Poll Question
So with counterfeits practically deregulated on
ebay, and hearing complaints almost daily about "how can this seller get away with this?" I would like to put the following idea "out there" in a request for comment. Some of you might find this familiar as I've mused about it before:
Where the word "bounty" generally refers to some sort of gift or reward; however, it can also mean "generosity." You'll see where that title's going in a bit.
Imagine a webpage where users can submit suspected counterfeits being sold by
ebay sellers whose accounts seem dedicated to fakery or have been unambiguously informed and know that their items is a counterfeit and yet insist upon selling it despite warnings.
A third party, in this case the staff of The Black Cabinet, reviews these submissions and takes all of the entries which are examples that are
unambiguously counterfeit along with contact transcripts and other evidence, reports them to
ebay once more, and then lists them under a "Request For Bounty" page.
Now, under
ebay's Customer Protection Policy, if someone purchases a counterfeit and they bring to
ebay's attention that it is indeed a fake, and that they would be breaking the law to send it back,
ebay gives them
5 days to furnish (1) a certified letter by a third party expert concurring with this assessment, and (2) requires that the customer has the item destroyed and discarded (so that it cannot be re-sold) and sign a statement to that effect.
Once both of those documents (the expert testimony and destruction statement) are secured,
ebay will then refund the buyer's money.
With this in mind, if the additional reports made by The Black Cabinet and other users perusing the list to
ebay do nothing about a counterfeit listed under a "Request For Bounty," a user may then -- if they are feeling "bountiful" enough to use their own funds -- opt to bid on/purchase any of the counterfeits listed. If they do so/win and submit the counterfeit to The Black Cabinet for physical confirmation (to see that it is indeed fake), public documentation to ensure that others have something to look out for, and the ultimate destruction of the counterfeit (
http://www.theblackcabinet.org/justice/), The Black Cabinet will provide them with the certified letter they'll need to get their money back in full.
Where there is no guarantee that they will accept the letter, all letters that I have written to
ebay in the capacity of my work on The Black Cabinet, to date,
have been accepted, the buyer was refunded promptly, and another counterfeit fell to Justice.
In this way, several things are taken care of:
1) The entire process is initiated
outside of The Black Cabinet, so the staff may act as
a true 3rd party.
2) The process is
public, so it cannot be abused (no claiming real coins are fake and re-selling them -- there are enough horror stories about that). There will be a paper trail, documentation, and photographic evidence of how a seller "knows or should have known" as per HPA/CCPA and chose to sell anyways. This would be a boon to law enforcement to tackle repeat offenders, offering an open-and-shut case, and hit overseas counterfeiters that the Secret Service can't easily touch.
3) It will get counterfeits out of the hands of crooks and
remove them from circulation, rather than allow them to be sent back and refunded so they can turn around and sell them to another unsuspecting buyer (which is what
ebay will ask if a buyer does not press the issue that they would be in violation of Federal Law to do so).
I have already put together some alpha software that can help with streamlining such a procedure that integrates it with the existing Black Cabinet website's software, and it's almost ready for testing. Our discussion here will determine whether or not I flip the switch on it.
So, now I must ask for your thoughts and comments. What do you think, CCF? :-)
Posted 02/15/2015 6:54 pm
