How eBay Fraudsters Operate

Duff on the JOS forums had an interesting description of how eBay fraudsters operate. I can't vouch for its accuracy, but it certainly sounds plausible.
(Picture credit Filtered Life)

You're wasting your time. A buddy of mine was ripped off by a laptop scam, and a few of us started looking at the rampant fraud on eBay... we managed to identify about 60 accounts that were being setup to scam people and confirmed 7 of them via auction feedback. Response from ebay? Nothing. The scam works like this: - Create several accounts, buy & sell information and low value crap like recipies, ebooks, etc between these accounts. - Leave phoney feedback for your phony auctions. (A++ Super seller! Great Laptop! A++++) - Build up a feedback rating of 20 or so. - Wait 60-90 days for your bogus auctions to be unviewable by other users - Start selling laptops that don't exist. - Disappear. Does ebay do anything about this? Nyet.

Has eBay been successful catching phishers?