Originally Posted by
donkeyote
At the risk of repeating myself, I think PPPay.com escrow should be made free, and then nobody would have a reason for not using it - then 99.9% of conmen would simply give up. Escrow could be a practically bullet proof way to prevent all fraud on Ebid, but only if the price is right!
It costs nothing to create a folder on a computer hard drive for each PPPay.com member, which is called 'Escrow', into which money goes, but can't be taken out by the recipient until the buyer receives their goods and unlocks it.
If escrow was made free, and this was strongly advertised and fully integrated into Ebid, I would bet that PPPay.com payments would go up by a factor of ten, twenty, or even more. Any dodgy looking auctions could immediately be sussed out by simply asking the seller if they are willing to take 'PPPay.com Free Escrow', at no cost to them or you. If they say no, don't buy from them.
The other thing that I think Ebid should do, is offer members the chance to have their address verified by post - sellers and buyers could pay a one off fee of £1.50 to have a letter generated by Ebid, which would contain a PIN, and posted to their registered home address. (The same address as their credit card or debit card is registered to, which presumably they need to use to sign up - I can't remember as I joined Ebid so long ago!) The letter would cost Ebid about £1.00 max. to print, put in an envelope, and post. (I'd do the envelope stuffing job for 50p a letter! Even at 30p a letter, you'd still earn about £18.00 an hour if you did one a minute.)
Then when the buyer or seller receives their letter, they simply enter their PIN to prove they live at that address, and then they would get an 'Address Verified' logo next to their username (or some other way of displaying this, like a coloured border or something, as long as it was clear to all users.)
Users could then click a button on any Ebid page to choose 'Verified Ebidders Only', which would display only auctions by address verified sellers, and you could also only allow address verified members to bid on your items if you chose. (Like Feepay allows you to have an 'immediate payment by Paypal' option for your auctions).
There could also be a button for 'Escrow Accepted Only' auctions, so you could view only auctions for which the sellers accepted PPPay.com Free Escrow (if such a thing came into existence).
These two things would reduce fraud to such a huge extent that it would massively increase both the number of successful auctions, plus the number of users in general. I see these two things as a win-win solution to the problems of fraud, and lack of sales here, but every time I suggest this, nobody seems to reply or to even have an opinion on it. Am I going slowly nuts?