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Aardvark readers, being the clever, intelligent and well-informed folks that they are, will know all about phishing and the way it works... right?

Well one of the problems we have right now is that (believe it or not) there are still folks out there who can't tell a phisher's clone-page from a legitimate one. This means it behooves those whose sites have been the target of such scams to act quickly in order to get those faux sites taken down double-quick.

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That's not usually a problem when the site is hosted in a "friendly" country but can pose more of an issue when it's in a country where the rules are perhaps "a little more lax".

(IMPORTANT: DO NOT click on any links appearing on the phishing website referenced below if you're a Trademe user. I've had reports that TradeMe is now automatically suspending the accounts and cancelling the auctions of any member who arrives at the legit TradeMe site through referal from this phishing site) This could explain why, despite ScamBusters warnings, TradeMe seems unwilling or unable to get this phishing site shut down.

In a press release, Spambusters' Alf West said despite Trademe's assurances on Thursday morning that it had shut down the latest phishing scam, the page is still operating and collecting login details.

West alleges that TradeMe initially claimed this was the first phishing scam to target the site's users but later admitted that there had actually been five such scams in the past three months.

"TradeMe have always been reluctant to publicly acknowledge scams on their site," says West. "They´re fond of describing it as `the safest site in New Zealand.´ In reality, hundreds of kiwis are getting ripped off on TradeMe every year."

Now I have to admit that when my bank becomes the target of a phishing scam they plaster warnings all over their website so as to keep me (and their dozens of other customers (;-) informed. I see no such warnings when I visit TradeMe.

Are they hoping that by ignoring these problems they'll simply go away??

This latest incident only serves to extend a long-running head-to-head between TradeMe and Scambusters.

Scambusters claim that TradeMe are not pro-active enough in policing fraud and scams conducted through the TradeMe website, Scambusters members even going so far as to post on TradeMe's own message boards. In retaliation, TradeMe have resorted to removing some of those postings and even baring the posters from access to those boards.

Within the TradeMe community itself there would appear to be some consensus, at least based on this forum thread, that Scambusters are doing a good job and that TradeMe are only interested in acting promptly where there are direct losses to themselves rather than when scams threaten their users.

Obviously keeping an eye on the huge number of auctions contained on the TradeMe website and responding to scam alerts is a time-consuming and expensive task -- but then again, we're talking about a $700m company here so there's really no excuse for not acting in a timely manner when it's prudent to do so.

Already the volume of listings have fallen on the TradeMe site (since changes to listing charges were made) and competitor Zillion must be making some good ground as a result.

However, Zillion's listing are still just a small fraction of those on TradeMe and it remains to be seen whether the z-site will ever reach critical mass. One thing's for sure though -- if it does, it too will become a target for phishers. How it handles such events may well turn out to be a deciding factor in its future.

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