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Stolen Goods
eBay Point of View:
eBay is committed to ensuring a safe, open, and transparent site for people to sell goods and services around the world. We work tirelessly to prevent stolen goods from being sold through the eBay marketplace because the sale of stolen goods on eBay undermines our users’ trust and harms our community and our business. As such, eBay has a direct financial interest in ensuring that its marketplace is free of stolen goods.
eBay Policies and the eBay Community:
eBay recognizes that the sale of stolen merchandise is illegal. Accordingly, eBay’s prohibited items policies include an explicit prohibition on the listing of stolen items. We also inform users that we proactively support law enforcement efforts to prosecute individuals who sell stolen goods. In addition, eBay prohibits the sale of items with serial numbers that have been altered or removed. The vigilance of the eBay Community helps us enforce our policies. Our members are quick to alert our customer support representatives and each other when they see a seller engaged in illegal or inappropriate behavior. To learn more about eBay’s policies regarding prohibited and restricted items please visit http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/items-ov.html.
Cooperation with Law Enforcement:
eBay is an industry leader in working with law enforcement to investigate and prosecute people who engage in illegal conduct. eBay has a dedicated Fraud Investigations Team that responds swiftly to law enforcement requests for information and proactively refers cases to law enforcement. For more than eight years, eBay has trained law enforcement agencies around the world, including more than 20,000 law enforcement officials, on best practices in gathering information from the site and successfully prosecuting crimes committed over the Internet. To help law enforcement combat stolen goods, eBay participates in LeadsOnline. LeadsOnline is a nationwide database of secondhand goods sold on and offline. Every item listed by a drop-off store that sells more than $20,000 worth of goods on eBay is automatically uploaded to the database. Law enforcement agencies around the country then access the database to match reports of stolen goods with listings uploaded to LeadsOnline. For more information on this program please visit: www.leadsonline.com.
Key Issues:
Need for Improved Retailer Responsibility: The sale of stolen goods is less likely to occur if retailers employ more effective inventory controls to manage their merchandise. Retailers also need to work more aggressively to prevent employee theft, the largest source of retail theft. Need for More Law Enforcement Involvement: While it can sometimes be challenging to focus law enforcement attention on retail crimes, eBay has repeatedly pledged to the retail community that we will bring interested law enforcement officials into contact with corporate loss prevention departments. eBay also supports legislation that increases penalties for organized retail crime offenses. Protecting Customer Privacy: Most Americans are law-abiding and value their privacy. eBay takes seriously its responsibility to protect its members’ privacy and will not turn personal information over to anyone but law enforcement personnel in connection with a criminal investigation.
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