shill bidding and feedback manipulation

[rabbitearbandicoot]

I just found 28 sellers (there may be more) who are bidding on each others items and leaving feedback for each other.

Oh, and by the way, they are all selling the same fake gold jewellery.

I would have thought eBay would have some automatic facility to pick this sort of thing up??

[i-once-was-bump]

Also by keeping reports to something as simple as being in the wrong category eBay cannot wriggle out of taking action because it is obvious if an item is not fine jewellery but listed in that section.

It is about as black and white a listing violation can get.

Most other violations seem to give eBay the ability to ignore their responsibilities.

[rabbitearbandicoot]

People don't need to worry about reporting the shill bidding etc if they feel it too complicated, all they have to do is go to fine jewellery and report 10 items that don't belong in fine jewellery.

If 500 members reported 10 listings every time they logged into eBay maybe eBay would soon find that 5000 reports everyday means they have to finally take some action.

By keeping it simple people might be inclined to help but it will still have a huge impact.

OK. So, who have we got so far? Rabbit and bump:-x... that's 2 - only need 498 more more and we are away.;-)

Thing is bump, to report something in the wrong category, you first have to prove it's NOT what they say it is eg '925 Sterling Silver' or 'Solid 18ct Gold' etc and so, it does not belong in 'fine jewellery' - otherwise eBay just ignore it - well, that seems to be my experience anyway. And even then, all they do is warn the seller to change their items into the correct category. You only have to look at that seller I bought the single chain from. I reported her, but she is still listing her things as '925 Sterling Silver' - some she has changed to Fashion Jewellery but others are still in Fine Jewellery. My point? Either eBay has warned her and she has taken no notice OR eBay has turned a blind eye.

I could name several others who are listing '925 Sterling Silver plated' (no such thing of course) or gold plated / filled in fine jewellery.

[flotsam-jetsom]

but how can you report that if you haven't received it? I am not arguing with you rabbit, but surely to report a fake item you need to prove it, how any people are going to buy a fake to prove it? And I wouldn't recognise shill bidding if I fell over it

[rabbitearbandicoot]

but how can you report that if you haven't received it? I am not arguing with you rabbit, but surely to report a fake item you need to prove it, how any people are going to buy a fake to prove it? And I wouldn't recognise shill bidding if I fell over it

shill bidding and feedback manipulation in the case of those sellers I mentioned above is as plain as the nose on your face. Just have a look at one of the seller's feedback - take a mental note of who has left feedback. Then click on one of the ones who have left feedback, and have a look at their feedback. You'll notice that the SAME members have left feedback for both. Then check another ... the same members leaving feedback for each other and if you have the patience you can trace it down as I did to 90 odd members that have been leaving each other feedback for months. They tend to start an account - list for a few days, build up some feedback (fake) and then leave the account for while - sometimes days, sometimes weeks - then they come back and start selling again if they haven't got too many reds.

[i-once-was-bump]

You report clear violations only, if they state gold plated then you report the listing.

You only have to overwhelm them with genuine and obvious violations for them to take action to clean up the fine jewellery section.

It hjas to be about the volume of the reports and for this to work is has to be a very obvious violation.

[rabbitearbandicoot]

You report clear violations only, if they state gold plated then you report the listing.

You only have to overwhelm them with genuine and obvious violations for them to take action to clean up the fine jewellery section.

It hjas to be about the volume of the reports and for this to work is has to be a very obvious violation.

it depends on how eBay grade the violations. eg I have reported sellers who have stuff listed in fine jewellery category, "solid 18ct gold" in the heading, item specifics say "Material: Gold", in the descriptions it clearly says at least once eg "Women's Solid Gold 18ct Bracelet" and yet ...

further down in small print it says "all our items are Gold Layered", so they seem to get away with it, even though they have breached SEVERAL eBay policies like, 'misleading heading', 'search engine manipulation', 'wrong category' etc.

And, Yes it has to be about the volume of reports. It's pointless one person reporting someone no matter how blatent the violations seem to be.

[rabbitearbandicoot]

SPARKLING GRACEFUL 18CT SOLID GOLD WOMEN CHAIN LINK BRA...

It is OBVIOUS to me anyway that this item is FAKE. A person is not going to sell a solid 18ct gold item for FAR LESS that the value by weight if it were GOLD. If it were a one-off surely he would sell it to a scrap gold buyer for the gold value. eg 38 grams of gold is $55 a gram = over $2,000 and you think he is going to sell it for $9.99? And these people are selling hundreds of these items.

have a look at this seller's items; then have a look at his feedback; now have a look at some of the members who have left feedback for him; and so on.