topic Re: Guess Who's Back in Business? in Selling

Guess Who's Back in Business?

i-love-my-sheep — Thu, 04 Sep 2014 15:44:17 GMT

The main account of that person with the several shill bidding accounts that we uncovered last month, selling the Nepalese paintings, has had her main account reinstated. She is now selling across 2 accounts and her account that wasn't closed down has quite a few shill bidders going crazy. As usual, no amount of reporting to eBay is making any difference. They just don't want to know with this one and are quite happy to let her defraud innocent buyers.

Re: Guess Who's Back in Business?

bakeandfry — Thu, 04 Sep 2014 22:53:50 GMT

One question, what is shill bidding?????

Re: Guess Who's Back in Business?

curraone — Thu, 04 Sep 2014 23:15:26 GMT

http://ocsnext.ebay.com.au/ocs/sc

Shill bidding means bidding for an item while holding more information about it than other members could – for example, if you're a family member, roommate or the seller's employee.

We don't allow shill bidding because it can falsely increase an item's price or desirability. Make sure your listing follows our guidelines. If it doesn't, it may be removed, and your buying and selling privileges could be restricted.

If a buyer is linked to the seller and genuinely wants to buy their item, they can use the Buy It Now option as they won't need to bid.

Re: Guess Who's Back in Business?

i-love-my-sheep — Thu, 04 Sep 2014 23:48:18 GMT

I don't know how many times I have reported both the seller and her listings and I'm starting to think she's one of the protected ones. Even more so now that they've reinstated her original selling account.

Re: Guess Who's Back in Business?

padi*0409 — Fri, 05 Sep 2014 01:57:11 GMT

Unfortunately chooks T&S are a toothless tiger in all areas they are supposed to be accountable for - and I don't see that changing any time soon.

The end result will be that disgruntled buyers will leave eBay and probably never return....................grrrr.

Re: Guess Who's Back in Business?

imastawka — Fri, 05 Sep 2014 02:00:01 GMT

She truly appears to be one of the golden children

Re: Guess Who's Back in Business?

padi*0409 — Fri, 05 Sep 2014 02:21:36 GMT

Hi Stalks, comes back to this I reckon..............

Re: Guess Who's Back in Business?

imastawka — Fri, 05 Sep 2014 02:42:28 GMT

Hey, padi - been getting a little lively up here in selling, eh?

Re: Guess Who's Back in Business?

padi*0409 — Fri, 05 Sep 2014 02:56:47 GMT

Yep, I was keeping out of some of the threads that were keeping the mods busy..........................

Ava good weekend Stalks......................

Re: Guess Who's Back in Business?

i-love-my-sheep — Fri, 05 Sep 2014 03:08:19 GMT

Good to see the mods removed that vile message she posted. I know some of us carry on a bit sometimes (pointing the finger at myself!), so it's good to see them keeping on top of it.

I have made several more reports about the offending seller and they have assured me no end that they take these complaints seriously (the usual cut and paste drivel). I also mentioned that fraud is illegal in Australia so I would be reporting the seller to the fraud squad, who in turn would probably investigate eBay for allowing the practice to continue.

I have previously made a report to the fraud squad, but as I had so few details to offer, I'm not sure there is a lot they can do. I have another tactic up my sleeve which I might try to see if that can get more more information on the seller and her exact whereabouts.

Re: Guess Who's Back in Business?

padi*0409 — Fri, 05 Sep 2014 03:34:52 GMT

When I first joined eBay it was a reasonably safe place to buy stuff, but now that eBay seem very reluctant to deal with blatant breaches of policy violations, it certainly does not appear to be so any more. ( I note also the ease at which buyers seem to be able to get strikes removed at the drop of a hat...............grrrrr....)

We have all seen the proliferation of scammers, shill bidders, serial bid retractors etc etc etc lately.

It's not even the novice buyers that are being caught, a lot of experienced buyers are as well.

Such is life in a virtual monopoly................................

Re: Guess Who's Back in Business?

i-love-my-sheep — Fri, 05 Sep 2014 03:54:35 GMT

I suppose the scammers think they are safe due to the size of eBay these days, thinking no-one will catch up with them. Sadly, they are everywhere. watch them come out of the woodwork when there's a disaster!

I still remember after the earthquake in Newcastle in '89, people were being scammed left right and centre by people claiming to be builders. The scammers have only got more brazen as time has gone on and now with the ability to do it online, they think they are immune.

Re: Guess Who's Back in Business?

bakeandfry — Fri, 05 Sep 2014 13:05:53 GMT

Zoom, its all gone over my head, I'm still non the wiser, I re- read it three times? Maybe layman terms could help? Buggerd if I know

Re: Guess Who's Back in Business?

i-love-my-sheep — Fri, 05 Sep 2014 13:21:46 GMT

Sorry, what's gone over your head? Shill bidding? Shill bidding is where a seller has multiple accounts which they use to bid on their own items to increase the price.

There was a seller who was caught out a couple of months ago and it was talked about at great length on this forum. The seller was reported and all her accounts except for one were shut down by eBay, after some excellent detective work by forum members working out the identity of her fake accounts. We didn't know about that other account at the time. She started trading again on her remaining account, which it seems lately, she is up to her old tricks again.

This account only had feedback left for others from for her main and secondry selling account which were closed down. When I checked the main account last night, I noticed that the formally shut down account is now active again and she is selling on it again. Interestingly, the same 0 or low feedback buyers are bidding on her items on that account too.

The issue is, she has been reported multiple times for this offence by numerous forum members, which isn't just an eBay offence, she is actually committing fraud, and no amount of reporting is seeing her shut down. Hence our reasoning that she is one of eBay protected ones, who can commit as many offences and breaches of policy as they like, and there are no repurcussions.

Re: Guess Who's Back in Business?

i-love-my-sheep — Fri, 05 Sep 2014 13:28:38 GMT

Here is the link to the original thread. It's 7 pages long, but you should get an idea of what's going on.

http://community.ebay.com.au/t5/Selling/SHILL-BIDDING-SHOULD-BE-ILLEGAL-PLEASE-HELP/m-p/1399465#M66462

Re: Guess Who's Back in Business?

bakeandfry — Fri, 05 Sep 2014 14:27:24 GMT

Ahh, understand shill bidding now. Thankyou. Although I wasn't aware anyone could have more than one account.

Re: Guess Who's Back in Business?

i-love-my-sheep — Fri, 05 Sep 2014 15:21:59 GMT

You can have more than one account, as long as they all have a different email address. Plenty of sellers have multiple accounts. You just can't use them to bid on your other accounts to increase auction prices.

Re: Guess Who's Back in Business?

2106greencat — Sat, 06 Sep 2014 00:15:43 GMT

@i-love-my-sheep wrote:
You can have more than one account, as long as they all have a different email address. Plenty of sellers have multiple accounts. You just can't use them to bid on your other accounts to increase auction prices.

or to interact with one another regarding feedback swapping etc

Re: Guess Who's Back in Business?

cq_electrical — Sat, 06 Sep 2014 01:10:13 GMT

Furthermore, if you have a number of accounts and one or more of them is suspended or made NARU (Not A Registered User) it is against eBay's rules to use any of your other accounts at the same time, yet it clearly made no difference to her (and as usual, ebay stupidly allowed her to continue unabated despite her being reported numerous times for doing so). Seems that some members here really are protected. 😞

Re: Guess Who's Back in Business?

i-love-my-sheep — Sat, 06 Sep 2014 01:25:53 GMT

Not only that, after her other account were NARU'd, they let her open a store on her remaining account!

Some examples 191308253894 and 191305518620 and 191303825311 and 191303450306. The bidder with the private feedback had 0 feedback before they went private. You will find the same bidders on nearly every auction. Funny how their feedback never increases, despite them 'buying' lots of stuff.

Some have appeared to bid on unrelated items and I wonder if that's just a decoy so they don't all appear to be only bidding on her items. Even then, despite bidding on other auctions, their feedback still never increases.

Another thing that makes me REALLY angry is, she is listing a lot of her stuff under the Aboriginal painting category, on both accounts.

You can find her other account under feedback left for others. The account that was reinstated.