@deniece200909 wrote:
I have recently been victimized by a seller from India who uses various shills on his clothing/wedding handbag auctions. He usually starts them out at .99, hooks a REAL buyer, then in comes the "shill" (always the same one(s) to bid the item UP/PAST the true bid, and just before the auction ENDS, the seller CANCELS the shill bid and invoices the highest bidder. You can see that the shill accounts have 100% bid activity with him when you click on their "hidden" ids/feedback. I reported him, began opening cases on him to get refunded, then he posted a FAKE TRACKING number so I would have to wait until AFTER the FAKE DELIVERY DATE (30 + additional days) to open the rest.
It was terrible. When I notified ebay about it, all they did was tell me to wait til after the delivery date, then open a case...duh.. They did shut down some of the auctions I reported, but, guess what? HE IS STILL SELLING. He has a plethora of negatives from other buyers who are all saying the EXACT SAME THING I SAID. Oh, and another thing: Whenever he gets a NEGATIVE from a REAL BUYER, voila, he uses the shill accounts to give himself as many SHILL POSITIVES to help bring his rating right back up. At least I was able to get the account he used against me shut down, but he is still going strong...
deniece200909,
From what I am able to see off of your screens of the Bid History pages of these two auctions, I have no doubt whatsoever that these are examples of shilled auctions. However, what you have stated in your original post needs clarification. The shilling seller didn’t just cancel the high bidder’s bid, the shilling seller used the same shill bidding ID to place another shill bid just BELOW the legitimate bidder’s high bid, thereby manipulating the legitimate bidder’s bid to its full amount. Compare the time stamps of the LAST bid placed by the shill bidding ID with the time stamp of the bid cancellation by the seller of the earlier “high bid” by the shill bidding ID.
I want you to go and look again at the Bid History page to the auction in which you won back on May 5, 2018.
If you look down at the Bid retraction and cancellation history, take note of the time that the shill bidder, s***m (10,) placed their first bid of $9.50. From what I am able to see, it appears to be 29 Apr 2018 at 1:15:29 PM PDT.
You were the last bidder to enter bids in this auction and you placed a series of bids on May 5 ranging from $4.50 at 8:42:23 AM PDT to $7.00 at 8:42:35 AM PDT on May 5 and at that moment in time, you were NOT the high bidder; the shill bidder s***m (10) was the high bidder with the bid price displayed on the auction page of $7.50 calculated as your $7.00 bid plus one bid increment of 50¢ at that price level. In other words, you were bidding against the shill bidder’s $9.50 shill bid that acted as the seller’s artificial reserve and you were outbid each time you placed a bid against the shill bidder’s $9.50 shill bid.
Once the shilling seller cancelled the shill bidder s***m (10)’s $9.50 “high bid”, the bid price FELL DOWN to $4.25 which is one 25¢ bid increment above bidder i***i (350) who bid $4.00 on 28 Apr 2018 at 8:05:56 PM PDT and you, deniece200909, became the high bidder at $4.25 as at May 5, 2018 at 12:13:30 PM PDT.
Since the shilling seller knew that you were NOT the high bidder at $7.00, they knew the full amount of your automatic bid being $7.00.
So, the shilling seller cancelled the shill bidder’s “high bid” of $9.50, the bid price fell down to $4.25, and THEN the shill bidder placed a shill bid of $6.90 on 5 May 2018 at 12:13:38 PM PDT just below your $7.00 bid thus manipulating your bid to the full amount of $7.00. The shill bidder s***m (10) placed their SECOND shill bid only 8 seconds after their earlier $9.50 shill bid was cancelled by the shilling seller.
This is an example of what I call blatant shill bidding. It is blatant shill bidding since it is ONLY the seller and eBay, via Administrative Cancellation, that may cancel a bidder’s bid. A reputable eBay seller who cancels a bidder’s bid, normally would also place that bidder’s user ID on the seller’s Blocked Bidder List. A shilling seller, on the other hand, will not place their shill bidding ID(s) on their Blocked Bidder List because they want the shill bidding ID(s) to place future shill bids to manipulate the legitimate bidders’ bids.
With the second Bid History page, the shill bidding pattern is slightly different. This time, bidder g***b (3243) was the FIRST bidder to this auction with a $2.00 bid placed on 6 Jul at 2:05:06 PM PDT. The shill bidder, b***1 (4), placed a shill bid of $7.90 on 10 Jul 2018 at 1:54:26 PM PDT thereby outbidding g***b (3243)’s #2.00 bid and at the point during the auction, the bid price displayed would have been $2.25 calculated as g***b (3243)’s $2.00 bid plus one 25¢ bid increment at that price level.
Bidder g***b (3243) placed three more bids on Jul 11 ranging from $4.00 at 1:23:53 PM PDT to $5.01 at 1:24:07 PM PDT and was outbid by the shill bidder b***1 (4) at this point during the auction and the bid price displayed would have been $5.51.
The shilling seller cancelled b***1 (4)’s “high” shill bid of $7.90 that acted as an artificial reserve, and the bid price fell down to 99¢ since immediately after the shilling seller cancelled b***1 (4)’s $7.90 shill bid, there were NO competing bids in effect to challenge g***b (3243)’s bids.
Because the shilling seller knew that bidder g***b (3243) was NOT the high bidder when the bid price was $5.51, the shilling seller used the shill bidding ID, b***1 (4), to place a shill bid of $5.00 on 11 Jul at 1:59:56 PM PDT just below g***b (3243)’s $5.01 bid. Again, the shilling seller cancelled the shill bidder’s “high” bid, the bid price fell down, and then moments later, the shill bidder b***1 (4) placed another shill bid just below the legitimate bidder’s bid.
Again, this is another example of blatant shill bidding.
The best way to avoid being shilled is simply don’t do business with disreputable sellers since sniping can’t prevent your bid from being shilled EVEN if you were to execute a 0-second snipe bid. If your legitimate (snipe or proxy or automatic) bid interacts with a shill bidder’s bid, then your bid will be shilled since timing does NOT matter AT ALL.
