Ebay Bid Shilling??

[K7HTH]

Check this out, Bid Shill? Is it or is it not bid shilling?

[K7HTH]

If you take note you may notice that the winning bidder registered the same day the auction posted and both seller and high bidder are from Greece. Hmmmmmmm.

[seer]

Not sure what you mean, but the first bid was 600 dollar from a biddr in the US.

[K7HTH]

seer wrote:
Not sure what you mean, but the first bid was 600 dollar from a biddr in the US.

The last high bidder was pushed to max by the zero bidder and then out-bid by zero bidder. This is a suspected shill to increase the sale price. Suspicious because the zero bidder account was created the SAME day the auction was posted and BOTH are from Greece. There is a lot of money in this system and since the bids are slow this seller is sweating the bottom line. So having a "buddy" to help pump up the sale price seems to be in order here. Another Amiga Ebay phenomenon.

[FastRobPlus]

KD7HTH wrote:
Check this out, Bid Shill? Is it or is it not bid shilling?

Almost no doubt.

KD7HTH wrote:

seer wrote:
Not sure what you mean, but the first bid was 600 dollar from a biddr in the US.

The last high bidder was pushed to max by the zero bidder and then out-bid by zero bidder. This is a suspected shill to increase the sale price. Suspicious because the zero bidder account was created the SAME day the auction was posted and BOTH are from Greece. There is a lot of money in this system and since the bids are slow this seller is sweating the bottom line. So having a "buddy" to help pump up the sale price seems to be in order here. Another Amiga Ebay phenomenon.

Report the seller and the winner to ebay, and they will ban him/them from selling/buying on ebay again. :-D

[FastRobPlus]

Let him win it and pay the ebay fees on a $650 sale.

[K7HTH]

FastRobPlus wrote:
Let him win it and pay the ebay fees on a $650 sale.

Good one but he can always claim a non-paying bidder complaint and get relief from ANY fees and get a free re-listing. So really, this guy has nothing to fear, unless he gets reported as stated above, but does ebay REALLY hunt down offenders as well as they claim? Not quite!

[dnelsonfl]

From experience, you're right -- Ebay does not agressively pursue offenders. The reply when I've reported similar ones in the past was always "insufficient proof" to make a case. On the other hand, if somebody is crazy enough to outbid the shill bidders and pay that much... What can you do.

Good one but he can always claim a non-paying bidder complaint and get relief from ANY fees and get a free re-listing. So really, this guy has nothing to fear, unless he gets reported as stated above, but does ebay REALLY hunt down offenders as well as they claim? Not quite!

[K7HTH]

dnelsonfl wrote:
From experience, you're right -- Ebay does not agressively pursue offenders. The reply when I've reported similar ones in the past was always "insufficient proof" to make a case. On the other hand, if somebody is crazy enough to outbid the shill bidders and pay that much... What can you do.

YOU GET REPLIES?? :-o

[dnelsonfl]

KD7HTH wrote:

YOU GET REPLIES?? :-o

Yeah, but it looks like it's an automated response. There's one acknowledging the complaint, and then a few days later another one thanking me for being an upstanding Ebay user and reporting possible violations, but however there was insufficient proof to take any action. Blah blah. You get the idea. Ironically, there was this one time that they actually DID do something about it and suspended the user. I found out by checking the auction page. Ebay never replied to me on that one. Go figure.

[ajlwalker]

dnelsonfl wrote:

KD7HTH wrote:

YOU GET REPLIES?? :-o

Yeah, but it looks like it's an automated response. There's one acknowledging the complaint, and then a few days later another one thanking me for being an upstanding Ebay user and reporting possible violations, but however there was insufficient proof to take any action. Blah blah. You get the idea. Ironically, there was this one time that they actually DID do something about it and suspended the user. I found out by checking the auction page. Ebay never replied to me on that one. Go figure.

I hear what you guys are saying but on the one and only occasion I reported a Shill Bidder (sorry I've never called it bid shilling!) ebay did act.

The vendor was pretty stupid in that he shill bid on many of his items simultaneously.  He did have several IDs.  I reported three in total.

Ebay DID reply to me and finalised their correspondence by saying that they could not comment on their action taken but suggested I search for this member.  On doing this all IDs read "no longer an ebay member".

Now, I doubt they contacted any of the winning bidders who paid over the odds (they were relatively small sums), but they did appear to act if they indeed had enough evidence.

[K7HTH]

ajlwalker wrote:
I hear what you guys are saying but on the one and only occasion I reported a Shill Bidder (sorry I've never called it bid shilling!) ebay did act.

The vendor was pretty stupid in that he shill bid on many of his items simultaneously.  He did have several IDs.  I reported three in total.

Ebay DID reply to me and finalised their correspondence by saying that they could not comment on their action taken but suggested I search for this member.  On doing this all IDs read "no longer an ebay member".

Now, I doubt they contacted any of the winning bidders who paid over the odds (they were relatively small sums), but they did appear to act if they indeed had enough evidence.

Well it is good to hear that reporting violations is not a total lost cause after all. But the seller in question (who at last report has been reported) is still in "good" standing. Go figure.

[ajlwalker]

I just had a thought.  What better way to scare off other bidders than to appear as a suspicious bidder?

Any experienced ebayer would think twice about bidding further on this auction.

I guess it's just possible this isn't a shill bidder.

Definitely suspicious though.

[MaDDuck]

hmmmmmm.....
Do a search on the items that projector123456 has bid on and you'll see that he's bid on ones from other sellers.
~or~
He's bidding those to add a cusion of feedback to help legitimize the shill-bidding.

It makes one think, doesn't it??