Shill bidding

[queenwaldorf]

Just wanted to get a second opinion on this! I was watching a coat recently (273115643378) and it ended when I forgot about it without any bids. It was then relisted at a lower price with the same photos and description under another seller (202269856471). I bid on it and missed out, then a few hours later I got a second chance offer. I'm always wary of these when they come so soon after an auction ends, so I checked on the bids and found that the 'buyer' that had bid against me had the same number and % of feedback as the first seller that had listed the coat. I then checked more items and it looks like the second account has bid on the first seller's items previously and has driven the price up.

Further examples:

1st seller (shill bidder account with 4 feedback listed the coat the second time): 

273075851118

273055857132

So does it look like that to anyone else? Or am I paranoid...

[queenwaldorf]

It's been removed. I reported it and expected nothing to happen, but there you go!

[4channel]

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@queenwaldorf wrote:
It's been removed. I reported it and expected nothing to happen, but there you go!

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What do you think queenwaldorf , was it the seller with a sock-puppet ID bidding in his/her own auction or a shill friend or associate helping out?

Anyway, good eBay has taken action and had it removed.

[wing-less]

I recently noticed a similar thing with jewellery and 5 different sellrs who all had someone bid on all of their items- each seller had a different bidder but all had the same number of feedbacks 4 and the same first initial.

I made some bids before I thought that it was sus when I looked at their completed listings and there were only things sold for either a tiny amount- won by the bidder who had bidded on everything back 6 months or for $12.50 by different winners but the other bidder had bid on every item right up until $12,50. this may be a coincidence- if so it is a weird one or a shop bidding on things to onsell but really, it seemed very sus to me.

I found it even more sus when I suddenly won something on the site that I know that I was losing until right at the end when I guess the bids above m were withdrawn, unfortunately for me it waas my test bids to see how what price the bids would go up to- so I "won" and item for a lot more that I would have paid for and therefore will cop the unpaid items as there is no way that I will pay for them after that scam

[queenwaldorf]

It's the seller bidding on her own stuff. She made the mistake of listing one of her items on the shill account, which is how I found out and called her out on it. She's still doing it though, whenever one of her items gets a bid on it her shill account then bids. I keep reporting and they keep getting removed so maybe she'll get the hint eventually.

[*tippy*toes*]

They don't, because they think they are invincable. I reported one seller repeatedly for shilling, which was coupled with feedback manipulation. The usernames were so similar it was so obvious. (Not real usernames) Like, hairymary1 vs hairymary2. Yet, eBay kept allowing her to sell and shill and feedback manipulate. One of the accounts became NARU, but after a few weeks became active again. I gave up reporting because eBay was clearly not interested in doing anything about it. No, it wasn't in China, the seller was in Melbourne.

[4channel]

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@queenwaldorf wrote:
It's the seller bidding on her own stuff. She made the mistake of listing one of her items on the shill account, which is how I found out and called her out on it. She's still doing it though, whenever one of her items gets a bid on it her shill account then bids. I keep reporting and they keep getting removed so maybe she'll get the hint eventually.

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Well, she's doing a very immoral thing then. I hope that she wins her own auction at a high price and gets lumped with the fees.

Come to think of it, in the past I think I have been a victim of someone else shill-bidding and upping the price.

[collect247]

But if the seller wins then once the seller cancels the transactions they get their fees back excluding some PayPal fees so no real loss.

[4channel]

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@collect247 wrote:

But if the seller wins then once the seller cancels the transactions they get their fees back excluding some PayPal fees so no real loss.

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I suppose that has been done. Yes easily enogh done with a sockpuppet account and for a amigo operating as  shill then the same too I guess. I wonder how many times this happens before being picked up on the radar.

[tazzieterror]

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@4channel wrote:

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@collect247 wrote:

But if the seller wins then once the seller cancels the transactions they get their fees back excluding some PayPal fees so no real loss.

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I suppose that has been done. Yes easily enogh done with a sockpuppet account and for a amigo operating as  shill then the same too I guess. I wonder how many times this happens before being picked up on the radar.

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It should be very easy for eBay to detect, but they truly have no interest in discouraging this kind of behaviour - higher prices equals higher FVFs for them, so it's in their immediate financial interests to turn a blind eye.

I've reported a number of auctions over the past couple of years where obvious shill bidding has taken place, and eBay hasn't done anything about it.  And by obvious I mean the seller has been quite stupid in how they've gone about it - two accounts with similar names (or they've changed the name on the first account, then later used a slight variation to name their second account), and they're selling items on both accounts that have been photographed on the same distinctive surface, and each account is bidding up items on the other one.  Just real dumbs**t dishonesty.  Yet despite detailed messages from me pointing it all out, nothing happends to the auctions or the accounts.

eBay don't care.  They quite simply do not give a stuff.

[queenwaldorf]

I report it under the 'Counterfeit item' tag in the reporting list. It isn't, but it seems to get more attention than any other one.