Ebay will often act on obvious accounts of shilling, however seeing as not all situations are obvious, benefit of the doubt is and should be given.
Then if there are multiple reports in a period of time and from different members, more action may be taken.
A few months ago I reported an obvious case with multiple accounts, within a few hours all the listings were removed and a message sent to all bidders not to pay if you have already won.
This is also another I reported -
Thank you for contacting eBay with regard to your report about a bidder
on the listing of xxxxxxxxx. I understand the frustration youโre
feeling since it is unfair because it takes away the essence of an
honest auction.
Rest assured that I already have taken appropriate action on xxxxxxxxx
and their bidder's account basing on our strict Shill Bidding Policy.
Consequences ranged from a warning to closing their account. Sometimes
sanctions on a sellerโs account are not made public, such as selling
restrictions and loss of selling discounts, and privileges. I had also
taken action on the listing as this is to prove that members who violate
any of our site policy will be dealt with accordingly.
Ebay CAN prove shilling when they have access to IP addresses. As well a simple phone number check can see if accounts come from the same suburb. That is of course not proof as the same IP addresses, but can warrant further investigations or red-flagging accounts.
