Things are always bigger in Queensland- houses, bananas and footy teams in particular, and so it seems is the size of eBay fraud as Queensland police say they have tracked down 23 repeat offenders responsible for about half that state’s reported eBay fraud.

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Police realised that criminal fraud on eBay posed difficulties as it involved investigating offenders in other police jurisdictions so about 12 months ago, the state’s fraud squad rolled out their world-first website allowing  eBay customers Australia-wide to report online fraud and other cyber-conduct unbecoming – a service that allows users across Australia to report cases of fraud to their relevant police department in their state of origin.

So far 416 cases have been reported and it has been found 60 per cent of them were by Queensland victims duped by offenders from the same state. Only nine per cent of the cases related to interstate offenders falsely claiming to be in Queensland, and 31 per cent related to overseas offenders.

Police have so far found 23 Queensland-based offenders, who accounted for some 50 per cent of the complaints – with one budding online scammer charged with 33 offences whilst another individual was even more busy, being charged with 48 offences in total.