TradeMe has cyber criminals' number

A couple of months ago, Dunedin tourism student Haden Hansen's mobile phone was stolen.

Curiosity led him to search for it at online auction website TradeMe.

The discovery of a listing placed with the aim of buying, rather than selling, a charger for a phone - the picture of which exactly matched his missing mobile - left him stunned.

"I was actually both angry but quite amused at the same time because of how stupid someone can be," he said.

Although he was never able to prove it, Hansen was convinced the mobile was his.

He belatedly informed the police of his loss. They were able to trace his missing phone to a physical address which they searched, but to no avail.

It's an unfortunate tale, but in the age of online commerce - where just about anyone can sell just about anything on the internet - it happens.

But Mike O'Donnell, regulatory manager for TradeMe, said e-criminals who believed they could hide behind their keyboards were in for a shock.

"Only the really dumb crims would try and sell something on TradeMe," he said. "It's like putting it in a window to the world."

O'Donnell said TradeMe could trace people "even if they think they've been a little bit cunning".

The latest to be caught were two Auckland men who stole nearly $35,000 by hacking into the bank account of a Timaru businessman and used the money for a TradeMe spending spree that included laptop computers, watches and diamond rings.

When the victim complained, his bank reversed the money transfers, leaving the online sellers out of pocket.

This month the two men, Dimitri Nemkine, 20, of West Harbour and V'Yacheslav Mayats'kyy, 18, of central Auckland were ordered to do 130 hours' community work and repay an outstanding $6980 to two banks caught up in the scam.

The pair pleaded guilty to one charge of accessing a computer for dishonest purpose and three of deception.

"Frankly we are little disappointed at the sentencing," O'Donnell said. "We'd have liked to have seen these guys go to jail."

Nevertheless, he added, such cases send a clear message to criminals.

O'Donnell has delivered seminars to about 400 police officers around the country this year on using TradeMe as an investigative tool.

He said police could search for particular types of goods and even get the system to email them automatically when an item was listed.

Detective Sergeant Joe Mills of the Auckland criminal investigation branch recently invited O'Donnell to help train about 100 detectives.

"[It's] a particularly valuable tool," Mills said. "It's not just the item, it's also the audit trail ... that TradeMe can provide, in respect of the movement of the item ... where it's come from and where it's gone to, and the steps in between."

O'Donnell said 60,000 items were listed on TradeMe every day, and it was not possible to vet each of them. User feedback, he said, was vital to policing the system. Buyers could look up a trader's history, read members' feedback and, if they were concerned about any listing, send an email to TradeMe via the website.
TradeMe staff received up to 6000 emails a week querying listings, O'Donnell said, and the site had three full-time investigation officers who look into suspect items.

He said an easy safeguard was SafeTrader - a third-party means of transferring goods and money that first verifies users' addresses.

"If somebody isn't willing to support SafeTrader," O'Donnell said, "immediately you have to wonder why."

Hansen, meanwhile, has given up on finding his cellphone, but advises other theft victims to "go to the police straight away, and it pays to search on TradeMe".

Vodafone says lost or stolen phones should be reported in order for the SIM card to be barred from the network.

Each Vodafone mobile also has a unique 15-digit number called the international mobile equipment identity (IMEI). This is usually found behind the battery or by typing *#06# into the phone.

If the user provides Vodafone with a copy of the police report and the IMEI number, the actual handset can be blacklisted and barred from use.

Vodafone suggests owners also consider insuring their mobiles for $6.95 a month excluding GST.

Telecom advises people to report any loss immediately so that chargeable calls can be blocked.

For pre-paid mobiles, Telecom says it requires proof of purchase or an affidavit proving the individual is the phone owner.

Telecom treats queries on a case-by-case basis, but says that failure to report a lost phone could result in a large bill.