A possible fraud? How to report?

[axion2016]

Hello,

I'd like to report a potential issue regarding a recent auction I participated in. How do I proceed?

Here's a summary: I placed a bid of $50 to outbid the current $39, which raised the price to $40. Subsequently, another bidder placed multiple bids: $41, $43, $45, $47, and $51, escalating the price up to $51 (thus outbidding me), but then the bidder retracted their last bid. This resulted in me becoming the winning bidder at $50 instead of $40. I suspect there might be fraudulent activity.

Here are some statistics of the suspicious bidder:

Total bids: 432
Bid activity (%) with this seller: 99%
Bid retractions: 53
Bid retractions in the past 12 months: 106

The statistics seem quite telling. While there might not be an explicit rule violation, doesn't this indicate potential fraud? I'd appreciate your insights on this matter.

Thank you,
Roman

[eburtonlab]

That 30-day bid history certainly looks suspicious. If that is not a case of the seller using a shill account to drive up bid prices, you are certainly entitled to wonder why the seller has not blocked that bidder from bidding again after so many bids and retractions.

From the item listing, you can use the "Report item" link, and chose the following categories:

Listing practices

Fraudulent listing activities

Seller is using other accounts to inflate item price

[axion2016]

Thank you for the reply!

[eburtonlab]

You are very welcome!