Ebay needs to crack down on Shill Bidding

[bats*in*the*belfry*again]

Really I buy a lot on ebay and shill bidding is tricky and easy for sellers to do when in moderation But some of these sellers are OUT OF HAND they are so obviously shill bidding it is so so in your face..

Clues of shill bidding .. a bid on every single item and they are automatic bids 

bids at same time like they will go down the line and bid on 200 items no matter what it is to set their price

Turn around and relist it if they did not get the price they wanted! This is easy to see when it is a one of a kind stone!

Please if you see this REPORT IT... I can not name these sellers but they are in India and these sellers with Fraudulent listing activities are giving the good sellers in India a bad rep and they waste your time ..

And for the ones that will write they are not shill bidding because they would not want to get in trouble!

lol please No  

[7606dennis]

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@fossil_diver wrote:

@little.font.lord.leroy 

Hypothetically speaking, if I had my old buddy from the navy that lives half way around the world from me shill bid on my items how could ebay prove it? They have to be able to physically connect the two accounts to prove shill bidding. It may look suspicious but unless they can link accounts there is no way to prove I even know the person let alone conspiring to shill bid with them. Ebay is not going to close an account on suspicion of shill bidding no matter how many bid retractions they have or if they only bid on items from one seller. 

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Alas!  Although excessive bid retractions is not concrete proof of shilling, it should be cause for eBay to take action against the account.  Unfortunately, eBay does seem to have a somewhat odd definition of what they consider excessive so I doubt that they will.

[airsheep]

In that instance, I think a lot of Chinese jade sellers are using the equivalent of a 'stock' photo for their goods. What you receive (if you actually win the auction) is a piece that is equivalent but not identical. Nevermind that a lot of the so-called jade is not really jade; much is dyed agate or even glass. No little amount of the carved items appear to be 3D printed, as well.

[wilbur1philly]

30-Day Summary
Total bids: 2275
Items bid on: 613
Bid retractions: 130
Bid retractions (6 months): 1512

[mudshark61369]

@wilbur1philly,

You wrote about 4 months ago;

 "Despite contacting ebay many times, the shill bidder from China is still at it.

He bids on Zippo lighters from many different sellers. He bids until he exposes the highest bid. Once he becomes the highest bidder, he retracts his bid".

What you are missing here is that the sellers are also probably registered in China as well.  Most U.S. based sellers will not ship to China because of the cost and high probability of lost in shipping items.  Also if the seller is based in China or ships from there you will not be bidding on real Zippo lighters which are still made in the U.S.. You're likely bidding on counterfeit items.

"Since Ebay seems to have not taken appropriate action against him, I have resorted to contacting the sellers whenever I see him doing it on their auctions. Many sellers thank me and block him from bidding on their auctions. Hopefully, enough sellers from USA will block this bidder from China and help restore the integrity of Zippo auctions again".

If the sellers are chinese to begin with, they are thanking you not because they have blocked the "shill" but because they know it is time to start using another shill ID.  Do you look at the feedback profile of the sellers to see where they are registered and when they did, before bidding on their auctions?  99% of the chinese sellers started selling on ebay after 2012, though some were allowed to register as early as 2010. Also since ebay seems to let chinese sellers continue selling when domestic ones would be kicked off, clicking on the numbers of non-positive feedback they've received to read only those comments will often expose sellers registered in the U.S. but ship mostly from China.

[consideritsoldllc]

If you have a chance would you send me the shill bidders username? I have had some luck getting Ebay to recognize and go after shill bidders, but only because I just won't stop calling until they do something. You're right though. I would bet that 75% of Chinese sellers shill.. But now they can do it much easier since they hide behind the Private auction Private bidder veil.. It's just perfect for them. We can't see their new fake ass accounts or bid history of buyers. It's just the wild wild west for them now. So much easier.. I catch one a week when I get bored, and have seen eBay go after 3 out of 20... I had to prove my case and I did.. But that is impossible now that the Private bidder thing is in place and they figured that they can totally do whatever they want now. I find them when they slip up and forget to hide their bidders..

[consideritsoldllc]

It's easier to kind of see how the shill is happening if you do the following.. Call Ebay and ask that your name NOT BE HIDDEN for any reason. Then you can track when and how new bids come in when you also have the automatic bidding open. Ebay won't do a thing about it because that would take too many man hours and cost them too much money in fees and profit if they were to stop the Chinese, or the Indians for that matter.. 

[wilbur1philly]

This particular bidder is bidding on US sellers auctions. He runs up the price until he exposes the maximum bid and then in many cases (25%) he retracts his bid. Many of the sellers that he places bids on DON'T EVEN SHIP to China. He remains active right up to today. Sometimes he ends up stuck as the high bidder to sellers that do ship to China and he buys the items but more often than not, he is just running up the price.

[mudshark61369]

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@wilbur1philly wrote:

This particular bidder is bidding on US sellers auctions. He runs up the price until he exposes the maximum bid and then in many cases (25%) he retracts his bid. Many of the sellers that he places bids on DON'T EVEN SHIP to China. He remains active right up to today. Sometimes he ends up stuck as the high bidder to sellers that do ship to China and he buys the items but more often than not, he is just running up the price.

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@wilbur1philly,

What you have described is not shill bidding. Shills usually only bid on one seller's items to bring the price up to the seller's expectations.   The member is violating eBay's bid retraction policy by exposing other member's maximum bid then retracting their bids if the price was more than they wanted to pay.  (link below) There is a report button you could use to report the member in the link.  Before you do that though you make a list of the item numbers of the auctions they have interfered with by retracting bids after exposing another member's maximum bid.

  Just posting the member's number of bid retractions is not enough for ebay to take action.  If you cannot find the auctions they have interfered with, since they bid on mostly one type of item keep an eye out for them in the future and save any auctions they interfere with in your watch list so you have information to support your claim.

Even though ebay has an invalid bid retraction policy they do not seem to enforce it. Sellers do not want members who retract bids often bidding on their auctions because once a bidder exposes another's max, that person might also retract their bids, and that can lead to others doing the same thing.

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/rules-policies-buyers/invalid-bid-retraction-policy?id=4227

[wilbur1philly]

Mudshark,

I have provided auction numbers that this person has done it on for close to a year now. I have provided Ebay with more than ample proof.

They still have done nothing.

I think it's better if the sellers just block him from bidding at this point.

I'm done. I have wasted too much of my time with this.

Thanks for your input.