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Internet Selling Venues

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Categories: Rants; Ethics and laws; Commerce and business

Word count/read time: 772 words; 3 minutes

The best site to defraud users is:

A) Ebay
B) Etsy
C) Rubylane
D) Craigslist
E) Amazon
F) Alibaba
G) Fakebook
H) The site you're currently using
I) Any site with precious metals
J) All of the above

All answers are correct. Fraud is ignored on these sites at every possible turn. It makes the most sense because people might not know they've been hoodwinked or just don't speak up. Why ruin a huge revenue stream if no one says anything? If illegal sales were disallowed then many websites listed above would suffer! As a seller, counterfeits might not matter until they rot your market.

Sears changed shopping with the first mail order catalog. Their recent bankruptcy shows that sending payments through the mail has gone the way of dinosaurs. A few mouse clicks can do in seconds what took hours back then.

Collectors saw it is a blessing and curse. Online services helped expand their market tremendously. It made everyone an expert, at least in their own minds. It helped scammers, too.

Ebay and etsy - They are not four-letter 'F' words but they are four-letter 'E' words, close enough. Both maintain they will not interpret the law even when historical fact proves something doesn't exist. It's funny how they can financially benefit from fraud but don't police their sites.

Experts estimate that 90%+ of some categories are counterfeit on ebay! European countries have successfully sued them for turning a blind eye to it.

Etsy was an amazing site dedicated to handmade goods. Now, it is a dumping ground for imported, mass-produced junk like its cousin. In some way it is worse. Plenty of fakes, too. Customer service is horrible to non-existent and it has the worst search engine imaginable.

Regarding ebay, there is no site that manipulates and messes with the search results more. They screw over a certain number of people by not showing their items and ensuring someone will always be saying how they got a good deal.

Craigslist - It is a quasi-informal site that lacks real infrastructure. There are some scary people on that site. It has everything from yard sales and job offers to dating and more.

Offerup - The least-refined site bar none, they do offer purchase protection. Most listings have low-quality pictures with barely a word or two. No one seems to know what a ruler is or that one picture isn't sufficient. Old listings pollute the site so expect a dismal reply rate - many are five years old and the seller has long since abandoned it.

Amazon - Putting countless book stores out of business was practice for dismantling even more industries. They are marginally better than the ebsy-like venues regarding upholding their rules.

Their treatment of sellers and employees is borderline criminal. THEY PAID NO TAXES ON HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF INCOME! That switches the tax load to the average person, who happily gets free shipping and returns.

Rubylane - For claimed -vs- actual professionalism, they fail epically as few companies are worse than this shithole. Arrogance redefined. They have less market share and higher costs for sellers. It's more upscale so buyers pay over-inflated prices. Their programmers are inept.

Fakebook - Members are worse than offerup regarding their poor pictures and descriptions. Marketplace's search sucks; the majority of listings are not relevant to the search terms. For me, less than 5% of the purchases I attempt are successful, by far the worst. Also the worst, up to 95% of any search results have nothing to so with the search term.

Summary - Time and time again, internet businesses like these follow one mantra: When the money comes a knockin', ethics go a walkin'. You're more likely to get punished if you complain about being ripped off than the actual liars and cheats, who have been doing it unpunished for decades in many cases.

Of the thousands of reports I've filed for listings I', 100% certain are fraudulent, I've seen only one removed and the very next day it was relisted exactly the same and remained there despite my insistence to the contrary.

As a buyer, you'll generally get what you bought. Trusted businesses will ensure your satisfaction. Fringe and specialty websites pop up frequently so it is anyone's guess what happens there. The deals are, conveniently, too good to ignore.

UPDATE 4/13/2025 - The new trend is using AI to generate listings. You still need the "I" part of AI to input correct information. The liars and cheats can excuse their felonious behavior by saying they didn't do it, and the lazy folks can continue being dumb.

Posted by M: September 28, 2019

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