Nilus Mattive posted a great article today on Money and Markets about another silent threat to your wealth — identify theft.

Even though the fifth tip is more US-specific, you might want to check out what credit reports you can find and check in your country. I must check with a friend in the business, but from what I know here in Australia is that when you request a credit check/report, it goes on your report that a check was made, and that can impact the decision of some lenders. Will find out more and report back!

For the third tip about being wary of emails, I’d also suggest that tip equally applies to the telephone.

Many companies call these days and want to check your personal details, or solicit phone based donations. Quite often they do that from a number that comes up in the Caller ID as “Private” — there’s no way I’ll hand over that information to someone on the phone. They could be anyone, pretending to be someone else — just like phishing emails.

I’ll only give out that data when I ring them — on a number I can verify elsewhere.

A not so smart example the other day: a security company called (cold calling), asking on the phone about our security system. Surely they were kidding! As if I’m going to tell that to someone on the phone that I don’t know! Being in the security business, they should know a whole lot better about protecting information … yet their cold calling technique to me was abysmal. And it would be very easy to change their phone script to make their calls much more productive.

Anyway … I digress. There are two startling figures in the article … the rise in crimes last year (22 percent) and also that 10 percent of victims knew their attackers.

A good reminder to be vigilant.

Back in January I had an idea for a new type of vending machine to distribute samples … “tryvertising” as it’s called. And I even came up with a way to access the machine AND capture a user’s details — get them to send an SMS to the machine, which sends back an “unlock” code … the advertiser gets the mobile number and controls who gets the samples, and the consumer gets a free sample.

Not that I ever wanted to create the machine … I just thought it’d be a good idea. Put it in public places like shopping malls, libraries, bus and train stations, hotel lobbies etc … like other vending machines, but with free samples inside.

And then today … whammo, it has been spotted this week in Belgium! It’s the Boobox vending machine. It even operates via SMS!

I’m glad someone is doing it … I think it’s a useful concept. Just like consumer “tryvertising” promotions such as loaning a new video or camera at a destination such as a zoo, to try out the product with a hands-on demo, or going to a place like the Sample Lab in Tokyo to test and try new products.

How do you get samples and “tryvertising” into the hands of your clients?

eBay Australia’s decision to force all sellers to ONLY accept PayPal (with few exceptions for cars, motorcycles, aircraft, boats, caravans, trailers, trucks (commercials), services, real estate and businesses for sale) seems like an extremely bad strategy to me.

eBay own PayPal.

Imagine going into a supermarket and then only being allowed to pay with a credit card from that same chain (so the supermarket can make some extra fees)… that’s not much different to what will happen on eBay over the next couple of months!

Not only are competing payment systems like Paymate and others removed from the payment options, even cheques and money orders will be banned.

Isn’t it strange that eBay don’t mention they make NO extra fees when you use these competing payment options like direct bank transfers or money orders, but they do make LOTS of extra fees when you accept PayPal?

I didn’t see any mention of their increase in profits from forcing you to accept PayPal in their sales push for the changes.

Surely the banks — who do make money from online transactions and cheque accounts — and Australia Post (who make money off money orders) will have something to say about their payment methods being banned.

And about PayPal vs banks — is it more trustworthy? PayPal is owned by eBay — are they regulated and watched closely like the banking industry?

And if it’s such as good idea, why do eBay say they have no plans for a PayPal-only model in the USA?

eBay spokesperson Nichola Sharpe said the new policy applies only to eBay in Australia. “There are no plans to go to a PayPal-only model for eBay in the US and we haven’t announced any other markets at this time.”
– http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y08/m04/i10/s01

eBay tell buyers that PayPal is “free” — but sellers have extra costs with PayPal and undoubtedly they will be passed on to the buyer.

Right now sellers can accept fee-free payments: not once this new policy is in place!

Also, doesn’t it work with PayPal where there may be a dispute, that PayPal can not only take the money back out of your PayPal account, but if you don’t have enough there, they take it straight from your bank account?

PayPal horror stories abound.

And that’s not all.

This from eBay’s own site:

To further reduce the number of buyer disputes, PayPal may delay the release of funds for up to 21 days or until the buyer leaves positive feedback.
– http://pages.ebay.com.au/useprotection/changes-sell.html

Most buyers don’t leave positive feedback until the goods are received… so you have to send them before you even get the funds released!

On the same page, they also say “This is targeted at a small percentage of items which pose the greatest risk; the overwhelming majority of sellers will not be affected.” — but don’t explain any further.

Wouldn’t forcing customers onto a single payment method be anti-competitive? Especially when you have over 5 million customers and you dominate your category.

There is of course COD cash on delivery. But how many eBayers transact that way though? Many sellers even ban you from picking up items, and charge a small forture for shipping even in your own city.

You don’t have to bid of course. Nor do you have to be part of eBay. But eBay claim 1 in 3 Australian adults as members — now they’re forcing their own payment system down your throat.

eBay claim it’s all about trust and safety … and that it’ll be good for everyone (surprise surprise). Strangely they neglect to say it’s also very much about their profits!

Marketing lesson: if you rely on one marketplace, you’re at the mercy of the changes in that marketplace.

I’m rather shocked to read that from later this month (20th Feb), eBay sellers can no longer give buyers negative feedback.

Having helped more than one seller improve their eBay trading results through better marketing and presentation of auction listings, I know for certain that there are buyers out in the land of eBay that simply have no intention of paying for something they bid on.

Even eBay admit non-paying bidders make up about 6 percent of auction results: that’s MILLIONS of eBay results that are affected.

And suddenly sellers won’t be able to tell other sellers about it, because eBay fears that such negative buyer feedback “drives them (buyers) away from the site.”

So it should!

Bad buyers should NOT be encouraged by eBay to waste the time, money and potential auction returns of other sellers. Sellers have to lodge alerts, chase up bad buyers via email, wait and hold on to an item for longer, potentially have to re-list and then not attract the same level of bids from other buyers who missed out the first time, but may not bid again.

It’s a strange marketplace indeed. First of all eBay “powersellers” aren’t rated on PROFIT, but simply turnover. Even losing money on eBay can cause you to become a Powerseller, simply because eBay are happy with the fees you’re paying them!

And now bad buyers can’t be given negative feedback by sellers.

Sadly, for a lot of hobby sellers, this change will affect the way they interact with eBay.

Here’s the marketing lesson: if this affects you as an eBay seller, and you have no other “marketplace” to make money — then you risk your profits because you rely on only one outlet for sales. Be careful, it’s a dangerous selling strategy. As I’ve heard many times, the most dangerous number in business is “1″.