Japanese Yahoo Auctions Will Require Pause For Snail Mail Authentication

from the fraud-detection-or-waste-of-time? dept

Yahoo Japan is trying to prevent online auction fraud by implementing a snail mail authentication system for anyone who wants to sell products online. It works by mailing out an authorization code (via snail mail) that a seller will need to enter into a web form, before they'll be allowed to post their items for sale. This will, of course, make it less likely that the casual seller will bother to use their auction service. However, some are upset that Yahoo doesn't do more. They point out that this won't stop that much fraud, because sellers can use temporary post office boxes or other services to collect the mail and still remain unknown. Some of the other "recommended" policies to stop fraud are just as bad. None will stop fraud, but they'll make life much more difficult for legitimate users who just want to auction something off. As Yahoo points out in the article, they can only do so much to prevent fraud before it becomes too burdensome on legitimate users. While some anti-fraud measures are certainly helpful, in the end there are always going to be online scams. The real issue is that users need to be better educated on how to spot scams themselves.