Ebay fraudster jailed

E-bay provides information to police on suspected fraudsters

An internet fraudster was jailed for the second time yesterday after using fake eBay accounts to steal £14,200 from customers of the online auction site.

Twenty-year-old Phillip Shortman received a two-year sentence yesterday at Newport Crown Court after admitting five counts of deception.

He failed to post items he had sold and did not pay for goods he had received, including a Vauxhall Astra and a laptop.

Shortman has already been prosecuted once for similar crimes. In 2005 he received a year's suspended sentence after swindling eBay users out of £45,000.

Yesterday's verdict should act as a deterrent, said Tony Neate, managing director of government online security initiative Getsafeonline.

'There are no statistics as to how much this goes on, but it is good to know police are taking note and prosecuting these criminals with substantial sentences because auction sites are one of the great succeses of the internet,' he said.

But Shortman is not the first to be prosecuted for eBay-related fraud. In 2003 another 20-year old, Aun Sayal, was sentenced to two years in prison for pulling exactly the same scam.

Getsafeonline has a page dedicated to transacting securely on e-bay.