eBay may be one of the runaway success stories of the internet age but evidence is growing that the auction website is letting down a minority of users that fall victim to rogue traders.

Times Money has recently received a spate of complaints from readers who have used the website in good faith only to find that the advertised item or promised payment never arrives. Others report receiving fraudulent “phishing” e-mails, which impersonate the auction website in an attempt to lure victims into disclosing their account details.

Ebay.co.uk, which is one of the fastest-growing markets in the world, says such experiences are extremely rare among its ten million users. But those who do fall victim to scammers and rogue traders can be left feeling isolated and frustrated by eBay’s response.

Gary Gilligan, 50, a professional golfer from Wolverhampton, lost £359 after he purchased a non-existent camera lens from a serial scam artist on eBay.

Mr Gilligan paid for the item by bank transfer before he discovered that the seller had accumulated negative feedback from other users. He soon realised that he had been stung. “When I notified eBay of the fraud, I first received an e-mail which rather than dealing with my inquiry just directed me back to the safety centre. There was nobody that I could speak to over the telephone,” he says. Mr Gilligan reported the fraud to the police. He also corresponded with other victims who had reported the rogue trader to eBay and the police. An eBay user from Reading, who lost £238 in a similar camera lens scam, was told by police that they would not intervene because they considered the fraud to be a civil matter.

EBay has closed the fraudster’s account, but Mr Gilligan is angry that the culprit appears not to have been prosecuted. He says: “Something is wrong when people are defrauded on a daily basis and left feeling let down by eBay and the police.”

Despite launching an “item not received dispute” in early July, Mr Gilligan was not offered any compensation by eBay until Times Money intervened. He will now receive £120, minus £15 to cover processing costs, which is the maximum payout available to customers under eBay’s standard purchase protection.

Sellers can also be targeted by fraudsters who use a variety of scams to trick them into sending an item without receiving payment. One Money reader says: “I sold a designer T-shirt for £45 last year, within minutes of posting, payment for which never arrived.”

EBay has more than 1,000 people worldwide working in its “trust and safety” department to combat fraud. It admits that 0.01 per cent of the transactions on its site are fraudulent. There are more than three million items for sale at any time, which means that hundreds of the auctions are likely to be run by fraudsters. The auction site will not disclose figures on how often bidders fail to pay for their purchases.

Reliabid, a company in the US that offers a specialist service to protect sellers from non-paying bidders, claims that it is not only fraudsters who are leaving eBay users out of pocket. Inexperienced buyers may not realise that winning an auction is a legally binding contract. Some eBay users take part in a number of auctions at the same time but find themselves winning items they do not want.

EBay says: “You can block a buyer with a negative feedback rating.” It also offers advice to users on the risks of non-payment at its safety centre: http://pages.ebay.co.uk/safetycentre/unpaiditems/#2.

EBay’s success as an internet brand has also made it a favourite target for phishing gangs. These fraudsters send out e-mails purporting to be from the auction site in an attempt to gain personal details from traders.

EBay says: “One of the most effective measures to combat spoofs is My Messages, which is available in My eBay. You can trust that important eBay account-related messages you receive in My Messages are legitimate and from eBay.”

For more on consumer affairs visit www.timesonline.co.uk/consumeraffairs