Fake bids

[flyinfinns77]

So does ebay do anything about fake bids? I recently bid on an item, only to be outbid on the last day. No harm in that, all good.

However the same item came up from the same seller about 2 weeks later. No doubt its the same item and not a duplicate (a very uncommon plastic model kit).

When I looked into it, the bidder that beat me has only ever bid on items from this one seller, clearly its the seller trying to drive the bids up. I have no issue with a reserve being set but this is just plain dishonest.

[imastawka]

SOCK PUPPET | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary  -

on the internet, a false identity (= a name and character) created by someone in order to express views that they want to have expressed, for example praise or support for a particular organization or person:

SHILL | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary -

Someone who helps another person to persuade people to buy something, especially by pretending to be a satisfied customer

[4channel]

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@imastawka wrOte:

SOCK PUPPET | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary  -

on the internet, a false identity (= a name and character) created by someone in order to express views that they want to have expressed, for example praise or support for a particular organization or person:

SHILL | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary -

Someone who helps another person to persuade people to buy something, especially by pretending to be a satisfied customer

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4channel writes:

Reply, hmmm. Hello imastawka?  Yes that's right.  We know that!

kudos lol

OK,  when a seller creates IDs with the intention of bumping up their own bids, that ID is behaving like a sock poppet. Rewarding themselves or rather dosing themselves with glowing feedback  via their extra created IDs to enhance their own profile is sockpuppet type behaviour. This has happened.

[padi*0409]

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@4channel wrote:

OK,  when a seller creates IDs with the intention of bumping up their own bids, that ID is behaving like a sock poppet. Rewarding themselves or rather dosing themselves with glowing feedback  via their extra created IDs to enhance their own profile is sockpuppet type behaviour. This has happened.

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That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever 4chanel. Why on earth would someone create an ID then bump up the bids on the items they already own (and pay fees on them) to get feedback.

If someone wanted to boost their feedback it would be far easier, an less expensive, to buy a heap of goods from Chinese sellers for next to nothing. Noting that Chinese seller will nearly always leave feedback as soon as the buyer pays.

I reckon that you are clutching at straws to make your hypothesis believable.

[4channel]

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@4channel wrote:

OK,  when a seller creates IDs with the intention of bumping up their own bids, that ID is behaving like a sock poppet. Rewarding themselves or rather dosing themselves with glowing feedback  via their extra created IDs to enhance their own profile is sockpuppet type behaviour. This has happened.

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@padi*0409 wrote:

That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever 4chanel. Why on earth would someone create an ID then bump up the bids on the items they already own (and pay fees on them) to get feedback.

If someone wanted to boost their feedback it would be far easier, an less expensive, to buy a heap of goods from Chinese sellers for next to nothing. Noting that Chinese seller will nearly always leave feedback as soon as the buyer pays.

I reckon that you are clutching at straws to make your hypothesis believable.

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Sorry boss. I should have put a space in between both scenarios. I did put the second one on a new line but I know, a space makes it easier. My uncool.  Should have been like this below

                 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 

OK, when a seller creates IDs with the intention of bumping up their own bids, that ID is behaving like a sock poppet.

Rewarding themselves or rather dosing themselves with glowing feedback via their extra created IDs to enhance their own profile is sockpuppet type behaviour. This has happened.

                 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 

* OK, scenario is with the bumping up of bids to increase profit at the unsuspecting bidder's expense.

* And scenario 2 is with sellers with low or bad feedback using extra created sockpuppet IDs to dose themselves with glowing feedback to make themselves appear to be a better more sound seller than what they really are.. And yes, this happens.

There are also people who would use both tactics at different times. And no doubt a seller or two who has been using a sock-puppet type of ID to bump up their own bids would reward themselves with feedback if they accidentally won their own auction.

Don't you think?

[padi*0409]

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@4channel wrote:

Don't you think ?

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Nope I don't. I think you're over-thinking the whole thing, and I don't understand why you're fixated on calling a shill bidder a "sock-puppet" either.

Let's agree to disagree huh ?

[4channel]

Thats fine.

[*sons_and_daughters*]

@padi*0409 wrote

That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever 4chanel. Why on earth would someone create an ID then bump up the bids on the items they already own (and pay fees on them) to get feedback.

If someone wanted to boost their feedback it would be far easier, an less expensive, to buy a heap of goods from Chinese sellers for next to nothing. Noting that Chinese seller will nearly always leave feedback as soon as the buyer pays.

I reckon that you are clutching at straws to make your hypothesis believable.

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Sadly padi*0409 it happens. A few years back (could be 6 or 7 years ago), I searched looking for a gift to buy my brother for his birthday. I knew he absolutely loved Thangka paintings from Tibet / Nepal, so decided that would be the ideal gift.

I had quite a few months to secure the ideal artwork. I found an ebay seller in Melbourne, who I learned also had an art gallery. Could it get any more perfect? If you have an art gallery, you must know about paintings, yeah?

Most of her listings were auctions. I bid on quite a few. A number of times my bids were cancelled. The auction would end at a lower price than my bid was. It would then reappear the next day as a new auction. Being a relatively newbie at the time, I kept trying to buy, because I just wanted one! All my bids were either cancelled or I'd be outbid. This went on for a few months, so tried to find out what was going on.

First stop, feedback. Lets just say that for the purpose of this exercise, the seller's ID was sockpuppet1 (mods, I have no idea if this is a real ID because I didn't check, but I am not naming and shaming.). On looking at the selling and buying feedback, there was lots of recent feedback, absolutely praising the seller for absolutely everything possible, except sending their first born....that came later 😄 

What I noticed was, members named sockpuppet 2, sockpuppet3, sockpuppet4 were leaving regular feedback for this seller, as sellers, assuming my seller was the "buyer", and my seller leaving feedback for them, with the items they left feedback for being relisted very quickly. 

Once I realised what was going on, I reported the seller to ebay. The results were, I assume, they could still sell, but not list auctions for 30 days because all auctions stopped for 4 weeks. I don't know if they are still selling. My brother got a you beaut coffee machine for that birthday that year. He's pretty much destroyed it from overuse. I never bid again on that seller after that.

As for the fees, the "seller" would have sent a cancellation request, which the buyer had to accept. Fees would be refunded. They would then relist. Of course, the buyer would have accepted the cancellation, because the buyer and seller are one in the same person.