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...

[4channel]

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tazzieterror  wrote:

　

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.

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There needs to be some better process for dealing with this kind of thing then. I hope Ebay takes the time to look info and improve. Good works create good returns and in the long run everyone benefits.

[*tippy*toes*]

Sadly, eBay don't care. I followed a seller a few years back who snubbed her nose at all the rules. She had at least 3 accounts that I knew of. They were almost identical. E.g, mary1, mary2, mary3. She was constantly running up her prices into the hundreds. The 3rd account was buying to win to get feedback. Then it also became a selling account .  It was all there in black and white.

I kept on eBay's back. The only thing they did was restrict her from listing auctions for a month. Then she was back to her old tricks. Then one account went NARU for a month, then became active and bigger than before.

In the end I gave up as it was doing my head in. She was spinning profits for eBay, they weren't going to stop that. Sometimes you just have to accept that some things just aren't going to change,  regardless of how much you want them to.

[padi*0409]

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@*tippy*toes* wrote:

I kept on eBay's back. The only thing they did was restrict her from listing auctions for a month. Then she was back to her old tricks. Then one account went NARU for a month, then became active and bigger than before.

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I had a very similar thing happened a few years back Tippy, one of the US sellers I dealt a lot with had one bidder on a lot of his items that was constantly retracting bids to find the highest bid - and I'm talking 100's of retractions. Anyway I alerted the seller who was not aware of it happening, well this bidder was a seller as well and was shilling on their own account.

eBay's reaction ? They stopped the seller running auctions for a month just like yours, but never did anything about all the retractions...

[*tippy*toes*]

The infuriating part is, I'd do it the grand total of once and I'd be shut down for good. I've been tempted at times but my conscience won't let me. I feel bad if a buyer pays one of my over inflated BIN prices attached to an auction!