CSI: eBay

John Kothanek is eBay's North America Law Enforcement Relationships Manager. He is also probably the worst nightmare for the bad guys who try to commit fraud on eBay and PayPal. John and his team work with Law Enforcement agencies around the world to relentlessly pursue online criminals and bring them to justice.

I stopped by the Law Enforcement booth to say "Hi" to John (seen here in the foreground, talking to a member). Carolyn Patterson, Senior Director, Global Law Enforcement Operations, and the rest of the LE team, was also there. They had had a busy time in their booth over the past two and a half days, with many members lining up to ask questions about what eBay was doing to put online criminals behind bars.

Carolyn explained that the top concerns members had were about identifying fake second chance offers, spoof emails, and having the ability to track international shipments better. Carolyn, John, and eBay's Law Enforcement team were pretty busy explaining how eBay's strong relationships with law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, were helping us go after the bad guys.

Members also learned about useful resources, such as the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), where you can file complaints about Internet fraud. And of course, there's also one of my favorite pages on eBay, a place where you can read about some of eBay's successes in bringing criminals to book - the Police Blotter.