The silver’s luster was unmistakable. Hallmarked and adorned with crowned lions, acanthus leaves and a scrolled, fruitwood handle, the George II sterling silver coffee pot was brought to life on eBay by quality pictures and an intelligent, detailed description. The listing came with a full view of the product, as well as a second, close-up picture to show more detail. Aside from a small crack running down the handle, the piece was in good condition and could have been yours as the lucky high bidder.

Unfortunately, one click on that auction button might have made you the latest victim of online fraud. All the images and text, it turns out, were stolen from a previously completed auction and made to look current. With little effort, the creator of this “spoofed” listing had copied the description and photos from Lynn Spearing, a silver specialist at Newark, England–based Eastdale Antiques. After Spearing successfully sold the coffee pot on eBay in August, the listing suddenly resurfaced.

“My original sold for approximately $1,500, then the same item reappeared on eBay with the same description three more times,” says Spearing, who notes that the fraudulent listing reappeared just a week after she filed her complaint. “Nobody seems to be checking the listings. I don’t know if eBay’s too big of an empire or what.”

In this case, eBay’s size probably does matter. Since online auctions have become mainstream, eBay, along with Yahoo! Auctions and similar sites, has emerged as a vastly popular and sometimes dangerously anonymous trading venue. On a typical day, eBay hosts up to 21.5 million active auctions across more than 35,000 product categories. In the collectibles, art and antiques sections, for example, more than 2.5 million listings are available each day. Those three categories combined represent more than $1 billion in annual gross merchandise sales for eBay.

According to Millicent Creech, a Nashville, Tennessee–based antiques dealer, eBay’s expanding size has made it difficult for dealers to conduct online business reliably, to say nothing of problem-solving once an infraction has been found.

Creech also notes that eBay’s feedback rating system can be exploited. When she and Spearing dug deeper into the “spoofed” listings, they discovered a network of nearly 30 users who had all provided feedback for the purpose of puffing up each other’s respectability. Other crooks have used stolen credit card numbers and other personal information to take over dormant eBay profiles—many of which have pre-existing high feedback ratings. The auction company also reports growing occurrences of “phishing,” where scam artists send fake e-mails to certain eBay users asking for their identification and passwords, then using them to gain illegal access and commit fraud.

Fraud Control

According to eBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove, the company has made inroads in catching up to criminals by taking a more active stance on fraud. While he admits that there is “probably still room for improvement in some areas,” Pursglove notes that nearly 800 customer service employees—among more than 2,000 customer-support staffers—focus exclusively on issues of trust and safety. “They go through dozens upon dozens of e-mails that come in every day, raising a wide range of questions,” Pursglove says. “Many of these individuals are focused on preventing fraudulent activity. That’s a big change from when we were a more passive voice, helping community members work through the process, file the necessary paperwork and deal with law enforcement.”

However, there are limited opportunities to prosecute offenders since fraud is a relatively small problem on the site, notes eBay spokesman Hani Durzy. “Less than one-hundredth of one percent of all listings on eBay result in a confirmed case of fraud,” he says, noting that other eBay programs—such as Verified Rights Owners’ Program and the $500 PayPal Buyer Protection offering—have helped limit fraud. On sites such as iGavel, fraud control is built into the front end of the process: Sellers are all reputed dealers and are prescreened for authenticity. President Lark E. Mason, drawing from his more than two decades of auction house experience, designed iGavel’s process to more closely resemble a live, in-person auction: If a bid comes in on an item within five minutes of the auction’s scheduled close, the auction is automatically extended for another five minutes. “Our sellers are professionals with whom we’ve had long-standing business arrangements and who guarantee the objects they sell for authenticity and condition,” says Mason, adding that he rejects more than 20 sellers a week who do not match iGavel’s selling philosophy. “Our sellers have contracts with us that specify those guarantees. We’ve found it to be a successful way to ensure the objects are what they are said to be.”

Although eBay’s art and antiques sellers are not screened that way, eBay still provides tools to help users evaluate sellers and any potential purchases, including authentication and appraisal services, as well as advanced identification verification. And Pursglove cites promising results on recently installed fraud-detection systems, which are similar to behavior-pattern analysis systems used by credit card companies to flag unusual spending. Despite its extensive feedback network and identification verification, Pursglove adds, eBay is best used with a discerning eye. “We oftentimes find that the best experts are actually educated buyers,” he says. “Even with our fraud detection tools in place, our best tips that we get nine times out of 10 come from educated buyers who point out a questionable listing or a seller who has had their photo lifted.”

Safe Online Auction Practices

In the convenient and anonymous world of Internet auctions, the best defense is to educate yourself. At first glance, the silvery shine of an antique coffee pot or the singular style of a original piece of artwork might seem appealing, but that’s just it—use more than one glance to decide if an auction is on the level. The more questions you ask, the less likely you are to get fleeced.

Check feedback. Online auction sites, such as eBay and Yahoo! Auctions, have designed marketplaces where people earn transactional “reputations.” That is, the more successful deals you’ve completed, the more trustworthy you are. But some online auction users are building feedback ratings just to defraud, so use a number of these different measures below before you decide to bid on a listing.

Watch for feedback chains. If you become skeptical of a seller, check some of their clients’ feedback. If you notice an odd feedback pattern, or if there has been an inconsistent level of activity, proceed with caution.

Ask for extras. When you ask for more photographs and additional details, a legitimate seller should bend over backwards to give you what you need to make an informed decision. If a seller cannot provide these extras, he might be running a phony listing.

Look for escrow. Particularly in the higher-priced categories like antiques and collectibles, sellers are thought to be more reliable when they accept escrow services—so they cannot take the cash and run.

Avoid transfers or cash. Beware of auctions that require buyers to wire money, or worse, send untraceable cash. Most reputable sellers of high-end merchandise do not operate in this manner, so in this case flags should immediately go up. Likewise, sellers who do not accept PayPal, escrow services or a certified cashier’s check should be interacted with cautiously.

Verify locations. Some fraudulent online auction users do not fill out their city, state and country correctly. If you notice inconsistencies in this area, be on alert. Ask the seller from where merchandise will be shipped and where the seller is located. If those two locations differ, ask for an explanation.

Notice poor English. Expect that care and time was taken to craft listings in any high-priced collectibles category. As such, watch out for misspellings or, as Spearing puts it, “Pigeon English.” Fraudulent sellers sometimes give themselves away with poor spelling, grammar and, in general, lackluster listing presentation.

Evaluate consistency. Watch out for sellers who jump from selling widgets (from which they derive much of their feedback rating) to suddenly peddling Chippendale chairs. Trustworthy sellers usually will not make dramatic switches between categories and price points. Also, look for consistent and reliable transactional activity: Be wary if the seller has been dormant for six months and then suddenly starts up again.

Stay organized. Make sure you keep all correspondence and alert the online auction venue when you are not satisfied or if you feel that you’ve been defrauded. Report suspected fraud immediately and keep records of suspicious listings.