Ebay - Shill Bidding

[ToraToraTora]

Anyone any idea how I can report suspected shill bidding? I am bidding on an item and the bid history shows a zero item user bidding at very convenient moments. I cannot find anything on the ebay site. Does anyone have any experience of shill bidding and reporting it etc?

[spathiphyllum]

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/selling-policies/selling-practices-policy/shill-bidding-policy?id=4353

You make a report, which is found on this page ^^

[spathiphyllum]

Sorry TTT as usual i'm scrambled.

Apparently you do not need to report it.


"If you think that another member is shill bidding, you don't need to report it to us. eBay has a number of systems in place to detect and monitor bidding patterns and practices. If we identify any malicious behavior, we'll take steps to prevent it."

[spathiphyllum]

For something a bit more UK


https://www.ebay.co.uk/pages/help/policies/seller-shill-bidding.html

[dannyk13]

TTT,you could contact them with your suspicions.

[ToraToraTora]

danny, thanks, I have finally found the place where I have reported it but they claim they have algorithms to spot this but in the case I'm seeing their programming is total rubbish if it hasn't spotted it.

[ToraToraTora]

TBH though, I suspect Ebay love shill biding really, higher prices = more dosh for them.

[hc4361]

Avoid all the aggro and use a tool such as Just Snipe which automatically bids for you a few seconds before the end of the auction.
It avoids a bidding war and ensures you never pay more than you wanted to - it's too tempting to bid 'just another pound' when you are outbid while the auction is running

[ToraToraTora]

fair enough HC but that won't stop things rising out of your range artificially when really they are not worth that much. The seller in question will often be left with the item because of their own greed rather than selling it at a valid price. Pity because I would have paid a fair price but I wouldn't buy now at any price because I don't trust the honesty of the seller.

[Ryzen]

I'm with hc on this one..use a sniper or enter your max bid 3 seconds before the end. Premature bids only inflate the final price.

[hc4361]

I know of several ebayers that have been banned for shill bidding, so eBay does take action

[Kathyan]

I never bid on anything until the last few seconds. I put in the highest price I'm willing to pay (including postage) and if I'm outbid then I wasn't meant to have it!

[Tuvok]

It could be proxy bidding:

you enter a maximum bid

another bidder bids

your proxy bid then bids higher than their maximum

it repeats everytime somebody else bids until your maximum bid is reached