Rob Chesnut, head of eBay's global Trust & Safety organization, announced on the eBay boards a new Safe Payments Policy on Friday. "Based on safety concerns and input from the Community, we feel it's time to establish a Safe Payments Policy that clarifies eBay's position on payment methods," he wrote.

The new policy allows sellers to offer PayPal (eBay's online payment service); credit cards; debit cards; bank electronic payments online; bank-to-bank transfers (bank wire transfers or bank cash transfers); personal checks; money orders, including those from the online money-order service Bidpay; cashier's checks, certified checks and other negotiable instruments. Sellers may also accept COD (cash on delivery) or cash for in-person transactions.

Sellers may not solicit buyers to mail cash, nor may they ask buyers to send cash through instant cash-transfer services (non-bank, point-to-point cash transfers) such as Western Union or Moneygram.

Sellers may not request payment through online-payment services not listed in eBay's policy. eBay will begin enforcing the policy on January 15, 2006, after the holiday shopping season.

In related news, eBay will host an interactive workshop on October 19 that will provide participants with insights on how to prevent identity theft, how to spot a spoof/phishing email and website, and how to fight viruses and Spyware (http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000030550). Staff from eBay, PayPal and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will moderate the workshop.

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200510141748482.html

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/safe-payments-policy.html