers and address information is ridiculous protectionism.

If this policy actually goes into effect, I think it will irrevocably harm eBays standing with brick and mortar business sellers.

Think about the customer of a business like Cornerstone Supply...

Most carpet and Janitorial service owners are not extremely Internet savvy. They all would rather speak with a human voice when they have a question concern or just simply want to know which product to purchase for a certain application.

There is no possible way to cover all the frequently asked questions for the line of carpet cleaning agents, chemicals, parts, pressure hoses, machines, engines, blowers, wands, extractors and other items a business like Cornerstone Commercial Supply sells.

Sometimes the merchant just must speak to the customer on the phone!

These types of brick and mortar merchants are very good on the phone. Customers build confidence in these types of companies when they call and speak with a staff member like they have at Cornerstone.

The Internet is a wonderful and amazing way to shop and sell, but person to person communications can not be replaced with a short text message.

Why on earth would eBay consider a telephone number meant for CUSTOMER SERVICE a violation of linking policy?

Why is it, an established business with a retail location would be prevented from telling the world that they are a real entity with a business location by displaying an address? Has eBay ever heard of Google maps? Pretty popular with the public, one reason people shop online today in convenience. Restricting information as basic as an address or telephone number just increases distrust among the buying public.

What is eBay afraid of?

eBay is a place to advertise goods and services.

eBay has always been, in their own words, a "Venue".

If the venue restricts the capability of a business to advertise its location and customer service telephone number, what good is the advertising expenditure on that venue?

And another point - How are the buyers going to differentiate between real brick and mortar businesses with dozens of years of history and experience... from drop shippers and fly by night scammers with no experience at all? Especially if they offer the same goods and there is no way to contact the seller, look up an address or to ask a question of a live person?

ebay's message service is protecting eBay and no one else.

Sure, buyers do not want to be spammed with email if the ask a question, but buyers also want to receive full answers to their questions.

Currently the eBay "My Messages" service only allows one reply to a question and both parties must be familiar with the limitations of the eBay "My Messages" console. Limitations as to length of message, limitation on content of message and what if the customer wants an image sent to them of a very valuable item? What if the customer needs to see a contract or service agreement? How is the merchant going to send this information via the "My Messages" console?

I have personally had inbound messages sent to my company through the eBay "My Messages" service delayed for as long as a week... Suddenly appearing in our inbox on My eBay with a follow up question from the same customer, asking us why we do not reply?

COMMUNICATION should be open - Not restricted!

eBay - if your reading this - please do not make these mistakes by limiting the ability of established businesses to communicate with THEIR customers.

Protecting the buyer is all well and good, but that can be accomplished by processing and following up on the actual claims of abuse of the email policies submitted by buyers rather than restricting each and every merchant paying for your "services".

When these services become so restricted and controlled as to prevent commerce from actually occurring, eBay will no longer be a relevant "venue" for merchants.

Open your eyes and ears, and listen to your sellers (customers) eBay - Please...

Just as all merchants need to listen to their (buyer) customers...

Are we not on the same page about communications - at all?

EBay, which doesn't even operate a site in Romania, won't talk dollar figures but acknowledges that the country is the No. 1 source of "professional fraud." On a November 2006 visit to the Romanian capital, Bucharest, FBI Director Robert Mueller said the vast majority of Internet fraud committed on "one prominent U.S. online auction website is connected to Romania or Romanians."

That poses a problem for EBay. The San Jose-based auction giant has built its popularity and staked its reputation on self-policing feedback. Its system depends on buyers and sellers trusting one another -- to send money and to deliver the goods. Yet EBay users are the daily targets of phishing scams, spoof e-mails and fake listing attacks. Such schemes don't cost EBay any money. But some of its customers pay dearly. And they expect EBay to do something about it.
 

The story in the Los Angeles Times details how eBay and the US Secret Service are working with the Romanian government and Police to track down the perpetrators of fraudulent eBay auctions and buying offers. 

 "The fraudsters need to know we're coming after them," said Rob Chesnut, Spasova's boss and a former federal prosecutor who set up EBay's Trust and Safety division. "EBay doesn't have a product. We are in the trust business: making people feel comfortable doing business with someone they don't know," he said. "If the bad guys have no fear of prosecution, they will continue to try to defraud users. So there has to be a cost to trying."

The story is very interesting and details how hard eBay works to maintain thier reputation.

So, the next time you read a headline which details how eBay does not do anything to prevent rampant fraud on its site, just remember this article and know that eBay scours the World looking for criminals and ways to work with the authorities to shut them down. Good for eBay!  

read the original LA Times Article

I was meeting judges who thought cyber-crime was someone stealing a computer,” she says.To give the Romanian police a fighting chance, EBay has donated computers, digital cameras and Internet connections. In her first 12 months on the job, Spasova established relationships with law enforcement officers in 24 of Romania’s 42 districts and with local ISPs.

After she had won their confidence, Spasova and her small team began working cases with local police, matching evidence with data from EBay’s Fraud Investigation Team database, such as the Internet protocol addresses, which are unique to each computer, used when a fraudulent auction was posted — the sort of information that could help police pinpoint the scammers’ location and begin surveillance.

Through Spasova, the U.S. Secret Service also pitched in, donating forensic software and providing intelligence on fraud networks from its field agents.But moving cases from the investigative to the judicial stage is another challenge. Spasova has been educating Romanian prosecutors too, explaining the nuances of phishing and other ways in which EBay accounts are compromised “so that when a prosecutor goes to a judge, he can use layman’s language rather than terms the judge will not be familiar with.”In the last two years, Spasova and her colleagues have trained hundreds of prosecutors and a magistrate from each province on dealing with cyber-crime.

Virgil Spiridon, chief of the Romania national police’s 4-year-old cyber-crime unit, rattles off some of the headway his team of 10 investigators has been making.”Last year, 115 people were arrested and 831 crimes identified by police,” Spiridon reads from his notebook. “We pressed charges against 61 people, identified 65 organized groups and 28 cases have been sent to the courts.” He pauses and looks up.”But we are running to keep up.”Most of the arrests to date have been of low-level couriers and money mules — the bagmen, not the brains at the top, the FBI’s Dickson said. Likewise, Spasova acknowledges the mammoth task that still lies ahead of the chronically understaffed and underfunded Romanian police. “In Ramnicu Valcea, police raided a local Internet cafe and arrested kids doing fraud,” she says. “But two hours later, they returned and found others had taken their place.” There are cultural and structural obstacles too. Under Romanian law, for example, victims of Internet fraud must send police a signed complaint and be represented at the hearing, which makes pressing a case on behalf of an American EBay customer nearly impossible. “The judicial process can take forever,” Spasova says. “Because the victims aren’t present, there is no sense of immediacy.

It’s hard to know who to trust when the mothers and fathers of fraudsters know the mother and father of the judge or local politicians.”Romania has taught EBay a lesson: the importance of “addressing a problem region before we have a problem,” said Matt Henley, senior manager of EBay’s Technical Investigations and Analysis Group, who has spent time with Spasova in Romania.

Henley says EBay is now alert to threats from “regions we weren’t paying attention to” and, thanks to Romania, has a ready-to-deploy government-relations-in-a-box program it can take anywhere in the world.Spasova has a new assignment from EBay: persuading Interpol, Europol and law enforcement agencies across Europe to communicate directly with one another and EBay on cyber-crime issues. But her jaunts to Ramnicu Valcea will continue. “Even though these frauds are not happening on our platform, we’re not showing a loss, and there are no victims in court . . . we’re sending out a message that someone is taking care of this,” she says.

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