Shill Bidding and Ebay Security Systems

[gimegimeyogo]

Hi All, Just wondering if anyone else has had issues with Ebay Support and their apparent lack of action to ongoing shill bidding activities from some sellers. I have reported two sellers (and bidders) to Ebay very recently. They have responded that they are taking action but in both instances the seller continues to operate with the shill bidder inflating sale prices and in effect defrauding the highest bidder (assuming it is not the shill). As this has been a longterm ongoing process with these two sellers, why hasn't the Ebay security systems picked up on such blatant fraudulent behaviour?? I now must question who are these sellers and do they actually work for Ebay? Otherwise, if they are independent, why has there been no action taken against them and why do they continue to operate in such a fraudulent manner??

Would appreciate other members feedback as I am new to these boards but a reasonably longterm on again off again Ebayer that is about to be off again for good as the trust in the Ebay systems is definately not there!! Thx  

[*sparklz*]

Can you post the title of an item?

The more reports the better.

Also if there is no link found between the 2 ID's there is nothing they can do.

Have you phoned ebay or just emailed them?

Often a call will see faster results.

[gimegimeyogo]

Have individually reported the many listings for shill bidding and have independently reported both the seller and shill bidder. When the shill bidder is the winning bidder, the seller then relists the item - some items have been listed 3 or 4 times before they are sold at an inflated price to some poor defrauded buyer. How can Ebay not act if this is the situation? Hence my concerns that they could be employed at Ebay!! The other concern is why hasn't Ebays security systems picked up on this systematic shill bidding ie buying from only 1 seller over a period of time!! Systems broken or a mole in the system??

And not once, but two instances where I have reported two separate sellers and their shill bidders and no apparent action from Ebay and the seller and shill bidder continues to operate in the same manner!!

[lyndal1838]

As has already been said, if ebay can not see a direct link between the buyer and seller then they will not act.

Can you please post the exact title of at least one of the items in question.  The more reports that ebay receive, the more likely they are to act.

[dustymoomoo]

I have also found the same thing.  eBay didn't do anything when I suspected someone of shill bidding on their own listings. I did report them, several times as it was more than one listing.  Either the shill bidder won and the items were relisted or the items were sold at an inflated price.

How do you report this when the listing is completed?

[phorum_junkie*]

If they keep winning their own items they are not very good at shilling, the idea isn't to win.

Unless the ids share either a surname, address, telephone number or ip address then there is nothing ebay can do.

I never even look at the bidding history of items I have won, I enter a snipe at a price I am happy with and if I win it fine, if I don't I look again. Wouldn't even know if it had been shilled or not.

[foxette-in-sox]

BBL :O:O

[dustymoomoo]

I realise if they keep winning their auctions they aren't very good at shill bidding.

But when the shill bidder only bids on items listed by "Seller 1" in their bidding history, and has won a relisted item a few times, that is not sufficient evidence?

I thought that getting "friends" to shill bid on items on your behalf was against eBay's policies.  Or does the account need to share things like a surname or an IP address for eBay to take any actions?

[77redcorvettel82]

As you haven't posted an item number for people to check, have you thought maybe for starters the seller has multiple items the same and just re-lists after each sale? The buyer maybe thinks it's a good buy and wants more, so bids to his/her max they want to pay each time it's listed until they have enough. If there was shill bidding and the shill bidder won most of the time, it's costing the seller fees each sale in which would they be much better off with a real sale than a fake. Sometimes I have bid on the same item from various sellers that list the same items from day to day or week to week until I get it for my price. It can sometimes take a month or so before I win at my price but patience is a virtue. Just food for thought. Cheers

[walesforever2010]

Hi Dear,

We have No Support from eBay Security at all. They pretend to listen but do nothing.

Some sellers & Myself have been reporting Shill Bidding on Jewellery Sellers in Queensland. We have also been onto the States where they confirmed it is Shill Bidding & Fraud. In USA they can be Prosecuted but not so in Australia, go figure.

We do know all of these Sellers about 8 of them are Friends & swap the Jewellery around between them. We are actually experts on Jewellery, do know when a 2nd Hand Item, Like Ring, Pendant etc same size same weight, same design, same listing is relisted over & over again. This started back late last year with 3 of them. This 3 have stopped selling but the friends are now listing & the sellers who stopped selling are bidding on items. It is quite blatant, so easy to see if you know your Jewellery.

Personally I would Never bid on any Jewellery items from Sellers I do not know. There are many long term sellers on eBay, would never go anywhere near these Queensland Sellers. And they even leave each other Feedback, yet the Same item is relisted within 2 weeks??

Shame on eBay Australia!!