Email Confirmation for New Accounts should be REQUIRED

[mckitrick777]

Long story short: Dear eBay, kindly implement an email verification system for new accounts!

I have a domain with a "catch-all" in place which means you can send any email to the domain and it will go through to my main mailbox.

i.e.

238fskleu@domain.com will be forwarded to myaccount@domain.com

This is great for setting up spam catching when you sign up to various things (e.g. hilton@domain.com) but it can also cause problems for companies that DO NOT VERIFY NEW ACCOUNT EMAIL ADDRESSES like eBay.

People are generating new eBay accounts against my domain and even making purchases with these unverified accounts.  How is eBay allowing this?  Even the smallest of internet forums insist on email verification.

Technically, this can cause a fair amount of spam to be generated from eBay so there *is* a bit of legal exposure for eBay but more importantly, people can actually make PURCHASES WITH AN UNVERIFIED EMAIL ADDRESS. 

In reading up on why people would create multiple ebay accounts, it turns out that this is what people are using to try the whole "oops I sent you the wrong mailing address" scam and quite frankly, eBay isn't doing enough to stop it.

eBay - get it together and put some security in place to avoid scam accounts with unverified email addresses!

[pjcdn2005]

Many sites do require you to verify your email when you open an account but I'm wondering how that  actually prevents any type of scam? The email account itself doesn't verify your identity, your address or your financial information, only that you have that email account. What am I missing?

[mckitrick777]

Well that's just it.  Anyone using a random name at @domain.com does not have access to said account.

Perhaps if I play out the scenario for you it will be easier to follow/understand:

- Person A owns @domain.com and receives ANY mail sent to @domain.com

- Person B creates a bogus account of xyz123@domain.com

- Person A receives the bogus "Welcome to eBay" email

- Person A is not asked to confirm that that email is legit.

- Person B, without ever confirming that they access to email xyz123@domain.com (because they don't) is now able to purchase items on eBay, create a legit looking account by buying a half dozen small priced items and then go on to scam someone because their bogus account seems real.

- Person A receives all the "you have purchased x" and "item y is on it's way" while the scammer builds up a fake account with small, legit transactions which really amounts to huge amounts of SPAM that eBay is ultimately responsible for and not taking precautions to prevent.

[lady.stark]

If I understand correctly your first post, you say that a person used "238fskleu@domain.com" to purchase stuff, and you are the person receiving all their eBay confirmations? Is that it?