[wayne mox]

Originally Posted by not_so_new

You know why? Because I assume that security is my responsibility at all times. The only thing out of my hands on Ebay is my account on their servers. If someone cracks their server security and steals my account then shame on them.

If I pay $18,999 for a $2,500 microphone, my fault.

What if you pay $2000 for a $2000 mic, and find out the seller used a hijacked account? The current $15000 auction for a E49 mic is a joke, it's at $15000 because people here have pushed it up to mess with the seller. If you indeed buy a $2500 mic for $18,999, it most certainly is your choice, but your probably don't have all your marbles. Besides, paying too high for an item is not an Ebay security issue. That's a personal common sense issue.

If I buy a $500 guitar from an account that has only sold DVD's for $4.50 each, my fault.

Why is it a fault? What if I wanted to start selling guitars after selling DVD's for 3 years? No one is implying it's a scam, but it may be a likely scam that requires further scrutiny. Scrutiny as in an Ebay Policeman looking closely at the pics, the description, doing searches over the past year for the same item and wording, the seller's account.

See, we can only search for items sold in 30 days, but Ebay SHOULD have the power to search for item's over the past year or two years. Too much bandwidth and storage requirement to hold all that info? TOUGH! Ebay created this monster. Pay for the servers to hold the info, and all relevant details over the past 2 years worth of auctions.

That's what I'm talking about. Their infrastructure is CRAP.

If I buy a $20,000 car from a seller and I never give them a call before I pay, my fault.

Again, not an Ebay security issue. Not even a security issue at all. Most people will pay for cars by check when they go to pick up the car. Cars really shouldn't be on Ebay's security concern as most people won't pay until they've gone to inspect it at pickup.

If I pay for a $1000 gold watch with a Western Union wire transfer, my fault.

Once again, not a security issue. Many people use western union transactions.

If I sell my product to a bidder with a feedback rating of 0 and take a personal check then ship without waiting for it to clear, my fault.

Not a security issue.

If I let my computer get hacked because I did not follow proper security procedures, my fault.

Ebayer scammers don't hackcomputers, so this is a moot point.

If I open every email that comes into my Yahoo account and someone hijacks my Ebay user name and password, my fault.

This is the first item I agree with you on.

Ebay's whole premise is to have the community police the community. That is what the rating system is for. It may not be the best system but if you are smart about your transactions then you will probably be fine.

Ratings are a crock and are useless. All they do is show how many transactions went well, they don't show the ones that went bad. Why? Because 99% of the involved people do not leave negative feedback for fear of getting a retalitory negative. Further, feedback was never meant to "police" the community as you put it. Feedback is voluntary and again, pretty much useless.

Well, $500 is a big deal to me but to each their own. Either way, I am sure there are hunderds of thousands of + $1000 auctions that go down each week, that is a huge number.

Just in MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS last night when I did a search, there were NINE auctions that were ending within 2 hours, had at least one bid, and were at least $1000. Not all categories need policing. Auto Auctions need little policing as most people (unless your an imbecile), do not pay for a car before they go to inspect it upon pickup. So don't go throwing in all the categories.

Auctions like audio equipment are like an open back door at your house. Audio equipment is easily forged.

Oh, I've been a member on Ebay since 1998, so I got ya on that one by one year. I have 2 negatives.

Which department at Ebay do you work in?