In my [tag]eBay classes[/tag], I get some questions every time. Usually as a student gets the auction process for the first time, it dawns on them that they may be able to bid up their own auctions to increase the price. This is called [tag]shill bidding[/tag] and it's a big no-no.
I've written an article on shill bidding on my [tag]Squidoo[/tag] page. It discusses the definition as well as what [tag]eBay[/tag] does to catch shill bidders. It also mentions the punishment when you get caught. (And you will.) Take a look at my article.
photo credit: c0reyann
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I had the misfortune of buying what I believed was a car from a private seller on eBay but it turned out to be a dealer who had eBay accounts all over the place and after being conned I managed to connect the accounts to eight other accounts using telephone numbers and different cars he had sold and soon discovered other people were also looking for the same scam artist
In the first instance DO NOT CONTACT eBay as they are particularly keen to hide such activities from the public in an attempt to reassure members that it’s safe on eBay and will hide behind the data protection act if asked for detail needed in order to take action yourself.
DO REMEMBER TO SAVE OR PRINT the pages relating to any wrong doing before eBay removed them and changes the data in order to claim that you were not in fact the winning bidder as happened in my case and don’t be put off perusing eBay when they suddenly start replying to you complaints in a foreign language such as Flemish.
You can be sure eBay collected it fees from the person who conned me and have access to IP Addresses and bank details to stop these people opening a new account so from a commercial perspective they are on the side of the criminals however help is at hand with site such as http://www.Ebusters.co.uk, http://www.GoofBay.com which helps monitor and catch these criminals.
If your not convince that eBay are involved in such illegal activities then see http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/24/ebay_shill_lawsuit/ that will maybe change your mind.
Shill bidder are rewarded by eBay and just in case they go too far in pushing the price up then eBay comes to the rescue with second chance offer so get it out your head about eBay helping protect members as they are not the solution when they are part of the problem and remember that the next time you suddenly find you won after all.
One last little tip is to save your time from complaining on eBay forums as you will soon discover such unfriendly topics are weighted to quickly disappear off the bottom of the screen and don’t believe all them cars that went unsold with no reserve at £0.99 with no bids as it’s a clear manipulation of the data by eBay as I have witnessed this myself.
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