By offering elephant ivory under pseudonyms, sellers are circumventing eBay’s self-imposed ban on its sale.
We purchased three of these items from eBay UK and evaluated them in an independent laboratory. Two were found to be composed of ivory.
Experts in the ivory trade found that hundreds of elephant ivory objects had been sold on the website since the firm stopped its sale.
Dr. Caroline Cox initiated the project in 2018 at the University of Portsmouth. She and other ivory trade experts assert that internet sales continue despite the June 6 implementation of a new UK-wide ban on ivory sales.
More than a decade has passed since eBay imposed its global ban on ivory sales. According to an online post, the global prohibition would “protect buyers and sellers, as well as endangered species.”
In 2018, Dr. Cox and her team conducted a three-month online study tracking the category “bovine bone” on eBay’s UK website. More than 500 of the 632 fragments of bovine bone that had been sold on eBay UK were proven to be ivory.
Dr. Cox noted that, for this online forensic investigation, she was able to use images and information in advertisements that offer consumers – and investigators – unambiguous evidence of what the goods are made of.
She added, “Ivory has a distinct, creamy color.” Because ivory’s worth is determined by its weight, this information is frequently included in product listings.
The most important piece of evidence is a photograph of a thing. You might think of Schreger lines as tree rings, but for teeth and tusks, because they are distinct and apparent on ivory that has been carved. “These are peculiar to ivory,” Dr. Cox explained.
Investigators and law enforcement authorities have utilized these visual approaches for quite some time to identify illegal ivory, both during seizures and when investigating the online trade.
“Over the past two years, we have rejected or removed over 265,000 listings prohibited under our animal products policy,”
“Because of our proactive strategy, merchants of illegal ivory are compelled to employ esoteric ‘code phrases’ [for products] that are rarely, if ever, sold because purchasers cannot locate them.”
Initiating this research, experts in the ivory trade noted that they had followed 500 eBay purchases of ivory to completion in just three months of 2018. In addition, the same code words or pseudonyms, most notably “bovine bone,” were utilized frequently.
The laws governing the ivory trade vary from nation to nation. On Monday, the United Kingdom implemented what it calls “one of the strictest bans on the selling of elephant ivory in the world.” Trade-in elephant teeth and tusks is prohibited in the United Kingdom as of 6 June, punishable by fines of up to £250,000 or imprisonment of up to five years.
