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Businesses The Almighty Buck

eBay To Combat Counterfeiters With Professional Authenticators That Inspect High-End Goods 64

To many, eBay serves as a convenient conduit for shifting unwanted goods and buying items at a fraction of their MSRP. But the online shopping emporium has long been a popular platform for fake products, with luxury goods such as fashion accessories and jewelry high on eBay counterfeiters' agenda. eBay is attempting to fix that. From a report: To counter this, eBay has revealed plans to introduce a new authentication program later this year, with a broad focus on "high-end" goods and launching initially as a trial with fashion items such as handbags. Dubbed eBay Authenticate, the new service will be powered by a "network of professional authenticators," and is ultimately designed to encourage buyers to part with cash on expensive items, safe in the knowledge that the merchandise is legitimate.
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eBay To Combat Counterfeiters With Professional Authenticators That Inspect High-End Goods

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  • If you look up pretty much any old videogame from a cartridge-based system on eBay, you're more likely than not to find at least one seller selling reproduction cartridges at full price, with no warning that they are reproductions. Often, there's no easy way to tell the difference short of opening up the cartridge and comparing it to a known real one. This is especially bad for games that go for a high price, such as Conker's Bad Fur Day on the N64 or Earthbound on the SNES.

  • For sale on ebay - shroud of Turin, lightly used, with some light discoloration and staining. Natural twill. Organic.

    I double-dare you to Authenticate it.
    • Authenticate it as the genuine old fake? Shouldn't bee too hard. Carbon date it, if it was made in about 1000AD it's the 'real thing'.

  • I understand the best counterfeits are often so good they pass 'expert' monitors. Does that mean if you're sufficiently good at it, your stuff is now ok?

  • Once the very last person in the world who can still tell an original from the very best of the fakes suddenly kicks the bucket (the real thing), then what?

    When a tree falls in the forest, does anyone here it?

    • by Archfeld ( 6757 )

      No, because unless there is an ear drum to interpret the pressure wave it is not a sound.

      Does this mean I can now sue eBay for allowing fake goods to be sold ? Once they start vetting some doesn't that imply a liability or responsibility to verify them all ?

    • by arth1 ( 260657 )

      Once the very last person in the world who can still tell an original from the very best of the fakes suddenly kicks the bucket (the real thing), then what?

      As opposed to kicking a counterfeit bucket, you mean?

    • By the time that happens, it's highly likely that the item in question isn't going to have a market for it.

      Loom at it this way: There's a reason why there are a lot of people around today who can credibly authenticate either a real/fake centuries-old Rembrandt painting or Stradivarius violin, and get paid somewhat handsomely to do so.

    • by SeaFox ( 739806 )

      When a tree falls in the forest, does anyone here it?

      Only if I'm hear to here it.

  • Dubbed eBay Authenticate, the new service will be powered by a "network of professional authenticators," and is ultimately designed to encourage buyers to part with cash on expensive items, safe in the knowledge that the merchandise is legitimate.

    I'm wondering if these "professional authenticators" will be independent of the companies that made the products and have the ability to overrule them. As it stands if you want to sell a Louis Vuitton purse on eBay, LVMH (the company that owns the brand) can have the auction pulled just by claiming to eBay that it is fake regardless of the truth of that claim. I used to make my living selling stuff on eBay. I've had auctions pulled for luxury goods which I know for a fact were 100% authentic and had the

    • I'm guessing it'll be a "guilty until proven innocent". They'll shut you down until you can provide you are clean.

  • If it sounds too good to be true, it's probably fake. How many 100+ GB thumb drives have been sold, so many 1TB HDD's that were fake, but sold because of an insane CHEAP price?
    • Nobody cares if it's real 'designer' crap.

      If it fools their friends, it's good.

    • Electronics compare poorly with women's purses in the subject of counterfeiting. How many fake Gucci handbags didn't impress friends with the owner's level of chic is harder to measure than how many 1TB thumb drives don't actually hold 1TB.

  • I've bought them on Amazon too. I was hoping for a used copy but got a knock-off instead - worked great, the cases are a bit brittle and don't last in a backpack like the real ones do.

    I never intentionally bought them counterfeit. I approve of this "certified real" program, but I'm guessing the certified as real guys are still going to be a little higher priced in the end. It's worth it to me.

    • by Jiro ( 131519 )

      I once bought a counterfeit Pokemon Emerald off of Ebay and it did *not* work great.

      Pokemon Emerald uses flash memory for its save file which is a pain for counterfeiters to make, so they hack the game to use battery backup instead. When the game is hacked to use battery backup, you can't trade Pokemon to generation 4 or the Gamecube games (since those are external programs which don't know that the save file is stored in a different way so they look for it in the nonexistent flash memory) and in fact usin

      • by SeaFox ( 739806 )

        I once bought a counterfeit Pokemon Emerald off of Ebay and it did *not* work great.

        Pokemon Emerald uses flash memory for its save file which is a pain for counterfeiters to make, so they hack the game to use battery backup instead.

        Why would counterfeiters have trouble with flash memory? They don't have to make it themselves, it's a traded commodity now.

  • Wow, that's great. There will be absolutely no way for the experienced fraudsters at the electronic bay of thieves to scam the system or make educated guesses about if they should send out the real or counterfeit items. I can now trust eBay completely. Not that there were ever problems before and we all know that any problem this elaborate effort is designed to correct was just an innocent mistake. I'll even be able to buy 5000 mah 18650 batteries from the eBay vendors now. And puppy dogs will go to heaven
  • The authenticators are to be paid by the Sellers, not by ebay or the buyers. It's offering the service to someone who already owns the piece and wants to sell it, and presumably is willing to take the risk that what they are selling isn't faked, in order to give buyers more confidence. This "certification model" paid for by the businesses in the hopes that enough will adapt it and it will become mandatory "professional licensing". Ebay is already in that business, via "Powerseller" status.

    It appears too

  • I couldn't give 2 rats if your Gucci handbag was real. In fact I wouldn't even know; to me it shows shallow consumerism with probably a matching personality.
    What I do care about is mains connected devices manufactured with poor creepages and insufficient protection that can catch fire and electrocute people. I would guess this would apply to the majority of plug packs, power supplies and battery packs.
    Thus they should be concentrating on devices that have mandatory safety and legislative standards requireme

  • I've been an eBay user since 1999, but I sort of gave up after getting burned on counterfeit SD cards recently. It's my own fault, of course, but my solution was to stop buying that stuff on eBay and just use Amazon Prime.

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