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CAPP -> CAPP -> Time For A Change...Another thread quickly removed by LiveWorld because the "trollers" said to..... lol
Post Info TOPIC: Time For A Change...Another thread quickly removed by LiveWorld because the "trollers" said to..... lol
Cyber Diva


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Time For A Change...Another thread quickly removed by LiveWorld because the "trollers" said to..... lol
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Under Time For Some Changes... [file note: eBaY's Live World team quickly pulled this thread also once the eBaY vigilante team showed up in record numbers to foolishly identifY themselves, one by one. ]

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000208715&start=0


artrenditions.com (22 ) View Listings | Report Aug-28-06 00:48 PDT

Imagine a jewelry store on Main Street, with patrons coming in and out throughout the day. Now imagine that the proprietor's competitor, the pawn shop owner from just down the street, comes up with the clever idea of hiring a sympathetic-looking goon to stand outside this proprietor's store for the sole purpose of "assisting buyers" as they leave his premises. Each customer is told the same sordid tale, about how this "witness" was "ripped off" by the merchant inside, how this store sells "inferior goods," how they "overcharge their customers," and how the products are "not as described." Tell me, how long before the police would be summoned and that goon carted away? How long before the competitor behind this unfair competition was detected and sued?

Obviously, such disruptive business interference wouldn't be tolerated for long in that case, but then, that's Main Street, and this, after all, is e-Street, where literally anyone can contact anyone else under a cloak of almost complete anonymity, where ill-motivated strangers can libel anyone they please with impunity, and where, if a scoundrel is clever enough, he or she can continue disrupting the legitimate businesses of others undetected for months, possibly even years. On e-Street, unfair competition evidently is so easy and so difficult to contain that for the unscrupulous, it's a temptation impossible to resist.

When caught or questioned, they don their purple capes and claim immunity as indispensable "net cops," blithely pointing to the "rampant fraud" that exists here on eBay, and to the "fact" that eBay is either unable or unwilling to do anything about it, often suggesting that, motivated by greed, eBay secretly suborns fraud. They paint a grim picture indeed, about how things surely would be were it not for their own selfless goodness, and their countless unpaid hours spent protecting the weak, and in this way, they provide the very warrant for their own continued and unfettered "police" work.

Of course, nothing could be further from reality. The truth is that these people are sellers or agents of retail interests with a serious conflict of interest, and there is little or no altruism actually involved in any of it. They are untrained, unlicensed, unregulated, unsworn, and thus, unsuited to the serious and solemn task of law enforcement. Generally, they also are unprincipled, and thus are unable to resist the opportunities and temptations presented by their own conflicting motives. On the other hand, they grossly underestimate and misrepresent the considerable ongoing and accelerated efforts undertaken by eBay to curb abuses of all kinds within its virtual walls. They also mislead others by falsely describing eBay as some kind of "home for fraud," when the fact is the small rate of per capita fraud found here on eBay is no greater than it is on Main Street.

The question is: Why should eBay merchants tolerate what merchants on Main Street never would tolerate, and what the law says they need not tolerate? It most assuredly is time for a change.

There are three changes that would significantly reduce fraud as well as the business interference descrribed herein:

(1) Require positive identification of all users, retroactively;

(2) Aggregate all user ids under a single legal entity (natural person or business), and make this information accessible to interested parties, which would include trading partners and discussion forum participants;

(3) Notify sellers when another member has contacted their bidders and buyers in the context of their listings and feedback. No suggestion here is made to desclose the content of the contact but merely that contact has occurred, when it took place, and by whom.

These simple changes would substantially reduce bid siphoning, auction interference, and various kinds of fraud, and with minimal inconvenience to honest traders. Therefore, I sincerely hope that eBay will consider these beneficial proposals.
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000208715&start=0



[file edit note: edited to add link to eBay's original URL. See Safe Harbor: Archived records for an account.}


-- Edited by Cyber Diva at 18:31, 2007-03-11

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RE: Time For A Change...Another thread quickly removed by LiveWorld because the "trollers" said to..... lol
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FTC Moves to Unmask Word of Mouth Marketing

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anonymous wrote:

FTC Moves to Unmask Word of Mouth Marketing

 



Word-of-mouth marketing, eh? "As the practice has taken hold over the past several years, however, some advocacy groups have questioned whether marketers are using such tactics to dupe consumers into believing they are getting unbiased information."



FTC Moves to Unmask Word of Mouth Marketing

By Annys Shin
Washington Post

Endorser Must Disclose Link to Seller

The Federal Trade Commission yesterday said that companies engaging in word-of-mouth marketing, in which people are compensated to promote products to their peers, must disclose those relationships.

In a staff opinion issued yesterday, the consumer protection agency weighed in for the first time on the practice. Though no accurate figures exist on how much money advertisers spend on such marketing, it is quickly becoming a preferred method for reaching consumers who are skeptical of other forms of advertising.

Word-of-mouth marketing can take any form of peer-to-peer communication, such as a post on a Web blog, a MySpace.com page for a movie character, or the comments of a stranger on a bus.

As the practice has taken hold over the past several years, however, some advocacy groups have questioned whether marketers are using such tactics to dupe consumers into believing they are getting unbiased information.

In October 2005, Commercial Alert, an advertising and marketing watchdog group in Portland, Ore., petitioned the FTC to consider taking action against word-of-mouth marketers. The group called for the FTC to issue guidelines requiring paid agents to disclose their relationship to the company whose product they are promoting, including any compensation.

The group cited a 2002 Wall Street Journal article on a marketing campaign by Sony Ericsson Mobile for its T68i mobile phone and digital camera. The initiative, called “Fake Tourist,” involved placing 60 actors posing as tourists at attractions in New York and Seattle to demonstrate the camera phone. The actors asked passersby to take their photo, which demonstrated the camera phone’s capabilities, but the actors did not identify themselves as representatives for Sony Ericsson.

Commercial Alert also singled out Tremor, a marketing division of Procter & Gamble, which has assembled a volunteer force of 250,000 teenagers to promote the company’s products to friends and relatives.

Procter & Gamble spokesman Terry Loftus said participants in its word-of-mouth campaigns are free to talk negatively or positively about a product or service and do not receive compensation. Volunteers are not required to disclose their relationship with the company, he said. Some participants receive sample products, he said, so they can offer an opinion on a product.

Word-of-mouth advertising is already covered under existing FTC regulations that govern commercial endorsements. What the FTC sought to do yesterday in its staff opinion was to note that such marketing could be deceptive if consumers were more likely to trust the product’s endorser “based on their assumed independence from the marketer.”

“The petition to us did raise a question about compliance with the FTC act,” said Mary K. Engle, FTC associate director for advertising practices. “We wanted to make clear . . . if you’re being paid, you should disclose that.”

The FTC said it would investigate cases where there is a relationship between the endorser of a product and the seller that is not disclosed and could affect the endorsement. The FTC staff said it would go after violators on a case-by-case basis. Consequences could include a cease-and-desist order, fines and civil penalties ranging from thousands of dollars to millions of dollars. Engle said the agency had not brought any cases against word-of-mouth marketers.

Though the staff’s opinion fell short of Commercial Alert’s original request, the group’s executive director, Gary Ruskin, said he was pleased the staff agreed that word-of-mouth marketing could be deceptive.

“This letter tells marketers like Procter & Gamble that their ‘sponsored consumers’ must disclose that they are shilling, or they are probably in violation of the prohibition against deceptive advertising. That’s big,” he said. “It will change practices in the word-of-mouth marketing industry.”

Andy Sernovitz, chief executive of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, said the FTC’s decision was an endorsement of the industry’s efforts to police itself. The Chicago-based association, which has more than 300 members, last year issued a code of ethics stating that marketers should disclose ties to sponsors.

The group has also tried to hold members accountable. Sernovitz said the group is reviewing the membership status of the Edelman public relations firm after Wal-Mart, one of the firm’s clients, reportedly gave positive comments to bloggers who then posted the comments without mentioning the source. Edelman later admitted that some of its employees had written the blogs.

Procter & Gamble, which is not a member of the association, recruits volunteer marketers online, Loftus said. The company chooses volunteers based on their answers to a survey on the Tremor Web site, which tells participants if they join the Tremor Crew they could “name the next big movie” or “help design a video game.”

Peter Blackshaw, chief marketing officer for Nielsen BuzzMetrics, which tracks the effectiveness of word-of-mouth marketing, said brands have more than a moral incentive to be upfront with consumers. “There’s a high turn-off factor if consumers learn that the person making a recommendation is actually on contract,” with an incentive to push a product, he said.

A 2005 survey of 800 consumers by market research firm Intelliseek found that 29 percent of participants age 20 to 34 and 41 percent of those age 35 to 49 said they would be unlikely to trust a recommendation again from a friend whom they later learned was compensated for making the suggestion.

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Anyone who believes ANYTHING that is said by Artrenditions, really needs to get their head examined. That guy has more personalitlies than any other poster on the board. He's even gone so far as to have conversations with himself using two different ID's. A complete and utter loon.

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RE: Time For A Change, indeed.
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virusesrus wrote:

Anyone who believes ANYTHING that is said by Artrenditions, really needs to get their head examined. That guy has more personalitlies than any other poster on the board [update: file note re. artrenditions.com: artrenditions on eBay has been the victim of false personation by a malicious crew for some time now, strange you didn't know that mr. "virusesrus" person]. He's even gone so far as to have conversations with himself using two different ID's. A complete and utter loon. [a complete and utter-lie, mr. "virusesrus" person.]


 



Link please? Seeing that everything "artrenditions.com" says is right on, why wouldn't you believe it? Your false propaganda-rumored information must be from the former vigilante "netcops" who were FIRED by ebay, no doubt! But thanks for "helping out" whenever you can. Your knuckle-head performance is duly noted.


RE: Time For A Change, indeed.



-- Edited by Cyber Diva at 13:08, 2007-03-12: to add the following:

[update: file note re. artrenditions.com: artrenditions on eBay has been the victim of false personation by a malicious crew for some time now, strange you didn't know that mr. "virusesrus" person].


-- Edited by Cyber Diva at 13:09, 2007-03-12

-- Edited by Cyber Diva at 13:14, 2007-03-12

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More stuff on : virusesRus@xxxxx

http://www.wingland.net/Old%20Guestbooks/guestbookarchive13.htm



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RE: Time For A Change..
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Interview: Former eBay Top Seller GlacierBayDVD Speaks Out....




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I've been observing eBay over these past 8 months and I've come to the realization that they are a ship without a rudder, and it is affecting a group of people that I care a great deal about: EBay Sellers. So I thought I would lend my voice to the discussion. I have a unique perspective on eBay, and since I no longer sell online I can speak freely.



http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/66123/what_is_the_e_true_hollywood_story.html



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Vigilante (vi-j&-'lan-tE): n. - a person who tries in an unofficial way to prevent crime, or to catch and punish someone who has committed a crime, especially because they do not think that official organizations, such as the police, are controlling crime effectively. Vigilantes usually join together to form groups.

The following is an interview with one such person.

Interview with an eBay Vigilante.....



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Old news, but noteworthy just the same....


eBay India CEO arrested for allowing sale of porn on site

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RE: Time For A Change, indeed!
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eBay Police Blotter


Old Case Files:

communityoutreach@ebay.com View Listings | Report Sep-11-06 16:16 PDT 21 of 34
Hi Everyone,

Thank you for your posts on this topic.

As this is an active investigation, we currently cannot comment on the case.

I also wanted to bring to your attention our Police Blotter that does showcase our work with law enforcement. The stories on the Police Blotter are those cases which law enforcement and eBay/PayPal worked collaboratively to catch and prosecute fraudsters. The Police Blotter is currently being highlighted on "My eBay" and here on the Community Discussion Boards under "Information Central".

I would be interested in hearing your feedback on the Police Blotter.

Thank you,
Cheryl

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?messageID=2003744845&#2003744845
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communityoutreach@ebay.com View Listings | Report Sep-11-06 16:16 PDT 21 of 34
Hi Everyone,

Thank you for your posts on this topic.

As this is an active investigation, we currently cannot comment on the case.

I also wanted to bring to your attention our Police Blotter that does showcase our work with law enforcement. The stories on the Police Blotter are those cases which law enforcement and eBay/PayPal worked collaboratively to catch and prosecute fraudsters. The Police Blotter is currently being highlighted on "My eBay" and here on the Community Discussion Boards under "Information Central".

I would be interested in hearing your feedback on the Police Blotter.

Thank you,
Cheryl

Other Police Blotter "Case Study" Files:

The Lawrence Police Department announced at the time that investigators suspected The Yellow House was the center of a large, sophisticated fencing ring that involved selling stolen goods on site and on an eBay auction site online.

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/jul/20/yellow_house_close_doors/

Yellow House to close doors
Investigation, lost business cited in decision to sell store

By Ron Knox
Thursday, July 20, 2006


After months of search warrants, police investigations and lost business, the owners of the Yellow House, 1904 Mass., have decided to shut their doors.

“I don’t see it getting any better,” owner Guy Neighbors said. “It’s just too much stress to run a business under.”

Neighbors said both the secondhand shop’s business and building were officially on the market, and he planned to liquidate the longtime Lawrence business’ inventory to help keep up with mounting bills.

Those bills have been more and more difficult to pay since police began a public investigation of the business in December last year, Neighbors said.

The Lawrence Police Department announced at the time that investigators suspected The Yellow House was the center of a large, sophisticated fencing ring that involved selling stolen goods on site and on an eBay auction site online.

Since then, Neighbors said, the department has shut down at least seven different eBay sites belonging to Guy and Carrie Neighbors, as well as their friends and family.


Photo by Thad Allender
Guy Neighbors, left, and his wife, Carrie, owners of the Yellow House Store, 1904 Mass., have decided to close their business. They say the police investigation that began in December have negatively affected the business.

Police and federal authorities have also served at least two additional warrants.

The investigation has also expanded to the federal level, with both the U.S. Postal Service and Internal Revenue Service serving search warrants on the store and the Neighbors’ home earlier this month.

Neighbors said he believed he and his wife were suspected of mail fraud.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office, which is handling the federal prosecution, has not yet filed charges against the Neighborses.

Neighbors said he believed that closing his business could cut down the amount of time police had to file charges by limiting the property they could serve search warrants on.

Plus, he said he is fed up with police coming into the business because the store unknowingly bought an item that had been stolen.

“We just can’t live anymore worrying about everybody that comes into the store,” he said.

Neighbors has not set a date for the store’s closing.

These stories were on eBay's Police Blotter at one time.....Google has more info, as well:

Quote:
Precarious Parents Picked-up by Police


June 30, 2006 Bellefontaine, OH 36 and 37 year-old Todd and Laura MORRIS were found guilty of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, receiving stolen property, and child endangering. The center of this activity involved the MORRIS' forcing their three daughters to shoplift clothes, tools, and collectibles from stores, after which the parents would sell the items on eBay. An eBay-PayPal Fraud Investigator assisted law enforcement with the case examining and documenting the behavior by the MORRIS'.



Quote:
Housekeeper swindles antique treasures!


June 16, 2006 Wampsville, NY 64 year-old Ann MORGILLO was sentenced to 90 days in jail, and ordered to pay restitution for stealing antique coins from the home where she worked as a housekeeper. MORGILLO, a former antique dealer, had a house cleaning business, which allowed her access to the home where she eventually stole the antique coins while her victims were away on vacation. After stealing the coin collection, she was able to accurately price, and sell them on eBay, until the family (who noticed the missing collection) reported the issue to the police. This started a joint investigation with NY State Police and eBay-PayPal Fraud Investigations into MORGILLO, and her selling activities.


Quote:
ID thief gets nabbed red handed!


June 12, 2006 Hillsborough County, FL18 year-old Jerry ALBIN used a credit card number that he stole from his place of employment to perpetrate an ID-theft and money laundering scheme. ALBIN opened a PayPal account, paid for an auction on eBay (hosted by him), and then paid for the auction via PayPal thereby exiting the funds through another PayPal account he had setup for this scheme. With collaboration between the Sheriff's Office and an eBay-PayPal Fraud Investigator, ALBIN's scheme was quickly identified, and a full confession obtained.

Quote:
Special operations scammer scopped up by authorities!


June 7, 2006 - Lexington, KY 44-year old Charles NIEDERBRACH has been indicted on charges stemming from his theft and sale of military equipment from the Special Operations Forces Support Activity (SOFSA) facility he worked at from 2003 till April this year. The Defense Criminal Investigative Service partnered with an eBay-PayPal fraud investigator to outline the scope of NIEDERBRACH's activities, and highlight the equipment involved. If convicted, NIEDERBRACH faces up to 10 years in prison, a fine of $250,000, and a supervised release for 3 years.



http://pages.ebay.com/securitycenter/law_case_study.html






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Investigators raided two storefront businesses and four homes in Chicago and a nearby suburb Wednesday to break up a lucrative fencing operation in which valuable items stolen from major retailers were sold on eBay, authorities said.



Chicago Tribune - Online Edition -


Online auctions called real steal

Fencing ring sold pricey items on eBay, state says

Advertisement




By Jo Napolitano, Tribune staff reporter. Tribune staff reporter Matt O'Connor contributed to this report

December 14, 2006

Investigators raided two storefront businesses and four homes in Chicago and a nearby suburb Wednesday to break up a lucrative fencing operation in which valuable items stolen from major retailers were sold on eBay, authorities said.

A spokeswoman for the Cook County state's attorney's office said five people were arrested and charged with receiving stolen property, a felony.

Investigators said they could face additional charges, including the online sale of stolen merchandise, electronic fencing and computer fraud.

Assistant State's Atty. John Mahoney said the accused used the name "buyersdrm" to peddle their wares at the online auction site and raked in about $600,000 this year alone. Investigators said they believe the operation started in 2000.

They had a 100 percent positive rating with hundreds of customers, according to information found on eBay, with one buyer calling them "very responsible, quick and trustworthy."

Another buyer beamed: "Wow! This is the best deal I've ever gotten on eBay. This seller is for real!"

Investigators said the buyers, who had no way of knowing the items were stolen, will not face prosecution.

"It's sad. They're just innocent buyers," said Hank Ribich, an investigator with the state's attorney's office.

As of late Wednesday, 11 items remained for sale from "buyersdrm." An eBay representative said they wouldn't close the account until investigators ask them to do so.

Authorities said the ring operated out of two pawnshops, Cash Inn at 6 S. Cicero Ave. and Fast Cash at 5422 W. North Ave. Investigators said they searched related homes--including one in Addison--after tracing the addresses from P.O. boxes used as part of the alleged scheme.

Law-enforcement officials at the North Avenue location Wednesday said the front of the business appeared to be a dusty resale shop, but in the back, there was a room full of gleaming new houseware products, all in their original boxes.

Investigators said both businesses are licensed secondhand stores, though they are not permitted to sell new items. Law-enforcement officials said they learned the shops previously bought goods taken from Sears, Target, Marshall Fields, Carson's, The Great Indoors, J.C. Penny and Nordstrom.

Jennifer McNamara, a spokeswoman for Macy's, would not give details about the Chicago-area thefts, other than to say her company is cooperating with the state's attorney's office--the lead investigators in the case--and with local law-enforcement agencies.

McNamara said that her company uses sophisticated technology to prevent people from stealing but that they can't catch everyone.

"We are continually reviewing our methods and using extensive training and security procedures to prevent theft in our stores," McNamara said.

But that didn't stop someone from allegedly pilfering its high-end goods.

Police at the North Avenue location hauled away a van full of electronics and pricey home goods, including $350 blenders from KitchenAid and vacuums from Dyson. They also removed several large, flat-screen televisions, home stereo equipment, DVDs, digital cameras and other items, including cash.

Police netted similar items at the other locations, but law-enforcement officials said they would not know the value of all they seized until it's all inventoried.

"There's another three weeks of work to go before it goes any further," Ribich said.

Police arrested and charged Mike Pirozzoli of the 1700 block of North 21st Avenue in Melrose Park, Javier Rodriguez of the 400 block of Mildred Avenue in Glen Ellyn, Ralph Cataudella of the 2300 block of West Belden in Chicago, and John and Joanne Cataudella of Addison. John and Joanne are married, and Ralph is John's cousin, authorities said. The investigation is ongoing, Mahoney said.

A spokeswoman from the state's attorney's office said Pirozzoli and Rodriguez worked at the Fast Cash location on West North Avenue. The Cataudellas worked at Cash Inn on South Cicero Avenue, she said.

All are scheduled to appear in Bond Court at 1 p.m. Thursday.

Investigators were tipped off to the alleged crime ring when representatives from Macy's and Target approached them about a large number of items stolen from their Chicago-area stores.

According to court records, Macy's representatives said that in speaking with a number of shoplifters, they discovered many were taking their goods to Cash Inn and Fast Cash, selling them for a small profit before the goods were placed on the Internet for sale.

Investigators learned the alleged fencing operation was particularly interested in iPods, Dyson vacuum cleaners, KitchenAid mixers, All-Clad pots and pans, CDs, DVDs and 300 thread-count bedsheets, according to court documents.

Investigators sifted through trash bins behind the Cash Inn and found "numerous labels, price tags and other identifiers" from what they believed to be stolen items, the documents said.

Catherine England, a spokeswoman for eBay, said she would not elaborate on Wednesday's raid. She said that once her company discovers fraud, it notifies all buyers related to each case, and sometimes advises them on pursuing further action.

England said there's no way her company can verify the authenticity of its items, because the company never takes physical possession of the goods it sells.

"The best thing you can do as a buyer is to pay safely when you purchase an item," she said, recommending PayPal and credit cards. "Those forms of payment offer consumers protection should something go wrong."

She said eBay can't take much action against a fraudulent seller beyond banning them from the Web site.

"But the reality is, if you're a bad guy, you're not going to lose too much sleep about being kicked off eBay," she said. "At the end of the day, law enforcement has a much bigger stick than we do," she said.

The online giant has a staff of 2,000 people who work on security and safety. Some develop online security tools, while others review listings. Others serve as liaisons with local law-enforcement agencies.

Founded in 1995, eBay has 212 million members around the world and 105 million items listed on its site. Six million new items are posted every day.

----------




-- Edited by Cyber Diva at 14:02, 2007-03-12

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In the archived "Case Study" - 2004 News.....

Ringleader, three accomplices sentenced in "Operation Many Happy Returns"

Organized theft ring made nearly $300,000 using three different schemes at national retail stores. Four people have been sentenced for their participation in an organized theft ring that ran three different schemes to steal nearly $300,000 in cash, retail merchandise, and merchandise credits from national retail stores located throughout the northeast, Attorney General Tom Reilly announced.


Massachussets Attorney General...

Stolen Gift Cards sold by employee via Ebay

Man Admits to $250,000 Home Depot Scam

A Binghamton man, working for Home Depot in Texas, admitted he stole thousands of company gift cards and tried to make a quarter million dollars selling them on eBay. A 35 year old marketing manager was fired from his job in Home Depot's Dallas office. The local US Attorney's Office says the man took company gift cards, saying they were for marketing purposes. He then put them on eBay to turn a profit. Prosecutors say he sold, or planned to sell more 23-hundred cards.

WBNG:

Hacker who tapped Lowe's computers gets 9 years [Not exactly eBaY related]

One of three Michigan men who hacked into the national computer system of Lowe's hardware stores and tried to steal customers' credit card information was sentenced to nine years in federal prison.

Prosecutors say the three men tapped into the wireless network of a Lowe's store in Southfield, Mich., used that connection to enter the chain's central computer system in North Wilkesboro, N.C., and installed a program to capture credit card information.

Two other men are awaiting sentencing in the Lowe's case. One of them became one of the first people convicted of "wardriving," in which hackers go around with an antenna, searching for vulnerable wireless Internet connections.


USA Today/Money...

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virusesrus


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RE: Time For A Change...Another thread quickly removed by LiveWorld because the "trollers" said to..... lol
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Ok, you got me there ( I was confuising him with a guy that posts on the Coins board ).

When I used to post on Trust & Safety Board ( over 2 years ago ), artrenditions was the board loon. But, at that time his ID was not artrenditions.com ( which is actually NARU'd now BTW ). I think it was just plain Artrenditions. He used to have an anti-sniping webpage that he linked to on his ME page. Ask anyone on the T & S board about him and you will be told some real interesting stories.



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RE: Time For A Change, indeed!
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Ok, you got me there ( I was confuising him with a guy that posts on the Coins board ).

Wouldn't know what you're talking about, don't care to know about the Coin board posters. Besides, the Coin board was shut down at one time by eBay because of too much business interference and "false-propaganda" mongers such as yourself, anyway.


Here's a story that might interest sincere viewers who come here to gather info and to exchange factual information, as well:

What's Bugging eBay?









-- Edited by Cyber Diva at 18:27, 2007-03-12

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How Far has 'VLADUZ' Hacked Into eBay?

Posted: Friday, March 2 at 04:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan

There is no disputing that a hacker who goes by the name Vladuz has at the very least become a public nuisance to eBay. But some observers think the hacks Vladuz has pulled off reveal a much deeper problem at the auction giant.

Vladuz claims to have broken into eBay’s computers, imperiling the integrity of auction site’s entire system of buying and selling. And the hacker has provided some evidence, last week posting messages to eBay's Web site while posing as employees of the site.

Vladuz demonstrated the hack by posting notes on the customer service bulletin board using the same bold pink background used by actual eBay employees.

Vladuz, who is believed to be Romanian, taunted the company in one of the notes. In response to a post where eBay spokesman Hani Durzy said that Vladuz didn’t have access to eBay’s internal systems, the hacker wrote: “Durzy … lies all the time.” Later, responding to a complaint that Vladuz had been tardy with a reply, the hacker wrote “I was very busy. Being hunted by eBay doesn’t leave you much free time.”

The Vladuz incident comes amid what some longtime eBay observers say is a sharp spike in account hijacking on the site. In “hijacking,” a trusted seller’s account is taken over and buyers are tricked into handing over money for nonexistent auction wins. EBay denies account takeovers have increased recently.

Adding to the intrigue: The reported spike occurred shortly after eBay instituted broad new anti-counterfeit measures. The new rules, which sharply limit cross-border selling, are aimed largely at Asian- and Eastern European-based con artists who sell fake jewelry and other high-ticket items. EBay observers say the rule changes have forced those con artists to find more creative ways to sell their knock-offs on the site, such as impersonating U.S. sellers.

'Tracking him very closely'
EBay officials deny Vladuz has infiltrated any of its critical systems, and say fraud remains a tiny fraction of the million or so transactions the firm facilitates each day. But they acknowledge Vladuz is on their radar.

"We are tracking him very closely," said company spokeswoman Catherine England. "We are working closely with Romanian law enforcement. ... He's a well-known fraudster there."

EBay concedes that Vladuz’s attacks are noteworthy. The company confirms, for example, that Vladuz was able to pose as a customer service agent on site bulletin boards during late February after stealing agent login codes. But England said Vladuz's hacking stopped there.

"Vladuz did not get into our site, or into customer accounts," she said. "Our corporate e-mail system operates on an entirely different system. ... At no point did he have access to any of our corporate tools, and no user information has been exposed."

Attempts to contact Vladuz at the many e-mail addresses the hacker has left around the Internet were unsuccessful.

The bulletin board incident is not the first time Vladuz has taunted eBay. Earlier this year, he posted on a hacker Web site a screen shot that he said was from eBay's internal computer systems. The image appeared to show about 30 names, email accounts, and passwords for eBay employees, displayed in what looked like an employee database tool. The e-mail addresses listed on the image all ended in “eBay.com,” as do regular eBay employee e-mails.

Atop the screen shot, Vladuz scrawled his name in big letters, using the computer equivalent of a purple crayon.

Just a stolen e-mail attachment, eBay says
England confirmed that eBay was aware of that incident, but said it did not indicate that Vladuz had gained access to any employee database. Rather, she said, it was a screen shot stolen from an employee's customer support e-mail account. She said that the e-mail account that had been accessed was not part of eBay's internal, corporate e-mail system.

England said she did not know how Vladuz obtained access on either occasion, but said the hacker is a skilled identity thief and long-time eBay "phisher" – a crook who sends out fake e-mail to eBay users intending to trick them into divulging personal information. Customer service agents might have fallen for such phishing, too, and responded with information for their e-mail accounts, she theorized.

England said she believed the recent taunting episodes were a function of Vladuz's frustration after many of his "most profitable" schemes were foiled by stepped-up security. Vladuz "took it personally" and set about to embarrass the company, she said.

Online auction activist Rosalinda Baldwin doesn’t believe Vladuz’s hacking is just a prank, however. She thinks Vladuz has provided plenty of proof that the hacker -- or the organization behind the name -- has managed to penetrate deep into eBay's computer systems.

"What level of access does this guy need to convince someone that he has a free hand?" she said.

Baldwin, who closely tracks fraudulent activity on the site, said she's seen a sharp rise in fake auctions in recent months. Scammers seem to be able to post fraudulent listings, impersonating legitimate sellers, faster than eBay can remove them, she said.

"Even if eBay ends them, they are re-listed within an hour or so," she said. The only logical answer, she argued, is that someone can raid eBay identities at will.

In some cases, hijacked accounts observed by MSNBC.com appeared to follow a sequential order, as if plucked from an ordered database.

England disputed Baldwin's assertion that a hacker or hackers gained access to the company’s computers, saying that phishing schemes remain very successful and provide criminals with a ready supply of eBay logins. She also said automated phishing tools have become are so sophisticated that they appear to be capable of stealing accounts in sequential order.

'Something changed'
Baldwin and others who follow eBay fraud closely find that explanation hard to believe. Genie Livingstone, who runs Internet host Dotyou.Com, said there has been a recent spike in fraud on eBay so large that something else must be going on.

"The scammers seem to have unlimited supply of eBay user IDs and passwords ... but in February the numbers of hijacked sellers increased exponentially," she said. "Something changed. There seems to be an unusual availability of stolen eBay user IDs and passwords."

Baldwin and others say the crackdown on the sale of counterfeit goods provides the most likely explanation for the surge.

Counterfeiting -- of coins, purses, jewelry, stamps and many other items -- has long been a problem on the site. Two years ago, Tiffany & Co. sued eBay over the prevalence of counterfeit Tiffany items for sale on eBay.

Related coverage: Is eBay stamp racket the stickiest scam on the Net?

Recently, eBay took a serious swipe at the trade in fake goods -- at least trade from overseas to U.S. sellers. In late December, England said, the Web site began limiting cross-border auctions on certain items where incidence of counterfeiting is high. The firm has not published a list of these items, so as to not tip off the con artists, she said, but sellers in China or Romania can no longer trade certain items with buyers in the U.S.

England denied there is any connection between the anti-counterfeiting steps and Vladuz’s incursion or account takeovers, and said that eBay fraud fighters have spotted no increase in the latter.

But Baldwin insisted the connection is obvious. Beginning in late December, for example, she began chronicling thousands of daily fake auctions involving counterfeit clothing under the popular brand name BAPE. She has showed MSNBC hundreds of DVD movie auctions that were obvious fakes.

"Can anyone believe that counterfeiters using phished accounts could list this many items, using all new accounts each time, three or four times a day? Day after day?" she said. "There are thousands of them ... EBay is completely at the mercy of the scammers.”




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RE: Time For A Change...Another thread quickly removed by LiveWorld because the "trollers" said to..... lol
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eBay Addresses Vladuz Hacking Incident....

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RE: Time For A Change, And Long Overdue....
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Old Case Files: The Auction Guild Reports:


The Auction Guild.....

28 Jan 2006

ebaY has been convicted by a court of law for theft. In the polite parlance of white collar business crime, instead of stealing, it is called patent infringement. But theft is when one person knowingly and illegally takes something that does not belong to them, and that is what ebaY did, and for which they have been convicted, guilty as charged.

When Pierre Omyidar first opened AuctionWeb's site on 5 Sep 1995, he allegedly had spent a weekend thinking up the programming code that allowed the auctioning of items on his site. If we give him the benefit of the doubt, we can assume that he failed to do what any inventor of a commercial product should do, and that is check to see if anyone had invented, and patented, the idea first. If Pierre had checked, he would have seen an auction process patent filed in April 1995 by someone named Thomas Woolston, and his company MercExchange. In 1995, it was not as easy as it is today to do such a search, so we give Pierre the benefit of the doubt that he did not know (or care - he was working for General Magic at the time, and probably subject to an invention agreement with them for anything patentable) of the patents existence, but the success of AuctionWeb, which changed to the name ebaY in 1997, would make knowledge of such patents important to the company.

With the growth of ebaY, and the company going public, auction and trading sites started to sprout like mung beans at a vegetarian restaurant. Moves made by ebaY in 1999, adding advertising banners tied to search, interfering with the auction ads already paid for by sellers, along with fee increases, caused seller rebellions and gave birth to a movement called the Million Auction March. This movement moved 2 million listings to Yahoo Auctions, making it a possible contender of note (action on Yahoo's part soon destroyed this advantage). This along with other's wanting to cash in on what appeared to be a goldmine, might have been the impetus for ebaY to get serious about researching the status of patents and see what kind of control they could get on the industry. It was early in 2000 that ebaY contacted Mr Woolston to see if they could buy the several auction and instant buy patents he had invented and registered, some before AuctionWeb/ebaY's launch, and some since.

Negotiations quickly broke down, very unsurprising given ebaY's arrogant attitude, and ebaY dared Mr. Woolston to sue them. Made of stern material, forged in the fire of service in the military and with the CIA, Mr Woolston, an inventor, electrical engineer and patent attorney, did just that. So far Mr Woolston and his company MercExchange, has won against ebaY in federal district court in 2003 for patent numbers 5,845,265 and 6,085,176, the instant buy patent (what ebaY calls buy it now) and a search patent that directly affects Half.Com. The district court would not let Mr Woolston sue for the auction process patent, and would not let him file an injunction against ebaY, shutting down the functions used by ebaY in the violated patents. The case then went to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (case 03-1600,-1616). This court ruled in 2005 and upheld ebaY's conviction on the instant buy patent, (5,845,265), said Mr Woolston could sue on the auction process patent (6,202,051), and allowed an injunction against ebaY to stop their willful infringement of Mr Woolston's patents,. This conviction is final as only the Supreme Court of the United States could overturn it, but ebaY chose not to seek such a losing appeal. Instead ebaY filed an appeal to the Supreme Court, (docket 05-130) to try to stop the injunction ordered by the US Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court will hear arguments in March of 2006.

In the interim, ebaY has tried to insult, discredit and isolate Mr Woolston. ebaY has successfully demanded that the Patents and Trademark Office (PTO) review all Mr Woolston's patents ( a common acquiescence on the apart of the PTO in such disputes). So far the PTO has confirmed the validity of Mr Woolston's auction process patent (number 6,202,051), but TAG has no confirmation on the status of 5,845,265 or 6,085,176. ebaY has represented Mr Woolston as a liar, denying that ebaY ever negotiated with him for his patents, and claiming that Mr Woolston changed his patents to cover what ebaY was doing after the fact. As recently as the fall of 2005, when Mr Woolston and some other personnel from MercExchange were invited to attend a non-ebaY run conference of online sellers, ebaY President, Bill Cobb, threatened the folks running the conference that if the folks from MercExchange remained at the conference, he and the ebaY team would leave. The sellers running the conference did what they felt they had to, given ebaY's immature spoiled brat that thinks it is god attitude, and asked the MercExchange folks to leave. The MercExchange folks, being grown ups, left the conference without a fuss, leaving conference attendees to shake their heads at ebaY's adolescent behavior.



-- Edited by Cyber Diva at 18:39, 2007-03-12

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RE: Make Money Selling On eBay?
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LOL! Make Money Selling on eBay....


Get Rich Quick Here.... lol


Make Money Selling on eBay

The Complete eBay Marketing System

Everything you need to make money selling on eBay.
The Professional eBay business manual ...
written by Skip McGrath ... a power seller since 1999,
who still sells on eBay every day

To Become A Super Successful eBay Power Seller Today, You Need A Guide Who Has "Been There, Done That!"

A note from Skip: In this letter I'm going to use the examples of just four of my students: experienced eBayers Lori Ezzo, a mom with four young children, Ron and Deb Gossett, who work exclusively with wholesalers; and eBay newcomers Freddie Borden, a 70-year old Coast Guard retiree; and Donna Austin, retired from the Air Force on disability who recently completed her Bachelor's degree (Go Donna!).

You can read their complete story and hundreds more unsolicited letters and emails from students on our Testimonials Page.

At one time eBay was a relatively simple place. Fees were cheap, tens of thousands of new people shopping everyday, and in some categories you could be the only seller!

It's different today.

There are dozens of books, e-books and CDs that claim to teach you how to make money on eBay. Unfortunately, most are written by people who have never been successful on at anything except selling e-books! I saw one the other day with a 41 Feedback rating claiming to have the secret e-Book of eBay success… the opening bid was a penny! I guess you get what you pay for!

I was a Power Seller way before I wrote my first book six years ago and Karen and I still sell on eBay every day! My success didn't come from selling my books … although we've sold over 25,000 copies so far!

In case you do not know it, almost ANYONE can claim to be a "Power Seller!"

Karen and I have been eBay Power Sellers for over 6 years. We've sold over $1,000,000.00 on eBay… jewelry, electronics, art, antiques and collectibles, designer clothes and other items. We've built three hugely successful eBay businesses, involving our whole family, even my married kids! (READ MORE).

We pay more each month in listing fees than some Power Sellers on eBay SELL in a month!

All it takes to call yourself a "Power Seller" is to sell $1,000 a month for three months and have 98% positive feedback. Out of 650,000 + full-time eBay sellers less than half ever do even this much in sales! And remember, we're talking $1,000 in total sales, not profit… who can live on that anyway?

At $3000 a month, eBay calls you "Silver Power Seller," and at $10,000 a month you're a "Gold Power Seller." But even at this level, you're just beginning to make a good income. It wasn't until a few years back, when we started hitting around $25,000 a month (that's getting into the range eBay calls "Platinum"), that our lifestyle really began to change.


Click on the play button to listen to [follow link to yellow brick road!]

an unsolicited testimonial from James Heck,
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RE: Time For A Change....
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ebaY Tries Intimidation - Read The Auction Guild Report



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RE: Time For A Change...Another thread quickly removed by LiveWorld because the "trollers" said to..... lol
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                       WTG DIVA!   

Viruses, we've all witnessed Slandy/Bella  talking to Bella/Slandy. And Clinic/Jake answering questions posted by Jake/Clinic.  Think of how much Lieworld saves by hiring socks.  Each PP pro has about 5 socks per person. And the antis kick all their butts. 



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b u l l s h i t  ice_blue

Cyber - you really love the sound of your own voice don't you and have a great habit of copying and pasting what people say.

Never an original thought from your tiny insignificant brain.

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virusesrus wrote:

b u l l s h i t ice_blue

Cyber - you really love the sound of your own voice don't you and have a great habit of copying and pasting what people say.

Never an original thought from your tiny insignificant brain.
You can say that again. :rolleyes:

 



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virusesrus wrote:

b u l l s h i t  ice_blue

Cyber - you really love the sound of your own voice don't you and have a great habit of copying and pasting what people say.

Never an original thought from your tiny insignificant brain.

 



Sweetie, this isn't about "originality" it's about documentation. I work for attorneys, they want the FACTS not someone's bull**** originality.

Go sell crazy some place else. I am certain you know where to find such a place. **lol**








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