NEWS 26.01.99: Online auction house eBay is in hot water for allegedly selling fake sporting memorabilia.
The New York City Department of Consumer Affairs began investigations after receiving a number of complaints from people who had purchased goods from the site.
The company is accused of selling baseballs which it claims were autographed by famous baseball stars - but who actually died before the balls were manufactured.
It is thought the company could still be held accountable for the fraudulent items even though it acted as broker rather than retailer.
26.01.04: eBay has never managed to distance itself entirely from accusations of wrong-doers, although nobody has ever suggested it's anything other than a few rogue sellers trying to cheat the system.
Phoney sports goods - such as autographed merchandise - have been an area of particular contention. After all, all a fraudulent user need to do is go down to the shops, buy an England shirt, get it printed with 'Beckham', number '7', sign it as Beckham would and all of a sudden your £40 shirt is worth £500.
The nature of eBay makes it difficult to inspect the purchase you are making and often the seller can vanish once a sale is made.
The biggest problem with eBay is the anonymity which sellers can enjoy - especially since 'phishing' scams enabled users to sell items in the guise of another eBay member.
The added benefit of this is that fraudsters can pick a user with a good rating on the site, thus guaranteeing buyers will trust them.
And it's not just eBay that suffers from fraud. Perhaps the quirkiest story to date involved the fraudulent sale of a vintage deep sea diving suit.
However, most users appear to have trouble-free experiences of eBay and its popularity continues to grow - as do its profits.
