The Dublin Fraud Investigations Team works with numerous law enforcement agencies throughout Europe to pursue, apprehend, and prosecute fraudsters who may use eBay or PayPal to facilitate their crimes. Due to the legal nature of the work this team does, our efforts to fight these crimes often need to stay behind the scenes.

In addition to the Fraud Investigations Team in Dublin, we have teams in North America and Germany. Together, the three teams make up Global Law Enforcement Operations.

Here are some interesting facts about the eBay.co.uk website:

• eBay.co.uk has achieved the ten million live listings landmark, meaning there are more than ten million items for sale on the site at any one time
• Every other (47%) active internet user visits eBay.co.uk at least once a month^*
• eBay.co.uk's audience reached 14,743,000 in March 2007^*
• eBay visitors average two hours on the site and view 266 pages per month^*
• eBay accounts for 11% of all the time people in the UK spend on the internet^*

^*Source: Nielsen/Netratings, March 2007

Once a case successfully closes we want to make sure you hear about it. That's why we make regular updates to our Police Blotter, which you can find on eBay's Security & Resolution Centre. Every 6 weeks or so, we update the Police Blotter with the latest news around our global law enforcement efforts.

An excerpt from a recent arrest story published on our Police Blotter:

The Thames Valley Police contacted the Dublin Fraud Investigations Team with an urgent case. A large amount of computer games were stolen from a local company in the UK. With the help of an eBay/PayPal Investigator, law enforcement obtained a search warrant and executed it in late March. Three brothers who resided at the address were arrested after approximately 2000 computer games were found. Over £20,000 in cash was found on the premises as well as a number of addressed envelopes containing games sold online. They have been charged with handling stolen goods.

Remember, we can only release the details of a case once law enforcement makes an arrest, so the stories that appear on Police Blotter are just a sample of the many cases we are involved in.

Over the past few months we’ve been working on a number of initiatives to support a proactive approach to securing the safety of the eBay.co.uk and eBay.ie marketplaces. We wanted to take a moment to highlight some of these initiatives:

• Last autumn we put in place restrictions on listings to help reduce the number of potentially counterfeit items on the site.
• We’ve also taken steps to protect the identity of users when bidding on high-value items through the Safeguarding Members ID project.
• With feedback 2.0, the second generation of our feedback system, we’re using Detailed Seller Ratings as a way of helping buyers choose sellers who offer the best customer experience.
• In early summer, we’ll be changing our buyer protection plan to encourage the use of safe payments through PayPal.

You can read the full Trust and Safety announcement by reading last month's update: A Message from Rob Chesnut – Combatting Online Fraud.

We'll be back again next quarter with another update from the Global Law Enforcement Team.

Regards,

The eBay.co.uk and eBay.ie Teams