According to a report today in The Australian, eBay Australia has given the government the details of thousands of its sellers in a bid to crack down on welfare fraud.
eBay reportedly handed the seller user data over to the Department of Human Services for use in its data matching to catch out those supplementing their income with online trading activities while receiving welfare.
The Australian Taxation Office has been working with eBay to catch out income fraudsters for a while now, but looks like the first time that eBay has handed over details on users to the Department of Human Services.
The Australian reports that the department would ramp up its focus on online trading if all goes well. [The Australian]
This is just the government trying to come up with another way to make money from second hand goods.
sigh...
not about making money, its about saving money
there are alot of welfare cheats out there, i know a few and they piss me off
any self respecting aussie understands the value of welfare, but those who abuse the system deserve to be caught - and ebay, markets, classifieds etc - they all make it easy to buy and sell goods without the government keeping track of your income
this is a good thing
If you really know of welfare cheats, you should report them. By not reporting them, you are effectively party to their fraud. That pissed off feeling should be directed at yourself, you welfare cheat.
http://www.centrelink.gov.au/internet/internet.nsf/about_us/fraud_how.htm
+1
It is anonymous...
Complaining is stupid either act of forget.
They only act on these if it is of sever financial impact to the Government. They cant act on them due to staff and budget cuts. Don't we have an awesome government
I'd assumed this was the case anyway, considering the tax requirements.
Think this is good. I personally know of someone who is a "powerseller" yet him and his wife both get full centerlink benefits. The a-hole earns more than I do with his combined income streams and I work 50+ hours a week. If this keeps people honest Im all for it.
To all the people complaining about welfare cheats, you know you can dob them in. There has even been dob in a fraudster campaigns
Can you imagine the flak one would get if you dobbed in your neighbour for fraud. The neighbour, his friends and family would hate you so much you'd probably have to move. And there's no telling what your own friends would think of you.
So long as the government is not constantly monitoring its citizens I'm all for them checking from time to time.
Err. It's anonymous.
Neighbours need never know, so do you're civic duty and dob away.
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Lured in with the headline again.. good job eBay and AU, don't want to be wasting money on these chumps.
All the eBay directors deserve a good bashing!! Shit system that is designed to make them richer while the rest of us make pennies!! Boycot there system and teach them a lesson simple!...
lol... srsly?
Wrong region?
Spoilsports...Now I'm going to have to fall back on my old business of harvesting body parts
This story has been written as though ebay just decided to hand over details - particularly the headline of "eBay Australia Passes Seller Details To The Government". As the story notes, ebay was required to hand over the info by law.
Ebay were required to hand them over, misleading title...or just trying to stir the pot.
Good on them I say.
Do any of you actually think that this will bring taxes down? Hell no! Dobbing someone in just makes you as worthless as them. Don't even try to argue that this money could be put toward schools, hospitals etc. it won't. It'll just line the politicians personal pockets a little more. I honestly can't believe you're all in favor of your private info being raped once again!
Line their pockets? Whaaaa?
Man, that's not how it works.
If I call the police when I see someone robbing a bank, does that make me as worthless as the bank robber?
No one said anything about bringing taxes down the point is more other people pay there fair share so should the eBay sellers which by law they are meant to in some circumstances. And line the pollies pockets? Admittedly I haven't look for a few years but last time I checked our pm was only on $300k there pockets aren't that well lined compared to some professionals which dont have to live there lives in the public eye.
lots of people really need and absolutely deserve benefits. others do not and often feel they are incredibly clever because they're milking the system. collecting benefits that you're not eligible for because you don't declare how much you make off of eBay is criminal. we don't need to know what you trade (unless the AFP is interested), we just need to know how much you make - there's no privacy issue here.
How else can the government pay for the NBN. Paper clip tax next.
any ebay seller who has experience has probably been a victim of ebays bastard policies of suspensions. having been through that would have learnt how to open and operate a stealth account. ie false name , adddress, false everything EXCEPT bank account number. and even the government cant get you bank account number...
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