Shill bidding.

[craigowl 0]

Someone sellling item on epain starts price at £00.01

 

As bidding increases, your relatively high bid is topped by someone with different id but same number of transactions as person who started at 1p.

 

p***t (169) £630.00

 

 

e***r (169) £00.01

 

Is this just coincidence (I accept it is not impossible) or would you experienced ebayers see it as somewhat fishy and worth reporting?

 

Cheers,

Iain

[G60 CS 0]

coincidence id say as a fake account to shill bid would have to trade to get feedback

[Jim Bowen 1]

Them ids are just random generated, the start and end letter aren't actually the correct ones, so could be the same bloke.

[craigowl 0]

Yes - knew the ids were fake.

 

There are only 17 bids and about 6 of them are from the (169) guy(s) and me.

 

I put a big bid in to last until end of listing on Friday and this was topped by £20 by a (169) guy.

I thought it looked suspicious.

Edited March 4, 2013 by craigowl

[Tigerfish 10]

Looks like coincidence to me. There must be hundreds of thousands of people with 169 feedbacks. I've bid against people with the same feedback count as me, it doesn't mean I was bidding against myself. Just unlucky for you that someone wanted the item more.

[craigowl 0]

Looks like coincidence to me. There must be hundreds of thousands of people with 169 feedbacks. I've bid against people with the same feedback count as me, it doesn't mean I was bidding against myself. Just unlucky for you that someone wanted the item more.

 

I dont have the same feedback count. Two of the others do.

[Tigerfish 10]

I dont have the same feedback count. Two of the others do.

 

That's what I mean mate, if one of them had had the same count as you, would you think that you had been bidding against yourself underhandedly?

[bristolbaron 10]

I dont have the same feedback count. Two of the others do.

 

as above ,its probably just one person bidding against you.

 

use justsnipe and save the hassle. last second bidding ftw.

[tonytiger 0]

It's probably just a coincidence - as I'm convinced those are 2 separate accounts - though that doesn't mean it isn't the same person using multiple accounts or getting a friend to bid. Ebay do say they take steps to prevent shill bidding, but I'm not convinced they do or how successful it is if they really do. I'd be more concerned if it was private bidding, or if you get a second chance offer in the next day or two. Or maybe the item will be relisted. You can always keep an eye on the sellers feedback and see if they get feedback on this item.

[craigowl 0]

Thanks all for views.

I will see what transpires on the morning of the end of the listing.

Talking about a hifi shop with only a couple of dozen feedbacks.

[Supercharged 2]

Yep, as TT says - wait for the second chance offer then you'll know!

 

Unfortunately eBay is full of scam artists as it's easy to get away with it

[KipVR 1]

I don't think eBay have much to gain by clamping down on it, with no real competition for customers to go to, they'll keep on letting it happen as the higher the price paid the more they earn....perhaps we should all use the other auction sites more!

[Jim Bowen 1]

I usually wait to see if the item gets relisted, and then bid again, but £10 less than last time.

 

If it is shill bidding then it will be costing the guy something by winning his own auctions. Fee's etc

[tonytiger 0]

If it is shill bidding then it will be costing the guy something by winning his own auctions. Fee's etc

 

Probably not, as the buyer and seller can agree to mutually cancel the sale, and I think you get your final value fee back (but not your listing fee). In theory, if a seller (especially with the same seller) was doing that lot ebay should notice and do something - but I doubt they do.