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Because of online scammers, executives at eBay are shifting their focus to security in hopes to improve buyer and seller experience as well as protect the company's reputation.

In a message board on the company site, Bill Cobb, president of eBay North America said," It's no secret that online criminals who target sites like eBay and PayPal have grown in number and sophistication over time. You've read several recent messages from my friend Rob Chesnut, eBay's Senior Vice President of Global Trust & Safety, about Safeguarding Member IDs, which protects bidder User IDs on high-end items from fake Second Chance Offers and other malicious email, and Buyer Protection which encourages safe payments, and eliminates coverage for unsafe payment methods."

Besides their SMI initiative they are also working on improving ways to eliminate counterfeit items. Cobb says they have worked with copyright and trademark owners using their VeRo program to remove counterfeit listings and have been doing so for years.

Cobb said, "For some items known to be favored by counterfeiters, we've started requiring additional seller verification, we've eliminated the ability to list these items with 1 or 3-day auction durations, and we've put in additional restrictions for people selling these items cross-border."

The amount of fraud on eBay is small. The company says that less than one-hundredth of one percent of the listings is fraudulent. Most of the fraud is directed towards cars, jewelry and electronics.

Cobb went on to say," Where we've historically put an emphasis on transparency and free choice, today the security threats are more complex, and we're more actively protecting our buyers from fraud, as well as other bad experiences on eBay. So far, these efforts appear to be paying off with minimal disruption to our legitimate sellers."

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Mike is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.