SHILL BIDDING

[sloanranger62]

I have caught out a EBAY TOP RATED SELLER in building products on shill bidding and Ebay do not care.  I have been a detective for the past 12 hours identifying that this is what he is doing, and have informed them of his criminal actions which they regard as & call only a policy violation.  Their investigation department doesn't even have phone support just email (that is how little they care).  I sent him an email late last night stating he is a shill bidder & I am retracting my bids and since then strange things have disappeared from his site including he has closed down auctions.  

[kopenhagen5]

Be careful.

I would now add him to your BBL so he cannot buy one of your items to leave a retaliatory negative.

Every listing has a report function and a topic specifically for shilling under fraudulent activity.

Often it can appear as shilling but isn't. However if he is pulling listings, that sounds suspicious.

[ytwo000]

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@kopenhagen5 wrote:

Be careful.

I would now add him to your BBL so he cannot buy one of your items to leave a retaliatory negative.

Every listing has a report function and a topic specifically for shilling under fraudulent activity.

Often it can appear as shilling but isn't. However if he is pulling listings, that sounds suspicious.

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i agree with kopenhagen5..Often it can appear as shilling but isn't...

Be careful before you accuse someone for shilling as this can back fire on you.

[bjmonty28]

There are some very high volume sellers that I too am suspiscous on.

I would imagine quite a lot of mutual transaction cancellations appearing on their account if it was the case. I am aware that eBay do not like to credit back FVF`s so they have a tool in place to alert them when certain sellers start to show an excessive number of mutual transaction cancellations.

Having said that though, shill bidding is never easy for buyers to detect anymore, since they introduced the hidden bidders usernames a few years ago (heck, it might have even been 5 years ago was it? oh boy time flies), and also with private bidding we will never know for sure.

eBay make fees regardless so they are not interested in making the reporting system too easy to navigate.

Phrase of the day: Save the Whales, Eat the Japanese.

[sloanranger62]

In what way can it backfire on me.  I and my builder are certain he is shill bidding.  I was bidded up to $2500 (which entailed 40+ bids) for a building item that my builder checked before end of auction and said was ridiculous and he will build it for cheaper and told me to retract the bids.  I retracted my last bid and the item ended back at $140 (instead of $1900) and keeping in mind I needed to retract all my other bids .  HOW DOES THAT FIGURE OUT? Every time I bidded & placed a maximun bid (it was reached virtually straight away) with 6 days to go.   I google Ebay shill bidding and a expert on the topic who had a online tutorial said you can check their feedback to ascertain whether they may be shill bidding, which I did and low & behold he had the same private customer (lets say g*****y 22)  littered throughout his feedback which is probably the account he is using for shill bidding.  That account has glowing feedback & he advertises his goods in follow-up feedback,  He regularly takes auction down and after he received my email he took heaps of auction down and did not return my email.  He NEVER DOES BUY-IT-NOW and has  2 RED DOTS in his feedback calling him a criminal & stating inferior product.  SEEMS LIKE SHELL BIDDING TO ME and I have told Ebay he needs to be reported to the police as he is dealing with building products which need to be of quality.

[imastawka]

In what way can it backfire on me.

He and some friends can band together and buy small items from you

and then give you lots of negs.

Result - Trashed reputation.  Or worse.  Ebay could stop you from selling

BBL NOW

[bjmonty28]

I would be more worried about being summonsed on charges of libel or defamation or even plagarism

[modestbods]

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@kopenhagen5 wrote:

Be careful.

I would now add him to your BBL so he cannot buy one of your items to leave a retaliatory negative.

Every listing has a report function and a topic specifically for shilling under fraudulent activity.

Often it can appear as shilling but isn't. However if he is pulling listings, that sounds suspicious.

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He could be pulling listings as a result of the OP retracting their bids;

> to be fair to other bidders that had their highest bids exposed by the OPs bidding,

> or to avoid being suspected/accused by the other bidders of shill bidding via the OPs ID... & if that seems farfetched?  see here >> http://community.ebay.com.au/t5/Buying/why-items-can-be-removed-amp-re-listed-amp-removed-again-with...

 It's interesting to note that the OP only seems to have become suspicious AFTER having a change of mind following their builder offering to make the same thing cheaper. The term 'blame shifting' comes to mind.

[putney32]

if the ''so called shiller'' is really active and buying lots from this seller it is UNLIKELY to be a shill bidder at all

the whole point of shilling is to NOT win the auction (and pay hundreds of dollars to ebay in fees), but to inflate the price so others buy.

no Seller who knows how ebay works (and charges) is going to use a shill bid to WIN and PAY FEES. !

[imastawka]

   It's interesting to note that the OP only seems to have become suspicious AFTER having a change of mind following their builder offering to make the same thing cheaper. The term 'blame shifting' comes to mind                

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