WHICH?, formerly the Consumers’ Association, is calling for eBay and the police to work together to offer fraud victims a crime hotline on the auction website.

The call comes after a report by Times Money two weeks ago, in which we revealed that a growing number of people targeted by fraudsters and scam artists feel let down by eBay’s response.

Victims of fraud on eBay, which can be perpetrated by national and international fraudsters, currently face the lottery of relying on local police officers who may not have received the appropriate level of training to investigate internet crime.

Phil Evans, principal policy adviser at Which?, says that victims should be able to report a crime immediately on the website. “EBay should have a dedicated phone line with a direct link to a specialised police unit dealing with eBay fraud.”

While eBay publishes e-mail and telephone contact details that police officers can call (located on the safety centre of the website), consumers have no way of reporting a crime to police through the auction website.

EBay says that it works closely with the police to tackle fraud but it would not be drawn on the proposal to set up a consumer fraud helpline. A spokesman for eBay says: “If a specialised police unit came into fruition, then of course we would work with them and alert customers to them.”

John Brandler, 50, an art dealer from Brentwood, Essex, thinks that an anti-fraud hotline is a good idea. He says: “When I had a problem with fraudulent items, eBay did not want to know. If the police were involved and everybody who used eBay could contact them via one phone number, that would be wonderful.

“If someone comes into my business and bounces a cheque, I can track the person down. But I cannot do this through eBay. I suspect that eBay does not want such a number. It does not care as long as it is getting fees from buyers and sellers.”

Mr Brandler contacted eBay via its website after he had received an e-mail that appeared to be sent from his own user account last month. He feared that someone had hacked into his eBay account.

Mr Brandler says: “I went through the complaints procedure and completed the standard questions and answers. It took eBay three days to change my password. During this time, if someone had hacked into my account, they could have been doing anything.”

Because he did not have evidence that a fraudster had tampered with his account, Mr Brandler did not report the incident to the police.

An eBay spokesman says: “We co-operate with the police, and this has resulted in many arrests. If someone thinks that an account has been tampered with, we offer a live chat facility to provide reassurance for the customer.”

Kevin Pritchard, a police sergeant with the Metropolitan Police, believes that there needs to be a co-ordinated national response to tackle the growing problem of eBay fraud. Mr Pritchard, who has specialised in investigating fraud on eBay over the past year, says: “We need to have a joined-up system. I could be investigating a crime that somebody is investigating somewhere else and be unaware of it. A dedicated phone number would be helpful and it could be linked to a specialised central department tackling low-level online fraud. But for it to succeed, sufficient funding must be identified. When reporting crime, your local police station should be the first point of contact.”

The Association of Chief Police Officers says: “The police investigate all reports of economic crime. However, there are no plans at the moment to set up a special police phone line for eBay fraud. Victims should report crime to their local police station.”