It's great to see eBay fraud finally hitting mainstream media headlines. This story on BBC News talks about how eBay can take months to get round to providing details of fraudsters to law enforcement authorities.
"It gets to the point where that is obstructive to our inquiry," says Ruth Taylor, who heads the North Yorkshire Trading Standards special investigations unit. "If it takes up to two months, then it is eating in to a lot of time that we have to make prosecutions," said
A Slashdot discussion around this article also brings up some illuminating points: "I used to work for eBay", says a user named "Aussersterne". "And they are very careful *not* to do much about fraud. Their position is that they are *just* a middleman that connects buyers to sellers. The rest is up to you. If you are defrauded, they want you to go to law enforcement, *not* to eBay."
He continues: "They actively *do not* work to shut down fraudulent sellers or auctions, because to do so would be to assume liability, which is precisely what they don't want to do."
