eBay Whores Immune to Rob Chestnut's New Security Measures

It can be hard to find proof of eBay malfeasance - not because it isn't there (it is rampant), but because those of us who question management and try to report on it must do so in our spare time between work, family and other obligations. That said, hats off to "budmalcolm" for his latest video. Not only does is remind us how scammers are using eBay to defraud shoppers with pictures of boobies and hoochies; the video more importantly shows once again the eBay's Trust & Safety security chief Rob Chestnut is full of shit. Recently he announced a security measure that keeps listings from showing in searches until they have passed security checks. Budmalcolm's video shows just how big of a liar Chestnut is....with screenshots of scam listings that hit the searches within ONE MINUTE!!

These "indexing delays" are very upsetting to many users who feel that they should be getting a full 7 days of exposure for auction listings. After all, fees have gone up dramatically in the past couple of years. It seems that Chestnut was just flat out lying about the filters and delays. He says that the delays will occur in high fraud categories, yet the high-fraud eBay motors categories have hundreds and thousands of scams passing through the filters untouched and undelayed every day, while honest Powersellers with great feedback have to wait hours and sometimes days before their items can be viewed in the searches by shoppers - even in the lowest risk categories.

POLL: How Many ebay User ID's Do You Have?

eBay's CEO, Meg Whitman, reports that there are now over 230 million eBay users. There has been widespread speculation that eBay is using multiple ID's from single users (used for buying, selling, posting, trolling, scamming etc.) in this number, as well as using the ID's created by the many scammers who use the site to defraud other members. Anyone following the Vladuz hackings knows that Vladuz himself has registered at least a half-dozen ID's in the past two months.

So, we have a simple one question poll. How many eBay ID's do you have. Please take a minute to answer it, so that we can get an idea of how accurate (or inaccurate) eBay's numbers really are.

The poll can be found here: http://www.firemeg.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=110

By the way - your comments are always welcome :) thanks

eBay Security Chief Rob Chestnut: Pathological Liar of Bumbling Idiot?

If someone opens their mouth and all that comes out is lies each time....how long before you'd stop believing them? Everyone probably knows at least one pathological liar personally whether that person is a coworker, acquaintance or possibly even a friend. You wouldn't trust this person enough to plan your wardrobe on what they say the weather will be today. How about trusting them enough to give them all of your personnel financial information? Would you trust this person to make decisions for your business without your prior approval? How about trusting them to handle security at your workplace? Well...sadly, you do trust someone to handle security who has access to your personal information and he routinely makes decisions for your business without your approval or knowledge. Meet Rob Chestnut. He is eBay's Senior Vice President in charge of Global Trust & Safety, he's also a pathological liar and Meg Whitman's mouthpiece for company spin related to fraud and scams.

Last week Rob announced a new program to help combat fraud on eBay.com. It's called Proactive Fraud Protection. According to Chestnut, " Today I want to let buyers and sellers know about another security measure we're taking.For safety reasons, items reportedly most favored by fraudsters may not be viewable for several hours before the listings are indexed into Search results. These new listings are still viewable on the site through My eBay or if you search for the specific item number; however, they are not immediately visible through a keyword search or Browse."

OK first thing first. This is NOT a new "measure!" Wait, wait. If you missed the effects of this "measure" as a seller, you are quite lucky. Sellers have been reporting long delays in indexing for up to and over a year now. When first reported, eBay CS reps simply said that they didn't know why it was occurring. Then after awhile their story morphed into something that resembles Chestnut's new measure.

Chestnut: To maximize exposure for these listings and ensure that buyers who browse by category see these items, we've made an important change. Any listings impacted by this review process will appear in the "Newly Listed" sort based on when they are made visible in Search (as opposed to when they are listed.) This ensures they will appear at the top of default Browse results - as well as within the "Newly Listed" sort option for Search - where they belong.

If you couldn't keep from snickering or rolling your eyes over that last paragraph, you are not alone. Basically eBay is saying that they want you to believe that the moment your item indexes (whether it be an hour or 2 1/2 days after listing it) it will appear at the top of the newly listed page and retain the little "newly listed" sun logo for 24 hours. I'd love to see the coding that went into making it work that way. I'd love to see proof that this is actually a valid security measure. Basically eBay is saying that they created a program that will check listings for fraud before the item shows in searches and when the checks are finished the item will be inserted into the newly listed page immediately (and at the very top). Seems like a bit of a fairy tale, especially since they can't get their "filters" that check the fraud to work in the first place.

My own personal speculation after dealing with this glitch for the past year, reading about it and hearing hundreds of complaints about the issue is this: eBay is seriously f*cked up. I believe they made changes to part of the structure of the site that resulted in slow (and sometimes non-existent) indexing. By the time the reports started rolling in to the point that they realized it was a problem, it was too late. Remember, a year ago eBay was denying that this was a problem with users' browsers. Now it seems that eBay can't go back and fix the issue, so after a year of steady complaints about the issue they are now announcing the issue disguised as a fraud protection measure and hoping to appease the angry sellers by telling them that their items will still show up at the top of newly listed searches after indexing. If you're a seller and you use the SYI form, you might remember several months ago a new disclaimer that started appearing at the bottom of the page right before you submit the item - basically it said that there might be some delay in the time from listing till your items show up in searches. Funny how when that disclaimer started showing up, there was no mention of fraud fighting.

How do you know if you'll be affected by the measure? Short of checking each item you list in search - you won't know if you are being affected. Chestnut: Unfortunately, it's not possible for us to give you criteria, because that information could be used by scammers to work around our Trust and Safety efforts(1). Overall, however, we expect this security measure to impact only a fraction of listings(2).
Let me say that I understand that this has some impact for our sellers, but with the change to how we sort listings, and the fact that most bidding occurs in the final 12 hours of a listing, we believe it's the right step to take.(3) I know we share the same goal – to keep eBay a welcoming, safe marketplace for both our buyers and our sellers.

1. Hey Rob, newsflash. Scammers don't need help getting around your security system - you've had this system in place (supposedly) for a year. It isn't stopping scammers. Check out the screenshots on this article on eBaymotorssucks.com. EBMS caught a screenshot chock full of scam listings on eBay motors just 2 hours after they were listed. Who knows how quickly they actually showed up.

2. This seems to have been widespread for months now. Sporadic, but widespread. Bloggers have long been speculating that there really are no measures in place and that the indexing delays are the result of some defect in eBay code or hardware. Many report having listings that index immediately one day and then take 12+ hours to index similar listings the next day. Also there are inconsistencies within categories between sellers. Sellers report waiting hours (and sometimes even days) for items to hit the searches and in the meantime other identical items in the same category have hit the searches and received bids.

3. Yeah Rob, the most bidding occurs during the last 12 hours, followed closely by the first 12 hours items appear in search. Also, sorting searches by "newly listed" is the most popular way to search eBay. And no Rob, we do not share the same goal. My goal as well as every other professional eBay seller is to pay the mortgage, feed the kids, and keep clothes on our back and food on the table - plain and simple. Sure, some sellers might have dreams of becoming millionaires by selling on eBay, but basically our goal is to pay the bills while we are our own bosses. It also should not be your GOAL to keep eBay a safe marketplace. It is your friggin' job dude. It isn't a "GOAL" it is a REQUIREMENT of your employment - it is what you get paid millions of dollars in salary and stock option each year for.

Rob Chestnut is like the stereotypical security guard in a television cop drama who falls asleep while the building is robbed, people are murdered and a biological pathogen is distributed in the ventilation system. He is always the first suspect, but cleverly helps investigators by pointing in the direction of someone else. Five minutes later in the TV show, the viewer forgets all about the fact that the murder would not have occurred if the security guard had been doing his job.

In case you missed it, below is a video that shows how well Rob Chestnut is doing his job. More videos that show his incompetence can be found here.