Does Ebay Review Reports Of Counterfeits Fairly.

For some time, I have reported about the termination of the Coin Watch Committee and the void that has created in stopping the large forgery groups that pressed ebay for our removal by threatening to sue ebay.

Some people it seems believe ebay and their various "statements" made since March 2013 regarding why the group was terminated.

So to prove my point - taken in a post on another part of the forum I conducted a test of the ebay REPORT system.

My test has run now for about 48 hours more or less.

I reported 55 coins all absolutely clear violations because each and every coin was a numismatic forgery. These were all fakes that had been reported and TERMINATED on numerous occasions before March 2013. So ebay could have checked their files - if they kept them to see they were all previously voted upon frauds. None of these auctions were scheduled to terminate in under 24 hours. Most were in fact 5-7 days out.

I can report that ebay stopped 7 of the coins within 36 hours. None of the seller IDs has been terminated or suspended. That is 12% terminated as of 48 hours.

That sounds bad enough but then you need to know how I chose the sellers I reported. I chose forgeries belonging to 3 groups of sellers.

First a group of Russian/Israeli/Latvian forgeries. These were all on the US ebay site and all of them had shipping rates to the US. I reported seven auctions and NONE of these were stopped. One auction has already ended costing the buyer $54. This loosely knit group has operated for at least 3 years and their coins are common on the secondary US market.

Second a group of Chinese forgeries being re-sold by sellers all in the USA. I picked these because the sellers sold mixed goods (not specifically coins) and each had ONLY ONE FORGERY in their active sales. Ten auctions were reported - 6 of the 7 that were stopped were in this group of sellers. This proves a couple things to me. First ebay can operate very quickly when they choose to. Second they seem to pick on the small sellers as easier targets.

Third a mixed group (of sellers) selling Chinese forgeries. There were 41 coins in all. All of these sellers fit the typical profile of the Beijing group that I hunted for almost a year. I would have asked ebay management to immediately terminate each of these IDs. They all involve multiple copies of bad fakes. Never give any warning. These are the BAD GUYS - these are the guys that stole bank account numbers and set up fake IDs. These are the big group of thieves who complained to ebay and got us canned and the policy at ebay changed. Only 1 of these auctions was stopped. I had picked 10 auctions that were to end within 48 hours and 31 that were to end at various longer intervals. The one terminated fell within the first group of ten - so ebay had enough time to stop all ten - they just didn't. They also terminate no ID's - they are all still operating - and selling and making money for ebay. The 9 coins that have ended to far sold for $ 1,450. That is an average of $161 per coin.

Perhaps that is small change in the scheme of fraud. But in EACH CASE my report would have prevented each of these. I would have potentially saved these buyers from purchasing a forgery. Too bad.

I will complete the report after all 55 auctions are complete - but I believe my case is well underway to being proven that ebay is highly selective in terminations and that they avoid terminating certain seller groups responsible for large numbers of sales and that they hide behind a shield of PRIVACY so that their tactics are not obvious.