An old friend of mine named Mike Siris has a great device called the "Magnifico" he sells on his Web site officeonthegogo.

He sells direct to the market from his site but also sells through eBAY. Mike realized the other day that he had been hacked on eBAY as some crook somehow gained access to his eBAY password. And then he found out that the same crook hacked his Paypal account and grabbed a considerable sum of money.

After unsuccessfully attempting to rectify the eBAY situation online, Mike resorted to the phone and after 5 hours got things straightened out with eBAY. The whole eBAY experience was a horrible chore. Paypal was a better experience. He was able to reach Paypal immediately and that mess got taken care of rapidly.

This leads me to me own experiences with both services. I have mentioned to readers that I have sold a few items on eBAY. I am sorry I ever started with eBAY for the simple reason that I get about 20 spam messages a day as a result of having used eBAY. Same for Paypal. I get the feeling that if I had never used either service I would get 40 less spams a day.

Some of the eBAY phishing is clever. One gimmick these crooks use is sending an email that looks very much like a legitimate eBAY email. The message indicates that another eBAY member is protesting to me that I did not deliver an auction item. The other ploy is a message indicating that I did not send money for an item that I ordered.

I doubt that eBAY can ever stop these activities? The bottom line is I doubt I will use eBAY again. Paypal is a different matter as it is a valuable service for transacting ecommerce.

In conclusion my problems and Mike's problems are tied to the wonders of the Internet. The Internet and Web still are in a "Wild West" stage - adolesence at best. And as angry as one can get about spam and phishing, the benefits of the Internet far outweigh the negatives.