The company receives hundreds of complaints each week from customers who receive unsolicited e-mails, or spams, after using the online bidding system, eBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove said Thursday. A new warning will pop up about such deals, which are prohibited by the company, he said. Currently, anyone who is registered on the site can view e-mail addresses simply by clicking on a seller's or bidder's username.
Registration is free and takes only a few minutes to complete.
Under the new system to be deployed over the next few weeks, users who want to contact buyers or sellers will only see the recipient's username. They will enter their message in a form, rather than send their own e-mail message. Though the company's computers are automatically forwarding the e-mail, eBay will not monitor the content of the messages, he said. And any replies to the original message will contain the sender's address. The new policy was receiving mixed reviews on Internet message boards.