Employee Spotlight: Meet a real life spoof ninja!
Posted by Julie D on August 02, 2007 at 04:55 PM in Customer Support Tips , General , Trust & Safety Corner | Permalink
Hi Everyone, sorry it’s been so long since I’ve last blogged. I’ve been pretty busy here in Vancouver and I’ve finally gotten back on track since the excitement and energy of eBay Live! in Boston. By the way, It was great meeting many of you in Boston. It was fun to meet some of you that had read a few of my blogs, face to face! Today I’m going to spotlight an employee here at our Vancouver Customer Support office – Jason Luu. Jason has a very unique job, we call him our “Spoof Ninja”. I sat down with Jason last week and interviewed him. He was thrilled, and very honored, to get to share a little bit about what he does with our loyal Chatter readers. Enjoy!
Julie Drossos: How long have worked for eBay?
Jason Luu: Wow! I was bamboozled when I checked my work records here, according to them, I've been here for roughly 1158 days (that’s roughly 3 years and 2 months). The root of my amazement isn't that I'm surprised to have been gainfully employed here for such a solid amount of time. On the contrary, it's more to do with the fact that it doesn't feel that I've been here for that long. The constant challenges presented to us here along with the rewards that come from meeting those challenges, really make every day here seem like a new day. Interestingly enough, according to those same records, it says that I'm a great performer and admired by many, so those records could have been tampered with.
JD: What areas have you worked in?
JL: I have had a very colorful career so far at eBay, having been introduced to many different work groups and fortunate enough to be involved in several important projects. I've been involved in Reactive Fraud, Spam/Spoof, Account Security, and, of course, Spoof Handling. Before working in the area I’m currently in (which is a job I LOVE), I have to say that my favorite department to date has been working in Account Security. It was like a roller coaster ride that never ended. Every day was interesting.
JD: What is your job/role currently and what exactly does it entail?
JL: My current role at eBay is that of a Spoof Ninja (more formally known as a Spoof Handler)! You might be thinking that that sounds pretty crazy. And you'd be right! The governing principle behind my job is simple: to diligently protect you, our members, from phishing sites and maintain the integrity of the eBay site. The existence of phishing sites and fraudulent listings that manipulate users to visit a phishing site are serious issues. We treat such issues with a great deal of urgency. We play an instrumental role in monitoring phishing site trends and, by working very closely with ISPs and networks globally, getting these sites off the grid. It's a Ninja thing.
JD: What attracted you to working for eBay?
JL: When I first heard about eBay, I was working at another customer support center. When eBay came knocking, I had to answer the door! HELLOOOOO…it's eBay! Turning it down would be like... turning down a huge slice of decadent chocolate cake. Sure I'd be fine, but I'd rather be fine with the chocolate cake. By the way, I'm eating chocolate cake right now. Yum.
JD: What has been the highlight of your eBay career to date?
JL: I'd have to say that the highlight of my career was when I won an award last year for contributing some of my skills towards the development of an internal eBay platform that intelligently sorts and delivers emails from a central mail system to the smaller department specific mail systems. Receiving it really emphasized the fact that I'm in the right place at the right time for both myself and for eBay.
JD: What is your favorite part of your job?
JL: When I'm not encasing people's staplers in jello, keeping the eBay site powered by pumping my little chicken legs on the stationary bike hooked up to it, or faxing Dwight messages from the future, from himself (dun dun dun), I'd say my favorite part of the job that I do is finding that phishing site, that one phishing site that just won't go away, and making it go away. I love making the world wide web safer for our members, I love problem solving, and I love in-depth, detail orientated investigation and research. This research leads to the discovery of information, which spawns the discovery of more information, until I find something that may have been missed earlier that ultimately helps me achieve my goal of getting this phishing site out of the way!
JD: Do you shop on the eBay site?
JL: Don't judge this 100% positive feedback book by it's cover, but I'm quite active on the eBay site. I LOVE eBay! I'm a digital artist and I go on the eBay site to find deals on things like large scale monitors, uncommon digital input tools, software and things of that nature. eBay is also great for finding that unique, perfect birthday present with relative ease. I also have really random, strange, spontaneous interests which seem to fabricate themselves every time I'm exposed to something even remotely commercial. From Smurf and Star Wars collectibles, to clothes that I think will make me look like “the man”, eBay is my ultimate enabler.
JD: What would you like to say to our members?
JL: I'm available for mathemagician and puppet shows (except for in the window of a New York City Dwelling because of code 10-114). Haha. No, seriously… keep your eyes on the eBay site, we're working on a lot of new, innovative ways to improve the user experience and make it even easier to find everything you want. Whatever IT is, we're going to make IT better on eBay. Oh, and I’ve got your backs!
Well, I hope you enjoyed meeting Jason, our resident Spoof Ninja. Thanks Jason, keep making the internet a safer place for all of us!
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