EBay CEO details steps to secure (with EFX reference):
February 11, 1999 07:39 PM
NEW YORK, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Internet auctioneer eBay Inc. EBAY plans to get tough on deadbeat bidders with a new service to verify the financial status of buyers and sellers to eliminate possible fraud, CEO Meg Whitman said on Wednesday.
Speaking to the annual Goldman Sachs Technology Symposium, an investment conference here this week, Whitman said eBay was working with credit-tracking agency Equifax Inc. EFX on a such a verification program to be introduced in March.
The system would allow individual eBay users to submit confidential personal information to Equifax, which would work as an independent authority to verify the identity of buyers and sellers.
While Whitman said the threat of fraud was minuscule, she said eBay was responding to reports about the possible threat. Two weeks ago, the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs said it was probing complaints that fake sports memorabilia were sold on the site.
"About 27 out of every million transactions are reported as fraudulent" on eBay, she said, adding that this ratio had held steady as the company has experienced a phenomenal wave of growth.
The relative anonymity of the eBay service, a global marketplace connecting buyers and sellers of collectibles -- everything from dolls, stamps and coins to Beanie Baby dolls -- leaves eBay users potentially vulnerable to fraud.
A popular attraction of the site is a feature that allows eBay users to rate their encounters with other eBay buyers or sellers creating what is, in effect, a method of self-policing the site. Buyers can see for themselves what has been said about sellers by prior customers and choose whether to buy.
Whitman also said eBay would offer an insurance plan to cover sales of between $25 and $200 in conjunction with Lloyd's of London and access to online escrow services to hold payments while transactions are in the process of being completed.
In addition, the company is educating visitors to a list of illegal items that are not permitted to be sold on the site and was establishing close relationships with police to help ensure laws were enforced.
Details of the steps to improve trust on the site were announced Jan. 15.
The plans are part of a broad effort to improve the experience of buyers and sellers on its popular online trading site in order to continue to differentiate eBay from a host of imitators who are seeking to copy its phenomenal success.
Whitman also said eBay would expand across the site a new service that allows users to display photos of merchandise for auction -- giving buyers a better idea of the goods for sale and recreating the experience of shopping by catalog.
The service, dubbed the Gallery, was introduced in the Antiques section of the eBay site in January.
((-- Eric Auchard, New York newsdesk, 212-859-1840)) REUTERS
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