Joe Lycett: sites such as Airbnb and eBay must do more to stop scams

theguardian.com:

Platforms that connect buyers and sellers such as Airbnb and eBay must do more to protect consumers from scams, according to the comedian and TV presenter Joe Lycett, who accused them of pocketing the revenue but refusing to take responsibility for fraud.

The presenter of Channel 4 consumer rights show Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back told peers that regulation, including the introduction of more rigorous checks, should pressure lucrative social media and sales platforms into helping customers who regularly lose thousands of pounds in transactions with fake sellers .

Speaking to the House of Lords digital fraud committee, he said: “I think the biggest sector that we think could do better are the platforms.

“These platforms are often making a lot of money … they should be obliged to do more in that area.” He described the typical response from platforms as: “Well, it’s kind of nothing to do with us, we’ve just offered the platform on which you meet and find these businesses, but if you get scammed it’s nothing to do with us.”

Lycett said his TV show’s team had set up a fake account for the chief executive of Airbnb, Brian Chesky, and a fraudulent listing for the Airbnb offices in London.

“They didn’t check and they didn’t stop it. We turned up with the paperwork, and they didn’t like to see us, didn’t let us in,” he said.

He also criticised banks for failing to protect consumers from increasingly sophisticated scams, citing the example of one woman who lost thousands of pounds after scammers texted her from NatWest’s official phone number, meaning messages arrived within an existing thread with her bank, a scam also replicated in phone calls from legitimate numbers.

“[NatWest’s] argument was, ‘We can’t stop people pretending to be