anybody had a problem with fake bidders

[marinok2005]

I have being trying to sell my car on ebay for last month. I was forced to list it twice and both times the winning bidder did not contact me. I cannot leave negative feedback to those bidders because ebay does not allow it. Ebay sucks. I would never sell anything on ebay again. These fake bidders are used car dealers who create multiple fake accounts and bid on private sellers cars, with no intention to buy.They do that so people would buy their cars instead. EBAY NEEDS TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS.I phoned ebay and they are obviously not interested in doing anything about fraudsters who have infected ebay.

[bootedtech]

Fake bids exist. Try all 0.99 auction items and you'll find a 0.99 bid almost right after the item is listed then they never bid again. Who does this, not legit bidders, but fake ebay bidding bots to raise profit. I have seen the same item relisted over and over because the highest bidder did not pay and that bidder still has an account, fake.

[padi*0409]

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@bootedtech wrote:
Fake bids exist. Try all 0.99 auction items and you'll find a 0.99 bid almost right after the item is listed then they never bid again. Who does this, not legit bidders, but fake ebay bidding bots to raise profit. I have seen the same item relisted over and over because the highest bidder did not pay and that bidder still has an account, fake.

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I think you need a tin-foil hat - any bidder can bid at any stage of the auction. And how do you know that non-paying bidders haven't had strikes against them or indeed still have an account ?

"Who does this, not legit bidders, but fake ebay bidding bots to raise profit"       

[tazzieterror]

I place 99c bids quite frequently - it's another way to watch an item without taking room on my watch list. I won't bid again unless in the last few seconds of the auction the price is below what I'm willing to pay.

Also, because I have a lot of saved searches and get alerts, I'll often place these bids very soon after an item is listed.

[springyzone]

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@bootedtech wrote:
Fake bids exist. Try all 0.99 auction items and you'll find a 0.99 bid almost right after the item is listed then they never bid again. Who does this, not legit bidders, but fake ebay bidding bots to raise profit. I have seen the same item relisted over and over because the highest bidder did not pay and that bidder still has an account, fake.

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I think you're half right. I suspect quite a few of those 99c bidders aren't legit in the sense that if the item is worth a lot more, most legit bidders who were keen to buy would put a higher maximum in their auto bid. Or else they would return to re-bid after they are outbid.

If someone puts in 99c and is outbid and never bids again, then most of the time they were just trying their luck, seeing if they could pick up something for almost nothing. They are probably real bidders & those are real bids, but basically some of those bidders are just tyre kickers, time wasters. Not all of them though. You won't know till you enter the bidding.

[davewil1964]

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@springyzone wrote:

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@bootedtech wrote:
Fake bids exist. Try all 0.99 auction items and you'll find a 0.99 bid almost right after the item is listed then they never bid again. Who does this, not legit bidders, but fake ebay bidding bots to raise profit. I have seen the same item relisted over and over because the highest bidder did not pay and that bidder still has an account, fake.

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I think you're half right. I suspect quite a few of those 99c bidders aren't legit in the sense that if the item is worth a lot more, most legit bidders who were keen to buy would put a higher maximum in their auto bid. Or else they would return to re-bid after they are outbid.

If someone puts in 99c and is outbid and never bids again, then most of the time they were just trying their luck, seeing if they could pick up something for almost nothing. They are probably real bidders & those are real bids, but basically some of those bidders are just tyre kickers, time wasters. Not all of them though. You won't know till you enter the bidding.

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If somebody puts in a max bid, the bid showing will only be what is needed to win, until that max is reached.

If I put in a $100 max bid on a 99c auction, until somebody else bids it will show ONE bid at 99c. Not that I would - my max bid would go in very near the end of the auction.

Another point. If the item has a BIN attached to it, making a bid early removes the BIN option. If I was interested in such an item, it helps get it at a lower price and stops somebody else BINing it out from under me.

[valvais]

Hi! Did you check if those bidders are sellers as well? If they do -you can bid on their items as well..That is the only way to stop them.If they have 0 feedback you are probably right- they are fake bidders.Try to write to them and ask to confirm, if they do not respond cancel their bid 12 hours before the auction finished.

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@marinok2005 wrote:

I have being trying to sell my car on ebay for last month. I was forced to list it twice and both times the winning bidder did not contact me. I cannot leave negative feedback to those bidders because ebay does not allow it. Ebay sucks. I would never sell anything on ebay again. These fake bidders are used car dealers who create multiple fake accounts and bid on private sellers cars, with no intention to buy.They do that so people would buy their cars instead. EBAY NEEDS TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS.I phoned ebay and they are obviously not interested in doing anything about fraudsters who have infected ebay.

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[padi*0409]

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@valvais wrote:

Hi! Did you check if those bidders are sellers as well? If they do -you can bid on their items as well..That is the only way to stop them.If they have 0 feedback you are probably right- they are fake bidders.Try to write to them and ask to confirm, if they do not respond cancel their bid 12 hours before the auction finished.

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That is not good advice, if the seller (if they are one) reports that action to eBay, then marinok would be likey to get a slap for it.

[*tippy*toes*]

Not to mention that it's been 6 years since marinok posted their message, so one would hope they sorted it out by now.

[mark82au]

I'm having the same problem now whilst trying to sell a PS4 PRO in Australia. Everyone wants one atm as were all in lock down and many are selling for more than RRP,  there's no brand new stock coming into the country and everyone is selling them on eBay trying to cash in.

I'm now on my third attempt at selling mine on auction after the first two auctions fell through as a result of fake bidders. I suspect the same thing is happening to me as did with you back in 2014 except the fake bidders are either other sellers sabotaging competitors accounts or.....Buyers creating multiple accounts, bidding on multiple PS4's at the same time and when all auctions are complete they just purchase the cheapest and disregard the rest.

 I've found all these fake bidders seems to have brand new accounts and an eBay score of less than 5. They also have very generic account names like a random name or word then -1 or -2 for example. I got into a live chat with eBay and they seem to give zero **bleep**s.The only solution i've found is to set all buyer requirements to the strictest settings possible and cancel all fake bids as they come in.

My general rule of thumb is, if the bidders account was created in whatever the current month is and/or they don't have a little coloured star next to their user name its fake. Cancel bid and block immediately!

[padi*0409]

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@mark82au wrote:

I'm now on my third attempt at selling mine on auction after the first two auctions fell through as a result of fake bidders.

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I do hope you formally cancelled the sales otherwise eBay is going to be wanting FVF's for those two auctions.................