EBAY IS USELESS -no trust and certainly NO safety

[ford12ford]

How poor is the trust and safety team with their rules!!! I reported a seller who is using shill bidding to up their bid with many items, then just they cancel the transation and relist them straight away. 3 days ago ebay checked it out, yes confirmed it as could see the other acount was listed to them, after all how hard to proove when a seller with 591 feedback has had 78 retractions, over 80% bidding with the same bidder. WELL EBAY HAS DONE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, and this was not from customer service, but the trust and safety team I eventually got thru to. I am watching the items and following the seller and see the buyer with back 591 bidding YET AGAIN for the same seller

 Anyone got any better ideas on reporting. I tried to get a supervisor but ebay said I needed trust and safey.

 Sorry I know this is a new message up on the boards one but so frustrating.

[davewil1964]

So one thread isn't enough?

Have you considered not trying to buy from them? Is this too simple? Or are you an internet policeman?

If you report them and eBay do nothing, guess what, eBay are unlikely to do anything. Unless you have the best part of a mill to spend on lawyers that is it. Even if you did, you would only get material loss, which would be the amount you spent over and above what you would have paid if there was no shilling. From what you have posted that is unlikely to be anything, as you haven't won any of them.

[englishrosegardens]

Shill bidding is illegal in Australia and not just on ebay, so perhaps you could try ACORN or the Office of Fair Trading, and/or all similar organisations. Some of them would probably be interested - not only in the shill bidding but the fact that ebay has ignored it even after it's been pointed out to them.

[phorum_junkie*]

If ebay confirmed to you that the accounts are linked and there is shill bidding then that is a first in all the years I have been on ebay and unlike you the seller would have grounds to pursue ebay in the courts for breaching privacy laws which is why the have always, except for you, told members that they are looking into it but cannot disclose any information.

I suspect that ebay told you no such thing and that although they will look into it unless there are at least two points of commonality like address and isp there can be no definitive proof that shill bidding is happening.

Anyway as you have been told before they are rubbish at doing it if they keep winning and having to relist, that serves no purpose whatsoever.

Don't bid on their auctions and then it won't impact on you at all. I wouldn't even know if something I am bidding on is being shilled, I set my snipe and don't look again. I either get it for a price I am happy with or I don't get it at all. Not interested on anything else that goes on with other bidders.

[ford12ford]

Well, I must be the first. Obvious they are linked in some way, so telling me they are linked is not saying anything else surely. And it is just a good thing to protect other buyers. I does not affect me, as I will not be buying from them, after being caught when bidding once efore which luckily I did not win by the way.  I am just happy to help others. A bit of time to help others is a good thing. I am not the only one who has reported this seller by the way. They are NOT doing badly by it, quite the opposite actually, and it has cost them nothing if both sellers and buyer agree to cancel, if they do win. A pair of bathers selling at $6, but by using shill bidding got it for to sell for $30 is not a bad effort, and not what I would call rubbish at doing it.

 Anyway lets hope the ebay slow process is moving, and eventually keep ebay a safer place than it is now. 

 Have a great, happy, and safe Christmas everyone. 

[*tippy*toes*]

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@ford12ford wrote:

Well, I must be the first. Obvious they are linked in some way, so telling me they are linked is not saying anything else surely. And it is just a good thing to protect other buyers. I does not affect me, as I will not be buying from them, after being caught when bidding once efore which luckily I did not win by the way.  I am just happy to help others. A bit of time to help others is a good thing. I am not the only one who has reported this seller by the way. They are NOT doing badly by it, quite the opposite actually, and it has cost them nothing if both sellers and buyer agree to cancel, if they do win. A pair of bathers selling at $6, but by using shill bidding got it for to sell for $30 is not a bad effort, and not what I would call rubbish at doing it.

 Anyway lets hope the ebay slow process is moving, and eventually keep ebay a safer place than it is now. 

 Have a great, happy, and safe Christmas everyone. 

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If the so called shill bidder won the bathers for $30, then they have made nothing, not even a sale, which means they are really bad at it. The idea of shilling is not to win the item. It defeats the purpose. For it to work for the fraudster, the genuine buyer still needs to win the item, not the account that's bumping the price up. If that seller is "selling" 100 items a month to one of their own accounts and then cancelling every single one, then it's been a pretty fruitless exercise. They haven't made a single cent. Not to mention that eBay does pick up on excessive cancellations, without other members reporting it.

[collect247]

The shill bidder didn't get them for $30 the winning bidder did after the shiller upt the price.

The shiller bid $29.

[collect247]

I use to love that show blankety blanks haha

[*tippy*toes*]

Cyril said..........

I'd written a reply then remembered the OP mentioned they had followed the seller, so thought it better if I went and had a look. I've looked at the last 20 or so sold items and yes, 591 has bid on some, but not all of them. They haven't even bid on half of them. I don't have time to go through all of them, but while it could be shilling, it could also be someone who's trying to buy cheap items to resell, especially as they have won several of the lower priced items and not bid on some of the items that sold for a higher price. Some of the relisted items have been won by 591 a second time, which seems a bit silly.

If 591 had bid on every single listing, then yes, I'd be very suspicious of shilling, but it doesn't really look like it from where I'm sitting. While the bid retractions do look sus, there are a few other winners that also have a high bid retraction rate