EBay pulls baseball contracts over concerns of identity theft

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) Online auction giant eBay Inc. yanked hundreds of player-agent agreements this week because the collectors items contained the Social Security numbers of retired baseball stars, making them vulnerable to identity theft.

Scott Gaynor, a sports memorabilia dealer in Dennis, Mass., listed 377 agreements early this week, including the contracts of some of baseball's most prominent players of the 1980s. An employee in Gaynor's memorabilia store purchased the agreements in March at a Pennsylvania collectibles show.

ESPN.com sports business writer Darren Rovell wrote a story about the listings Tuesday that included complaints from Bob Tufts, who appeared in 27 games for the San Francisco Giants and Kansas City Royals in the early '80s and whose agreement was listed on eBay. Tufts told Rovell he was ``shocked to find out how easy it is for people to get their hands on files like these.''

Shortly after the article was posted online, eBay contacted the Major League Baseball Players' Association, then asked Gaynor to pull the items. Gaynor agreed to pull all the contracts even some that had the Social Security numbers already erased.

EBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove emphasized that the San Jose-based company does not permit the intentional sale or distribution of confidential data, such as credit card numbers, bank account information, user names and passwords, or Social Security numbers. But he said the baseball contracts fell into a ``gray zone'' along with hundreds of other pieces of memorabilia.

``If a person in show business or the world of sports buys an item and pays for it with a check, it becomes canceled and the property of the person who cashes it. That could become a legitimate collectible, but it has financial information on it,'' Pursglove said. ``We have to determine these on a case by case basis.''

Pursglove emphasized that Gaynor was ``very helpful and cooperative'' throughout the kerfuffle.

The incident highlights growing alarm over identity theft among individuals and corporations. A new law that goes into effect July 1 in California makes companies more accountable for identity theft, and the U.S. Senate will consider a similar measure later this summer.

According to the U.S. Postal Service, 50,000 Americans become victims of identity theft each year. The U.S. Treasury Department estimates that identity theft results in $2 billion to $3 billion in losses each year from credit cards alone. That doesn't take into account the loss of productivity from people who spend days or weeks canceling debit cards, changing user names and passwords, and re-establishing credit.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)