The reports from eBay LIVE! are quite interesting.
First this YouTube video shows a ghost town in the conference room that should be full of eBay Power Sellers (Note: eBay does not allow video taping eBay live sessions, now you know why)
Oooooops Griff, don’t you wish you kept your mouth shut? Remember eBay is all bunnies, daisies and lollypops!
where eBay spokesman Griff declares:
Griff: We had to make these changes because, without buyers, there will be no eBay in two years.
“Bullshit!” someone says.
“No bullshit,” he responds; “absolutely true. The rate of decline in the growth of buyers…it was ripe for buyers going other places, and if the momentum starts, eBay is over.“
EBAY shares opened at 28.85 and are down over 3% to
Real-time: 28.24 Down 0.93(3.19%) 3:21PM ET as I write this post today.
I thought when CA Security Advisor reported PayPal XSS page vulnerability in Feburary of this year, PayPal assured the writer this phishing hole was closed. See the full article: PayPal Closes a Phishing Vulnerability Published Feb 17 2008, 10:44 AM by Stefan Berteau. Was that just a lip service by PayPal?
A new article, different researcher shows the same vulnerability here in yesterday’s report:
A serious scripting error has been discovered on PayPal that could enable attackers to create convincing spoof pages that steal users’ authentication credentials.
The cross-site scripting bug is made all the more critical because it resides on a page that uses an extended validation secure sockets layer certificate. The new-fangled SSL mechanism is designed to give users a higher degree of confidence that the page they’re visiting is secure by turning their browser address bar green.
But Finnish researcher Harry Sintonen figured out a way to inject his own code into a supposedly protected PayPal page even as the green bar lulled visitors into believing it hadn’t been tampered with. Sintonen’s code simply caused an Internet Explorer alert window to open with the words “Is it safe?” as evidenced by the screenshot …..
PayPal’s site is silent about this vulnerability… I guess the “hide your head in the sand” approach or “if you do not admit to ut, it’s not there” speaks volumes about how concerned PayPal really is about safety of their users.
PayPal is no stranger to security vulnerabilities:
It’s Now Completely Impossible To Sell A Laptop On Ebay is a true account of a random person trying to sell laptop on eBay and accounting his experiences with a scammer after a scammer. The blog entry is sad but comical in it’s special way as the blogger describes the ineptness of eBay Live Help and email assistance he received during this typical eBay experience. Definitely worth the read…. the article concludes
” But seriously, try CraigsList or a flyer in your neighborhood. EBay is broken.”
A new video how to scam eBay pulse was just recently published on gurucreation.com. It shows blow by blow action how some eBay members gamed the eBay pulse by using a bot software to create thousands of fake eBay user ID’s and placing watches on their items ( they all sell those get-rich-quick on eBay ebooks )
This blogger watcheditem.com shows step by step how the pulse scam works.
One interesting thing: Kekoa64 - one of the eBay sellers being credited by using this fraudulent sofware, claims in his Press Release, that eBay has purchased his blog, website etc… for an undisclosed amount so it can teach other eBay sellers how to be successfull on eBay. Here is a quote from that press release:
Friday, April 4, 2008
Kekoa64.com bought out by eBay Inc.
HONOLULU, HI (PR Newswire) - EBAY INC. based in San Jose, Calif., has acquired Kekoa64.com and eBay user id Kekoa64. “Kekoa64 - Internet Entrepreneur, eBay PowerSeller” (http://www.kekoa64.com).
Starting May 1st, eBay, and its affiliates, will use the site as a promotional tool. “We are excited at the amazing opportunity to work with Kekoa” says Dennis Breckford, Senior VP of Marketing at eBay, “we look forward to seeing how his ideas can take us to the next level”.
The company plans on a complete redesign of the site and blog. eBay also plans to keep his existing product line, as well as develop new products with him. Kekoa will remain the creative force behind the products and promotions, however, eBay will incorporate their own products in to the marketing mix.
“When eBay first contacted me about the opportunity, I thought it was a hoax, one of those phishing emails” says Kekoa Chung, 24, Kailua, HI. “The funny thing is, I was actually suspended (from eBay) at the time, and I thought it was a bit ironic that they wanted to buy me out. When I learned that it was infact true, I called Dennis and jumped on the idea.”
eBay Inc. plans on acquiring more PowerSellers like Kekoa to promote it’s website to more targeted niches. “This is the first of many more acquisitions to come” says Breckford.
Breckford will not discuss the amount Kekoa64.com was purchased for, but says that he will “not have to work another day in his life”.
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Update 4-27-2008
Hey, I just read the rest of the page and see the kekoa64.com blog press release isfake: there is a P.S.
under the picture
“Stay tuned to see what will happens next….
P.S. I didn’t have the time to get you guys on the first, so Aperow Fulls! :)”
Update 5-20-2008 It appears that all three eBay pulse scammers have been NARU’d by eBay:
Looks like the recent eBay changes anounced in February are taking their toll. ComScore published month to month search query reports for major internet sites and eBay along with some AOL properties are the only ones in the minus territory.
Where there is no searching, there is no finding. No finding = no sales.
Update 4-26-2008 Reading AuctionBytes Blog today, a confirmation of decline Year over Year post independently confirms this trend: Nielsen Online’s eBay Data Shows Interesting Trends
By: Ina Steiner
Tue Apr 22 2008 23:42:38
In preparing a Newsflash article about eBay metrics, I calculated the percent change in Page Views and Unique Audience for January, February and March 2008, year-over-year, from data provided by Nielsen Online.
Page Views
January: Down 10.54 percent year over year
February: Down 10.69 percent year over year
March: Down 12.82 percent year over year
Unique Audience
January: Down 9.57 percent year over year
February: Down 4.75 percent year over year
March: Down 6.31 percent year over year
The decline in page views has to be of concern to eBay - an almost 13 percent drop in page views in March from the previous year.
I was curious if the numbers might hint at any boycott effect. Looking at the numbers month-to-month, it shows a 13.21 percent drop in page views from January 2008 to February, and a 6.48 percent increase from February to March. There was also a 10.85 percent drop in time spent per person from January 2008 to February. It’s always tricky looking at month-to-month numbers, as seasonal effects can cause swings.
The raw monthly data from January 2007 through March 2008 - including time spent on site per person - is included in the Newsflash article, which will be published later this week.
NY Times article EBay Chief Says Change Isn’t Over publishes some interesting insight into John Donahoe’s work in progress to transform eBay.
This paragraph was interesting: “In an interview after the quarterly earnings report on Wednesday, Mr. Donahoe, who officially succeeded Meg Whitman in March, said he was not fazed by the attention. “The good news is Meg prepared me well for this,” he said. “I will say at one point in the first quarter I got an e-mail from my mother that said, ‘John, eBay sellers may not love you, but your mother does.’ ””
What was John Donahoe’s motivation to bring up eBay sellers not loving him and a consolation by his mother to the New York Times reporter? This just does not ring like a standard PR serving a CEO would provide to the major media.
So far it appears that not only the eBay sellers but also EBAY investors and some financial analysts are not impressed with the new eBay, but don’t worry John, at least your mother still loves you.
AuctionBytes reported this new incentive eBay is giving to unhappy Buyers. eBay made another brilliant decision: if a buyer complains or gives low ratings to a seller, give ‘em a discount coupon. While the intentions of eBay management may be good, the fallout danger of abuse by dishonest buyers is worth considering. If an unscrupulous buyer knows that eBay will send them a coupon worth of $100 or $200 or more just because they gave a seller negative rating or low DSR ratings, some buyers may abuse this and give undeserved ratings to sellers in hopes of obtaining such coupon.
eBay Expands SMI to All Auction-Style Listings
AuctionBytes Blog, MA - 9 hours ago
This is part of our overall commitment to making a material difference to tackling online fraud on eBay. As eBay continues to grow into a global online …
Many buyers object to hiding other bidders’ IDs as it became close to impossible to distinguish if there is shill bidding going on … eBay says they have measures in place to detect shill bidding activity but eBay’s track record on protecting it’s customers from fraud is less then stellar! I would rather rely on my own analisys than eBay’s fraud protection.
