In article om,
Charlie Self wrote:


Doug Miller wrote:
In article .com,
"Charlie Self" wrote:

I'm basically just curious as to whether or not ebay itself has any
kind of active program against this sort of activity. It sure isn't
effective, if they do.

Well, let's see... the spams are being sent by people with no connection to
eBay, from servers that don't belong to eBay... what on earth do you suppose
eBay could be doing to stop it?


Dunno. There were some reports about follow-ups and prosecutions some
time ago, but those petered out. Nothing since and the amount of crap
has risen. Seems like ebay has taken on the con status of E. Podunk
Third National Bank for a "Your account is going to be closed out if
you don't send us all your info immediately" subjects. I'd be curious
to know if they've even checked to see if there is anything they can do.


There are the following issues with regard to _any_ "phishing" scam:
1) identifying the perpetrator(s)
2) figuring out what legal jurisdiction(s) they are in
3) figuring out what, IF ANY, _crime_, the 'misrepresented solicitation' is
in *THAT* jurisdiction. (national? provincial? municipal?)
4) figuring out what language the authorities there speak, to report the
criminal act.
5) figuring out who to file the criminal complaint with.
6) figuring out how to get _them _to_ prosecute.

Similar issues apply with regard to getting the web-site knocked down, when
*it* is off-shore. unless eBay is registered to do business in _that_
jurisdiction, they can't even claim trademark protection *there*.


Even in the U.S. I'm not sure what crime it is, **IF ANY**, to trick somebody
into revealing 'sensitive' account information. To -use- that information
once you have it is definitely a crime -- any of several sorts, depending on
the use to which that information was put.

This leaves trademark misrepresentation and/or 'dilution of trademark' as
possible avenues.