SCOTLAND has appointed its first "eBay detective" as levels of fraud at online auction sites continue to soar.
Scott Rennie, a detective constable with Strathclyde Police, deals with dozens of complaints each month from Scots who are scammed on eBay and tracks down stolen items which are sold online.
Scotland on Sunday can also reveal that internet auctio
n crime levels have reached such a high rate that eBay has set up its own "crime academy" dedicated to teaching police officers across the UK how to track down cybercriminals.
Founded 10 years ago, eBay has risen to become one of the giants of the internet age. The company has an estimated 195 million users across the globe who help generate profits of £530m a year.
But while law-abiding eBay fans love the bargains and the extra income the site can create, they are increasingly prey to a new generation of fraudsters.
Rennie, of Strathclyde's computer crime squad, works full-time as their online sales auction specialist. In the past year, he has dealt with around 200 eBay-related crimes.
Rennie said: "The most common crime is what we call 'invisible goods': the guy takes your money for something and never sends out the product.
"We get a lot of that, both with people being the victims and with the crimes originating here. There was one case where a person bought £22,000 worth of computing gear and he got stung."
He added: "We had one incident where a guy had his quad bike stolen and then a few days later saw it on eBay. It was being sold down in England. We made inquiries and found it was the right one and police went there and made an arrest.
"If you have had something unusual or very distinctive stolen, then it is a good idea to check out eBay and see if it's there.
"If it's identical to millions of other things then it's going to be quite difficult, to be honest. But one thing I would say is that eBay are very good at helping us tackle crime."
Top sellers and buyers on eBay earn trust through the "feedback" system whereby others who have dealt with them can say whether the sale and payment went well. The more good feedback, the more trustworthy the seller or buyer.
Rennie said: "One of the favourite tactics is for a criminal to set up an ID and then build up lots of good feedback by selling lots of things really cheaply. People then think they're reputable sellers. And they then go for a really big sting."
Rennie's verdict on buying online is stark. "As a rule, I personally would never buy anything on eBay unless I was prepared to lose the money.
"Having said that, I have friends and colleagues in here at the force who have bought things for hundreds of pounds and they have never had a problem."
A team of anti-fraud experts has been set up by eBay and they offer police training on how to track crime on the site.Rennie himself has attended one of the courses, which vary from a two-hour basic introduction to a two-day marathon.
Gareth Griffiths, the head of trust and safety at eBay UK, said: "We show officers what tricks fraudsters will be up to and how to recognise their patterns.
"We show them how to use advanced search facilities on eBay to track things down and what to do if they spot stolen items. We normally take them off the site. But sometimes there will be a reason why police will want to keep an auction going."
He added: "We're also becoming more sophisticated at detecting the tricks people get up to, especially the scheme of selling things cheaply to build up feedback and then selling a high-priced item."
One Highland laird who had been the victim of a housebreaking in 2004 took it on himself to check out whether any of his rare china collection, stolen from his mansion near Kingussie, might be up for sale online.
Allan Macpherson-Fletcher checked the web hoping to find pointers to the £10,000-worth of china which had been taken.
Police recovered the china before any money changed hands and a man from Alloa was charged with handling stolen goods.
Police in Central Scotland also found an illegal gadget used to bypass gas meters on eBay in 2004 and got the equipment taken off the site.
A spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers Scotland said: "Scottish Police forces have developed good and effective working relationships with eBay, enabling those who would seek to use the eBay facility to sell stolen or counterfeit goods to be identified and brought to account for their actions.
"EBay provides a valued service to Scottish law enforcement agencies and regularly works with Scottish Police forces to identify those using the site as a means of furthering their own criminal enterprises."
AVOIDING THE SCAMMERS
Never use money transfer systems such as Western Union or MoneyGram, which are intended only to be used by people who know each other well. If there are problems, it may be difficult to trace money sent through these companies.
• A good alternative is eBay's own PayPal system which insures many purchases for up to £500 and enables payments to be tracked. For pricier items, consider the Escrow payment system, which holds the cash until the goods have been received.
• Always check out feedback to examine what goods were actually sold. If it involves huge numbers of low value items then be suspicious if they are now selling a very pricey product.
• Use the feedback system too. Reward good traders with good feedback and flag up shoddy service. Never take bad treatment lying down and follow up any complaints.
• If something is too good to be true it probably is. If a brand-new car normally costing £90,000 is on the net for £4,000 then something is definitely wrong.
• Be wary of schemes which involve you buying goods but then accepting and depositing "overpayment" cheques as part of complex transactions. These are scams. Their cheque to you will bounce, yours will not and you are most likely to lose your money.
• SOURCE: Strathclyde Police/eBay
Civil War fort goes under hammer
A US Civil War-era fort has been put up for sale on eBay. Fort Montgomery, built in 1844, has so far attracted a top bid of £780,000 ($1m) in an online auction that ends on June 5.
The limestone fort, which was manned during the war but never saw action, sits on a Lake Champlain island in northern New York and is connected to the mainland by a 700ft causeway. The full package offered on the auction site includes 6,900ft of lake frontage and 279 acres on the adjacent mainland.
"This is the first time it's been formally for sale," said Victor Podd of Boca Raton, Florida, whose family has owned the fort for 23 years.
In 1935, about 80% of the structure was demolished and it has since been prey to vandalism.
Podd's late father, Victor, purchased the fort and surrounding property in 1983 to build the headquarters of his company Powertex.
A few years ago, the state declined the Podds' offer to donate the fort and 68 acres of land for use as a state park.
Podd, who now owns the fort with his brother, Stephen, said its reserve price was below $9.9m(£7.75m), but declined to specify an exact figure.
