Shill bidding

[cocteau_pins]

Another dodgy seller falls through the ebay cracks.....

[*tippy*toes*]

The one in the screenshot seems to kick bidding off  with the minimum bid and stop. I am still gobsmacked that they could have nearly 200,000 single bids in 30 days. That's astonishing. They clearly don't work.....or sleep......or go and buy groceries.......or do anything away from eBay. 200,000 bids in 30 days, my guesstimation would be a bid every 4 seconds, for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

[caget-96]

Hi all over the last few years i reported a seller for shill bidding on his own items, i know he is because first up i bought an item off him, he had some other interestiing items i started to watch them, they sold but then turned up at a auction house i attend and i ended up buying them from there. Over the next few months i noticed more of the ebay sellers items turning up at the auction house so i started looking into it. Turns out that the same bidder was winning these items then they would turn up at the auction house. i reported the ebay seller and they (ebay)  took action and restricted him. A month or so went by and the seller was at it again so i reported him again, action was taken by ebay (so i was told).

Anyway to shorten my story he has been reported over a dozen times, using the same account to shill bid over and over the last few years.

Ebay take action and suspend him for a little while then he is back at it again. I want to take this a step further and report him to the authorities or someone that will do something about it.

Where do i start.? police.?

[lyndal1838]

If ebay does not do anything about a member who breaks the ebay rules I am not sure that there is anyone else that would be interested in policing ebay rules.

What is the seller trying to achieve....if he keeps winning his own goods he is not much of a shiller.   It would be easier to just send his goods to auction in the first place.

[collect247]

Like I said in your other thread move on because it's not a crime and the police will tell you to stop wasting their time.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

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@caget-96 wrote:

Where do i start.? police.?

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yes, that is a good idea.

Print out a listing, the bidding page, the bidding history of the account used to shill and the feedback page.

You need all these because when you go to the police there is a good chance the officer on the front counter won't know what you are talking about.  Explain it to them like you would to a 10 year old.

If they say they can't help you ask if you can have a TSFE form so that at least there is record of you being there.

Good luck.

edit: if they don't have any TSFE forms then come back here and I'll post an image of one that you can print and use.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

ignore my previous post, I was being silly, I am feeling better now.

Spoiler

and apart from that, I am out of TSFE forms as January has been a busy month on these boards

[collect247]

Geez I hope the mods ignore it lol,have you seen where my thread went too? 

[caget-96]

Thats right he isnt real good at it, and thats what i have said to him. He only does it on some items not all and just to boost it a little, then sometimes a little to much and he wins it.

[countessalmirena]

In Australia, shilling (shill bidding) is not a criminal matter.

❝Although some manipulation practices are currently criminalised in Australia (e.g. hacking into existing user accounts), many of these are civil matters (e.g. shilling).❞ - The risk of criminal exploitation of online auctions, Australian Institute of Criminology

Dummy bidding (the same thing) is however an offence when it comes to the auction of residential property and rural land.

Shill bidding/shilling is a criminal matter in the UK.

It's against eBay's policy, so you can report it to eBay again, and again, and again... but the worst that can happen is that this eBay member will be booted off eBay. It seems as though eBay is not taking that action, but rather suspending the accounts temporarily. This is how eBay is apparently handling the issue; you can do nothing else. eBay may even think that if you repeatedly report this seller, you have a personal reason for doing so - or it may simply be that eBay have deemed that they will not take additional and harsher action against this seller for whatever reason it may be.

I think you're going to have to let this go. Keep reporting to eBay if you want, but there's no scenario in which ASIO or even just the local AFP are going to conduct a dawn raid on the seller, drag him in by the heels, and cuff him to a table in a cold bare room with green paint blistering off the walls, a single light globe hanging from the ceiling, and an intensive round of questioning conducted by a gimlet-eyed rough-jawed officer partnered by a newly assigned blonde female officer with a knack of understanding felons' darkest motives.