One would hope that eBay.com.au will become serious about eradicating counterfeits from it's site.
The problem really is not about removing replica listings from eBay, which is a good thing, but very late in the game to serve any purpose, the real problem is the replica coins being listed as genuine, that is where the fraud begins.

The US, in particular has been flooded with replicas, you name it and it has been copied.

Believe me, there is a multi million dollar fraud being carried out on eBay every year.

If you ask the members of Coin Forgery eBay, who monitor counterfeits on all sites and report them to eBay.com, via Community Coin Watch or Trust and Safety, you would surprised to learn of eBay's lack of interest and concern about about counterfeits and the sellers of counterfeits.

Stopping counterfeits and counterfeit sellers, is not really in eBay's business model.

Canada has been successful in reducing the amount of counterfeits being listed on their site, mainly due to the efforts of one man, who managed to get the support of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The result being that eBay was informed to clean up it's act or be taken to court.

Here in Australia, I have tried to enlist the support of the Fraud Squad of the Victoria Police, who after receiving all the details of an ongoing Gold scam, promptly gave the information to eBay. Something like letting the fox guard the hen house.

In Australia as in Canada we have strong laws regarding counterfeit coins. But it seems that in Australia there is no-one policing the Crimes (Currency) Act 1981.

The Federal Police are not concerned about counterfeit collector coins because it is not an offence against the Commonwealth, it is not in their remit..

Paypal Australia Pty Ltd, enters the picture because they has informed me that coins cannot be counterfeit, a rather startling claim.

Paypal's instructions to me, after reporting a counterfeit that I had bought, was to return it to the seller, at my cost, using a service with a tracking number.

The said Crimes Act mentioned above, forbids the export of counterfeit coin knowing them to be counterfeit, under penalty of 12 years prison.
The counterfeit was not returned and I was not reimbursed by Paypal's Buyer Protection Plan.

We have the laws, all we need is someone to police them and for eBay and Paypal to put more effort into cleaning up their act in Australia.

We need to be united in a common cause, we need to rid ourselves of the apathy that surrounds us, everyone believing that it is not going to happen to them. Well it can and chances are that it will.

Robert