eBay, which runs portals in Australia and New Zealand, plans to block members from being able to look up each other's email addresses on the site, making it harder to spam members also harder for people to cut the online auction house out of a deal.

The online auction company will direct bidders and sellers to contact one another through eBay's own computers. That will protect members from spam, according to spokesman Kevin Pursglove.

And while eBay won't monitor, read or store the email sent through its system, Pursglove said the company will attach a generic warning about offline deals, which can result in a member being barred from the site.

"Solicitations to buy or sell items outside of eBay violate eBay rules and are not covered by services that protect members such as feedback, insurance, escrow and dispute resolution," said eBay in a posting on its announcement board.

The company said it will tell members who receive email through its system: "If this is an offer to buy or sell items outside of eBay, please do not participate."

Under the new policy, sellers can access the email addresses of bidders on their auctions. And winning bidders can access the e-mail addresses of sellers. Members will also continue to be able to request other contact information such as phone numbers and street addresses from eBay.

Last month, eBay took steps to crack down on deals between members that are conducted outside of its auction system. At the time, eBay said the steps, which included spelling out unauthorized communications between members and threatening to suspend those who violated the rules, were in response to complaints about spam and fraud related to those off-system deals, as well as the loss of revenue to the company.

Meanwhile, the US Software and Information Industry Association reported last week that people who sell pirated software via online auction sites have begun to contact auction bidders directly, rather than by setting up actual auctions. The SIIA filed suit against two individuals last week that it accused of using those methods.

Opinion divided
On message boards, eBay members were divided about the new changes.

Some praised the move as a way to cut down on spam and to restrict sellers from trying to undercut their rivals. Some sellers have been known to offer similar goods at reduced prices to their rivals' bidders while an auction is taking place.

"In my humble opinion, anything that will help put the scum sucking bottom feeders out of business, is a good thing," one member wrote.

Others questioned how dependable the eBay-run email system would be, given problems like a nearly 11-hour site outage that hit the site earlier this month.

Pursglove said the new email system will run on a different server than its auction system.

Some members worried that eBay representatives would read the emails, despite the company's assurances.

"Ebay is saying this will help reduce spam and will help them enforce compliance with their bidding rules," one member said. "How can they enforce compliance without reading or scanning the emails? Sounds like Big Brother is here."

As part of the new email policy, earlier this week eBay began blocking new members from registering their email address as their user name on the system. The company also began encouraging current members who use the email address as their user name to create a new user name on the system.

"We are going to suggest that they think about changing it," Pursglove said. "It's one of the easiest sources of spamming."

Currently, eBay members can look up another member's email address by simply filling out a request form on the auction site.

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