ONLINE AUCTION WEBSITE OZTION SUPPORTS NATIONAL IDENTITY FRAUD AWARENESS WEEK AND HITS OUT AT WEBSITES WHO DO NOT TAKE THEIR SECURITY SERIOUSLY

MELBOURNE,  15th October 2008 –  OZtion, Australia's second largest online auction service, today added its support to National Identity Fraud Awareness week, and highlighted the measures online auction websites should be undertaking to protect their customers from rogue buyers / sellers that wander the space looking for vulnerable traders.

Trading on the online market is a safe and secure environment if the correct level of security measures are taken to protect the traders, who for the most part enjoy a care free experience. But as with any market there are the unscrupulous who inhabit the space searching for the unwary. Websites who do not enforce the correct level of security play into the hands of these criminals and allow an environment for fraud to take place.

'The security of our members is our highest priority.' commented OZtion Managing Director, Philip Druce. ' Too many sites allow traders to perform the most basic of ID verifications before unleashing them on an unsuspecting audience. On OZtion we have five types of verification including a 100-point ID check, address and credit card verification, as well as phone and photo ID checks. This enables traders to be able check the credentials of a seller before trading with them.'

This comes in the light of last weeks statement by eBay spokesperson, Daniel Feiler, who repeated the company's stance that a 100-point identity check was 'not going to help'. Druce is astounded by this attitude to fraud prevention and takes the complete opposite stance to eBay, stating that the 100-point ID check is an essential part of the overall security model that is used by OZtion and should be adopted by other online trading websites.

'It's like saying airport security is not 100% effective so why bother with it. It is completely the wrong approach.' Druce said, 'Like with our own five types of verification, online auction websites need to increase security measures to help protect their customers. That is what we have done and the 70% increase in membership demonstrates that people agree with us. I think some companies are more worried about making money than the protection of their customers.'

OZtion is the second largest online auction provider in Australia with more than 335,000 members and more than 830,000 items listed for sale. The provider's membership has jumped 70% in the past year as new traders flock to the diverse range of items on sale, and also give strong support to the no listing fee offer.

“Providing our members with a safe and secure environment is paramount to our success and we get excellent feedback from customers on how they feel comfortable trading on OZtion,”' Druce said. “If any seller on OZtion does not pay their selling fees within one month, their account is suspended and they can no longer sell items on OZtion. It doesn't matter if the seller is a significant customer of OZtion.

Media Contact:
Vuki Vujasinovic
PPR
vuki@ppr.com.au
02 9819 0967