[dragula81]

I used to make a living on ebay.

This has been talked about for years in ebay's very own forums that there is one simple way that ebay could avoid 99% of all of these scams; REQUIRE proof of residence from EVERY user whether they are a buyer or seller. A drivers license, power bill, a VALID credit card (this could be verified with a small $.02 charge on the card which is what a lot of online gambling sites do), etc.

Ebay is more interested in getting their money from the seller than protecting the buyer though.

One day, (hopefully) a real competitor to ebay will come out and ebay will have to wake up and smell the coffee.