eBay, created in 1995, has been a successful online shopping site for over three years and is partners with other well established organisations such as PayPal and Skype, thus needing to uphold a good reputation. With this there has to be some form of quality control in place to ensure consistent, reliable and trustworthy services remain in place for the users of the website.

Site overview
eBay is the online market place where anything you can think of can be found and bought. The about page states that eBay has a colossal amount of over 233 million members worldwide^[1] and without them they would not be as successful as they are today.

The actual layout of the website is easy to use and is user friendly. Upon joining you can sell and buy your items within minutes. At the top right is a simple navigation bar which links to user features to buy, sell, check account details, communicate with the eBay community and look for help when struggling with something.

Shopping
Shopping on eBay couldn't be easier, you can either bid on items in an auction or you can purchase the item at a set price by using 'Buy it now'. Once the bid has ended on an auction you will be expected to pay for it in your account area. The payment can be sent via PayPal, from any well-known credit cards or by cheque. These are well monitored and are subject to a strict process where the seller tags the item as payment received, packaged, then dispatched, and then feedback given to the payee. This ensures that the seller is on top of the transaction and that it runs smoothly. If payments are not received then the issue can be resolved through an eBay 'dispute console'.

The searches when shopping are extensive and ordered by categories. When searching through eBay you will find yourself spending hours just browsing the items the site has to offer as they really do sell almost anything! Some of the search results are in bold, some in emphasised boxes - each of which cost slightly more but offer more chance of the seller actually selling their item. It is not only items you can find on eBay; there are van hire services to portrait services.

Downloadable tools
As eBay offers downloadable tools such as a toolbar^[5] to help enhance their buyer/seller services, they must ensure that these are free of any threats such as viruses. The website however does not state that their toolbar is scanned and safe from such threats but does say that it does not use such things so we recommend that you only get the toolbar from the eBay website and that you scan it with a virus and spyware scanner before installing the program.

Another popular tool which can be downloaded from the eBay website is the Turbo Lister^[6]. This tool enables eBay users to create listings as fast and efficient as a production line with a more professional look to them. Again, there is no mention as to whether or not this tool is scanned by an anti-virus scanner before the user downloads it.

With good things always come bad. eBay have launched a 'NEW Turbo Lister' which is an updated version of v1.0, however with it comes a lot of bugs thus resulting in a lot of unhappy users. After reading the 'Answers'^[7] page it seems that eBay really do need to pay attention to their strong feedback and make changed to the NEW Turbo Lister before mistakes happen. As user details are entered into the actual program this could be a risk to the security of the user of the software due to there being a possibility of an exploit in the program.

One common problem that the NEW Turbo Lister users seem to be encountering is the fact that their normal eBay password is not linked to the actual Turbo Lister program. So when the users try to log into the lister they are faced with an invalid login error and are requested by eBay staff to change their password due to it not being strong enough. Surely this should be mentioned upon registration to both eBay and Turbo Lister and seen as common practice due to the fact that we are dealing with the users' money and financial information here.

Finally, eBay offer a toolbar^[8] which appends to your browser to enable you to get access to your eBay account without actually visiting the website. This does not appear to use a secure connection, however it does have an Account Guard feature which alerts the user if they are visiting a potential phishing website and blocks the login information from being sent to that website and this is then reported to eBay.

Transactions and security
eBay ensure that the shopping process is secure, smooth and fraud free and take this very seriously. In the website footer is a list of many different resources you can read to learn about the advice eBay gives for shopping safely on their website (Please see the 'additional resources' at the bottom of this article).

The majority of eBay transactions are performed via PayPal, so by joining eBay policies and the security of PayPal, you can ensure that your transaction will be secure and protected by the PayPal Buyer Protection^[4] which acts as a form of insurance with transactions via PayPal up to a value of $200USD (£400GBP).

On top of this policy, the transactions are also covered by 100% protection due to secure transactions, a Buyer Complaint Policy and strong policies relating to both PayPal and eBay.

Buyers and Sellers
It is the social side of eBay makes the difference in your shopping experience.

As eBay buyers and sellers each have a feedback rating, this assures people that they are reliable to shop with. There are people who do abuse the system and can claim that the item was never received thus claiming both item and refund and tainting the honest seller with bad feedback. This can make a huge impact on those sellers who take pride in their feedback ratings as they stand by this to prove they are reliable.

If I were to recommend any changes to the eBay feedback rating system, I would suggest that they add some sort of neutral, negative or even a whole rating system on the person leaving negative feedback or filing an abuse report to make them think twice about the validity of the reason for leaving negative feedback. This is all part of critical reasoning and the facts, circumstances and resolutions should be considered before instantly pointing fingers at the seller.

Safety Centre
The safety centre, which launched on Jan 2007, is a vast pool of information about shopping safely online with eBay and should be read before you make any transactions so that you can be aware of any risks or threats whilst using the service and where you stand if you realise that you have been a victim of fraud.

In the Safety Centre, there is a list of 'Things You Need to Know'^[2] which includes basic advice such as buying and selling guides, your rights and finally advice on phishing emails and how to spot them. There is also a Safety Centre Blog^[3] to keep you updated on any safety news relating to eBay.

Conclusion
In conclusion to my extensive article, I would like to mention that eBay is a brilliant service for making cheap purchases and selling items you no longer need. However, there are some simple things you need to be aware of when using the website and its services:

• Check that the website has https:// so you know that your transactions and activity is secure.
• Be aware of dishonest people who abuse the system and leave bad feedback and misuse the dispute console to gain free goods.
• When downloading tools from any website, even if they seem to be a reputable company, be sure to scan them with an anti-virus and anti-spyware program.
• When using tools which use or require a login account, be sure to only use it on your personal computer and not in a public Internet cafe or Library as these establishments could remember information entered or someone could have installed a kaylogger.
• Use a strong password for anything which uses your banking information. This must include numbers, uppercase and lowercase characters and punctuation such as ! or _.

Resources:
[1] http://pages.ebay.co.uk/aboutebay/thecompany/companyoverview.html
[2] http://pages.ebay.co.uk/safetycentre/index.html?_trksid=m40
[3] http://pages.ebay.co.uk/safetycentre/blog.html
[4] https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/cps/securitycenter/buy/...
[5] http://pages.ebay.co.uk/ebay_toolbar/
[6] http://pages.ebay.co.uk/turbo_lister/index.html
[7] http://answercentre.ebay.co.uk/forum.jspa?forumID=8019
[8] http://pages.ebay.co.uk/ebay_toolbar/tours/index.html

Additional Resources:
eBay Safety Centre
VeRO Programme This is the eBay Verified Rights Owner Programme
eBay's help pages
PayPal website