My opinion was sought on the authenticity of bids for the following listing, and in turn I thought I might share it here for the purposes of entertainment, and to illustrate how eBay still allows this sort of thing to go seemingly unchecked.
Take a look at the bidding history for item #202884569822 ( Nikon D D5100 16.2 MP Digital SLR Camera with ADDITIONAL LENS ) - at the time of me posting this, the winning bidder has a 
next to their censored name, indicating theirs is a new account.
The item in question (a Nikon digital camera kit bundled with an additional lens) ended 29 Jan '20 and positive feedback was left by the seller for the buyer soon after, then reciprocal feedback left for the seller a few days later again.
Interestingly, despite both the seller and buyer being happy with the transaction as detailed in their respective positive feedback comments, the seller decided to relist the camera again earlier this month (item #202901135414 - Nikon D5100 Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm lens and THREE batteries ), although that listing was ended by the seller on the 15th.
Similarly, the "ADDITIONAL LENS" from the first listing sold to your new "buyer" ended up with its own listing under item #202901133332 ( NEW IN BOX Nikon Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF D Lens ) which also ended up being cancelled by the seller on the 15th, but is now resurrected again under item #202906875681 ( NEW IN BOX Nikon Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF D Lens ).
Also of note, the original "buyer" of the camera package seems to have struck gold with this seller, taking a keen interest and placing bids on a range of electronic, clothing, and nutritional items that seller was offering. Item numbers 202900388715, 202884560424, 202884553102, 202880935029, and 202880931829 all had bids placed on them by that same "buyer". A pity the buyer wasn't a little more aggressive in their bidding, as they've missed out on all five auctions and their activity has only served to cause the eventual top bidder to pay more than they might have otherwise.
Rest assured though, eBay has systems and prcesses in place to prevent shill bidding, so this must all be coincidence!
Item # 202903533388 - winning bidder is a new account with no feedback, bidding on 4 items, all from this same seller. This particular item has just finished today, and was relisted within two minutes of finishing despite having a "buyer".
Item # 202896199378 was pushed up $50 by the same account.
Item # 202886221640 was pushed up $60 by the same account.
I'm on chat with and eBay CS rep now...they can't see any link between the two accounts...
Absolutely hopeless.
@tazzieterror wrote:Item # 202903533388 - winning bidder is a new account with no feedback, bidding on 4 items, all from this same seller. This particular item has just finished today, and was relisted within two minutes of finishing despite having a "buyer".
Item # 202896199378 was pushed up $50 by the same account.
Item # 202886221640 was pushed up $60 by the same account.
I'm on chat with and eBay CS rep now...they can't see any link between the two accounts...
Absolutely hopeless.
As mentioned, it could be a mate or 2, but not necessarily. It could be the shill accounts were created with a VPN, or they could be using the Opera browser for the shill accounts, which has a built in VPN. From eBay's perspective, the accounts are on the other side of the world to the seller, even though it is one and the same person.
People who do that, with a VPN, need to be extremely diligent because if they forget one single time to turn it on, even for a few seconds, they are toast. It takes a millisecond for the bots to detect it. More so if it's someone trying to get around a sanction. The bots wouldn't be checking for shill accounts.
From past experience with other sellers, the most eBay will do if they do catch someone shilling, is to block them from auctions for 30 days. They can only list BIN. There was a blatant seller a few years back, selling paintings. She didn't try and hide the fact she was using a shill account, nor did she hide the fact she was using one account to inflate the feedback on her others.
The usernames were almost identical. For example catfish, catfish1, catfish2, catfish3 (note to mods, while these usernames might exist, they are merely an example here. These were NOT the usernames of the seller in question).
Even with multiple reports from multiple different members, when eBay could see what was going on, she got prevented from listing auctions for 30 days. After the 30 days, she went back to her old ways of beefing up her auctions. EBay really didn't care. I gave up worrying about it. I wasn't a buyer, it was brought to our attention by someone who had been bidding or buying.
@tazzieterror wrote:
This matches my experience in reporting them to eBay. They eye opener was a seller with two accounts, *both* selling accounts, *both* bidding on the other account's items, item photos taken on the same background for items on both accounts - it was a distinctive table-top - yet when I tried reporting it to eBay they said they couldn't find any evidence of fraudulent bidding.
eBay made it more and more difficult to detect and report shill bidding for the sole purpose of making more
money because if it can't be reported and they can claim that they can't detect it then they make more money
when a seller uses a shill account to get a higher price for the item/s.
These days it's pointless to report as there is no penalty for the seller apart from having the BIN's for 30 days
as they just either raise their prices higher so they don't sell or just list a few items for that time and then go
back to shilling on day 31.
Even with the warning that eBay supposedly gives them that they will be watched so to not do it again but they
know from past experience that that isn't the case.
