Why bother reporting scams?

[irgreen777]

A seller is purporting to be selling a led lenser h7r core rechargeable head torch when it is quite obvious from the illustration and price that it is nothing of the sort.  I reported it.  Response:

”We looked into your report and didn’t find the listing to be in violation of our policy.  This determination was made by a customer service agent.”

This is either mind numbing imbecilic incompetence or dishonesty.  Is there any point at all in ever reporting scams when this is the normal response?

[zoomingmouse]

It's probably best to report it to Ledlenser themselves as via the VERO program they can get them removed. They may be less busy now so could be interested in taking it further.

Ebay, unless they make test purchases <which I have no idea if they do> would probably not remove items from sale. 

The only items I've ever managed to get removed is when a seller is giving out contact info thus bypassing Ebay & allowing direct contact.  Obviously this is to take payment off site.

[eburtonlab]

Reporting works best when the policy violation is an obvious one, like contact details in the listing or asking for non-approved payment methods. Something that anyone can spot and verify.

If recognizing the fraud requires specific expertise in a particular item, unless lots of other folks are independently reporting the same listing, eBay is less likely to recognize the issue or to take any immediate action.

[glitz* · Accepted solution]

I have reported hundreds of counterfeit items on here, none have ever been removed.

The response is always: "We looked into your report and didn’t find the listing to be in violation of our policy.  This determination was made by a customer service agent.". There's no point in trying to help anyone from being scammed, eBay do not care.

[eburtonlab]

It is entirely possible to create a listing that does not violate any policies, using a valid description and a valid photo, and then intend to deliver a counterfeit item instead of the genuine article.

Reporting such a listing outside of an actual transaction may not be particularly productive unless lots of users make similar reports and eBay takes notice. Reporting a transaction when receiving a counterfeit item, on the other hand, can result in a refund and getting the seller removed from eBay.

Two listings can be entirely identical in every respect, and one may be legitimate and one fraudulent. The actual fraud may only occur when a buyer buys something and does not receive the item described. Because of this, there may be no way for eBay to look at the listing in isolation and know for certain what the seller intends to deliver -- though buyers may be able to make an educated guess based on many factors including the seller's past feedback for selling and whether the deal appears to be "too good to be true".