eBay will send warnings to users who abuse its Want-It-Now listings, according to a post on its Announcement Board. The new feature was launched in early December, and allows buyers to post "wanted" ads for free. Users who have items can then send a message to the poster through eBay's messaging system.

But on Monday, eBay said users were being sent irrelevant responses and even "Want It Now Spam," when a user responds to many posts with unrelated items.

eBay's announcement said irrelevant responses can be caused when Want It Now posts are too general, and eBay encouraged posters to be as clear as possible when describing the items they want.

eBay also said that later this week it would begin to warn members that have been reported for sending irrelevant responses, and if a member shows a pattern of sending such responses, it will restrict them from responding to Want It Now posts.

Warnings and restrictions will be based solely upon the reports eBay receives from users who created the original Want It Now post, "since they are the best judge of whether an item met their description."

http://www2.ebay.com:80/aw/marketing.shtml#2004-12-27162701