Make eBay Safer for Sellers: Prioritizing Fraud, Scam and Enforcement Fixes

You are a product manager at eBay. How would you make trust and safety better from the point of view of the people who sell on the marketplace? Pick where to focus, propose improvements, prioritize them, and explain how you would measure success. ```hint Look at both sides of seller trust Consider the threats sellers face from other users, and also how sellers experience the decisions eBay's own safety systems make about them; then decide which of these matters most for the sellers you choose to serve. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Which threats are in scope: buyers who abuse returns and claims, scams and account takeovers, counterfeit or rule-breaking listings from other sellers, or how legitimate sellers are treated by eBay's holds, takedowns and restrictions? - Which sellers should the work serve first: people selling a few items from home, or business sellers whose income depends on eBay? - How much added friction for buyers is acceptable, given that buyer protection also drives the demand sellers rely on? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A definition of seller-side trust and safety that covers both protection from bad actors and the fairness and clarity of eBay's own enforcement - A chosen seller segment and its most costly pain points, with the reasoning behind the choice - Prioritized solutions with clear mechanisms: what signal is used, what action follows, and what a mistake costs - The trade-off with buyer protection and the cost of false positives - Outcome metrics such as seller losses, seller retention and appeal outcomes, with buyer-side guardrails ### Follow-up Questions - How would you cut return fraud against sellers without making returns harder for honest buyers? - What false-positive rate would you accept for a flag that holds a buyer's refund for review, and who bears the cost of an error? - How would you measure whether sellers actually trust eBay more, beyond counting fraud cases?