SHILL BIDDING SHOULD BE ILLEGAL! PLEASE HELP!

[kaos2015]

I want to report a member on behalf of my friend who was been trying to buy an item but the seller seems to be a scammer by driving up the prices with fake accounts. Maybe we are wrong and maybe we are not but-  it looks like a fishy and it smells like a fishy so it almost has to be fishy!

Item number: 181468915740

ITEM NUMBER 181 468 915 740 ( this is only one example- nearly every current listing has 2 bidders driving up prices on the sellers items and going through all the items in the feedback history the 2 bidders are constantly bidding)

They are using fake accounts to drive up the price and that is illegal!!!!! I think it is called shill bidding.

We have checked the sellers items sold, the number of bidders and all the feedback left and it DOES NOT MAKE SENSE!!!!

And the strange thing is these 2 bidders who have bid thousands of times on her items in 30 days cant be found in her feedback yet they are bidding large amounts but never seem to win or leave feedback. That is strange.

SELLER ID godblessmaria

We have gone through all the current listings and a lot of recent listings and it is the SAME BIDDERS ALWAYS DRIVING UP THE PRICES!!!

Currently 1 person bidding is b***0 (4) with 4 feedback.

In the last 30 days it says they have made 2282 bids on 451 items and 90% of the bid activity is with godblessmaria.

That DOES NOT MAKE SENSE that someone has made 2282 bids in ONE MONTH and only has a feedback of 4??????? They have made 2053 bids on godblessmaria listings and has only 4 feedback in one month?

ANOTHER bidder is g***i (48) with 48 feedback. In 30 days they have made 1493 bids on 426 items, 99% of them with godblessmaria. And only have a feedback of 48?????

This is shill bidding and is illegal and they are STEALING from other Ebay bidders by driving the prices up!!!

And they are not bidding small amount but large amounts!!!!!! Sometimes over $200

What we think they are doing is driving up the prices to MASSIVE amounts and then not completing the checkout- they are just paying the 10% fees and then giving second chance offers hence recovering the costs for the FVF transactions they never complete and STILL making sales with 'second chance offers'.

Is there anyway Ebay and Paypal can check that the sales made on Ebay through the possible fake bidders are actually getting completed through Paypal?

How is it that 2 people have made 3775 bids on ONE SELLER in ONE MONTH with a total feedback of only 52 between them???

THAT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Why is this allowed to happen?

My friend wants to bid but it is plain to see that godblessmaria has people driving up prices with THOUSANDS of bids that never win!!!!!!!!

Please tell me what is going on! And please correct us if we are wrong

Thank you.

[kaos2015]

Ohh wow- so many replies. We are glad we are not wrong. We said in OP we were happy to be corrected if so but it seems there are detectives that proved our suspiscions. THANK YOU ALL!!!!!!!!! Fraud and thief is understatement Ilovemychooks- organised corruption is more accurate.

We received a message just before from the seller and she said

"Dear k******5,
Hi, I am sorry i didint kow what was going on i will cancell all the bidding and move all if there is any shill bidding i didnt know about this.I haven't done anything and I have ready contact ted eBay and ended all my listing with bids -g***********a"

The main concern is looking through all the feedback it could be possible to calcualte how much she has overcharged winning bidders.

One example was an item 181442194096 that sold for $425- without the fake bidders then next highest bid is $11.50. So by law is Ebay or Paypal compelled to repay that bidder $413.50?? And all the others? Can anyone work out the total profits stolen? Who knows?

$413.50 is a lot of money and is probably closer to $500 before tax for that poor bidder to earn.That is one example.

How many $1000's or tens of thousands have they stolen from people??? Reporting them to the police? They should be reported to the Federal Police, the Finances Ombudsman as this is organised crime in a way. 4000 bids from multiple accounts in 30 days is calculated and is no mean feat. It is blatant fraud and a relative said it is a criminal offense with prison sentences as punishment. But should it be pursued?

The saddest thing is that Facebook page and her listings preach about Buddhism- and those artists in Nepal she mentions have no idea about the "filthy" profits she is making off of them. As much as my friend wanted the item they will not buy one.

The thing is this fake seller has a gallery in Carnegie and has links to the Melbourne Art Centre and the arts community in Melbourne and that is a disgrace. Regardless of what 'Ilovemychooks' does and the fact that she cant give a bill to Ebay for the investigations taken place- even through a blackout on a phone- this seller may be shut down by Ebay but WILL probably open a new account- hide all the bidders information and continue on with none being able to find out.

Is there any other cases where anyone knows of 4000+ fake bids in 30 days by 3 fake bidders? AND with someone using an indentical name (but with a possible birthdate extension)

So sad those poor artists in Nepal- and that google says Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world  . My friend loves Nepal and wanted that piece to hang in her bedroom but not from this seller and like Marina said only ever from an Nepal artist with provinence.

I cant believe she sent messages back saying that she had no idea of this "fake bidders" and she didnt realise this "fake bidders" had bidded on her items and that she was removing all auctions. And now she has all these listings with few bids that I suspect she will go underground and start a fresh. And still listing MORE items

Thanks and also thanks to Marina suggestion for Nepal art with provinence.

We reckon this scam may continue and that ebay WONT shut down these accounts because they haven't yet

poor Nepal artists being used

[i-love-my-sheep]

It is very sad for both the bidders that she has scammed and the artists. One has to wonder how much she pays them.

I'm really not sure where we can go from here. EBay has shut several of her fake bidding accounts down, but her 2 selling ID's are still up and running. She has also shut her facebook page down too, so I think she's worried. She definitely knows that people are onto her.

You say she has a gallery, do you know where it is? Maybe you could set the cops or feds onto her there? I doubt eBay would give out her information, but it wouldn't take long for the cops/feds to be able to look at her eBay pages and see what she has been up to. If the keyboard detectives on here can work it out in a couple of days, it would be a cinch for those that know what they are doing.

This is no small mistake. She has a large scale operation happening which has run into the thousands. Surely that would be enough to have charges laid. It may even set a precedence if charges have never been laid against scammers like this before.

Like you said though, she is just as likely to keep the bidders completely private and either open a new account and start again, or just keep her own sites going if she doesn't get shut down. It's a tough one!

[i-love-my-sheep]

I think there might be another scammer, selling the same paintings. I decided to have a look and see who else was selling these paintings, so it might be easier to see if madam sets up a new account.

Check this item, 151360774589, then check the bidders. Then check completed/sold listings for that seller and you will see that the same 2 bidders seem to have bid on just about everything. 1 FB bidder has 100% bid rate with that seller in the last 30 days and has made 180 bids. 6 FB bidder has made 182 bids in the last 30 days, 90% with this seller.

These bidders go back as far as the listings do in May and seem to have 'won' quite a few, yet still have very few feedback. Seller seems to leave feedback for buyers. 6 FB bidder is showing a different hidden name in the feedback as to what they are showing up as on the listings.

I don't think it's the same person as the ads are completely different and this seller is in Sydney.

Surely there couldn't be 2 people pulling the same scam? I really hope these 2 bidders are just trying for some bargains.

[cq_tech]

I'm afraid not, chooks. Those two are clearly shill bidding on that seller's auctions as well. One particular 'buyer' (h***o ( 26)) has 34 feedbacks from the seller yet they've never actually bought a thing. All of those paintings were won by another 'buyer' (y***s (26)) yet that person and (u***3 (6)) have shill bid on every auction that has been listed to date. Imagine how hard it would be to manage the paperwork for all of those dodgy auctions!

It's impossible to know if the Sydney and Melbourne sellers are the same person (only eBay can tell us that, and obviously they're not about to) but I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if that was the case, as the Sydney enterprise is every bit as organised as the one in Melbourne. I wonder if they also have a Facebook page that we can get them to shut down? 😉

[lalala-au]

Maybe some media attention to shed some light on this person's actions, may see Ebay or the correct authorties to take the right action. I am sure Newspapers would be interested, Hearld Sun in Victoria for certain would be interested I know the journalist Fiona Hudson would most likely be interested in hearing your story also channel 7. Fiona Hudson has written a story before about Ebay and she has a twitter account and channel 7 have a page on their website for you to submit stories like this.

As much as I hate when the media go ebay sellers as they do tend to go a little over the top saying we are all the same, at the same time I can not express how disgusted I am with this horrible person's actions, and so many people have been ripped off. This might also make ebay realise that it isn't such a great idea to have bidders private as they have now, because it can be so easily abused. Otherwise I really can't see how this person/people involved are ever going to be stopped. Worse case at least more people will know about her or maybe have bought something from her and decide to take legal action through VCAT and be able to recover some of their money.

[diecastcode3]

with the number of reports made to ebay re this sellers activites.

and seller is still listing & selling would ebay themself now become liable to allow this activity to contuniue.

at the very lest ebay should put sellers account on hold & investagate.   

[lalala-au]

I have no idea the legal liability of Ebay in this case, personally I think they would have themselves well covered. What I don't understand is why they haven't stopped this with so many reports they have received, I didn't even get a reply from any of the reports I made including when I bidded on an item and was outbidded by a shill bidder. I do find this quite disturbing and do wonder why Ebay isn't responding at all especially when so many people are being blatantly ripped off.

[i-love-my-sheep]

I sent them another message this morning in relation to the other possible scammer that I mentioned last night. I also reported all their listings. Frankly, I think I have wasted my time due to the original scammer still being operational.....and her alter ego.

I did point out in my message to eBay that if they didn't act on these sellers that we would have no choice but to contact police and/or the AFP. I also mentioned that would involve eBay. I still think I have wasted my time, but I had to try.

I just feel sorry for the Nepalese artists who are probably also being scammed in these operations.

[lalala-au]

Yes I only could imagine how you feel, you really did take it upon yourself to ensure this was fixed and Ebay really have done nothing. Ebay should be employing you for taking the time to investigate this case instead they have ignored you. As a seller myself I commend you on your actions and persistents in this regard and appreciate that their is sellers like yourself out there trying to keep Ebay an honest site otherwise no one would buy from here.

I am thinking of ringing ebay this week when I get chance to discuss with them what is happening and to support you in your actions. I really did think that you had this covered, I really thought everyone who not only posted but even just read and got involved silently would of been enough for Ebay to put an end to this.

I just want you to know there is someone out there that does appreciate the time you have given to try to make it right, therefore please try not to think that you have wasted your time by standing up for many people by doing the right thing and being persistent. I personally never think standing up for others who have been wronged is waste of time no matter the outcome.

[i-love-my-sheep]

Thank you for your kind words. I can't take all the credit though, there were quite a few keyboard detectives that got this as far as it got.

Offender number 1 has seemed to taken a battering as far as sales. Instead of having bids on nearly everything, they have 0 bids on anything. I think we've scared her, so it will be interesting to see what she does over the next few weeks.

Offender number 2 is unchanged. Their shill bidders are still bidding, so eBay either hasn't investigated yet, or have chosen to ignore the reports.

I made a list last night of all the current sellers of those type of paintings. There are 11 sellers, including the 3 scamming accounts. I did that to see whether any new sellers popped up. I also added their locations. One seller is in Thailand. A couple of the other sellers only have BIN's, so it will be interesting to see what crops up.