Buyer Fraud Scam

[jacorliss]

Seems like there may be a new buyer fraud scam on high value items on eBay.  In a nutshell, a buyer that wants to secure a lower price will use other straw accounts to bid up the price, only to have each account cancel their bid within seconds of a new straw account continuing to drive up the price.  At the very end of the auction, the final straw account cancels, and the bid goes to the last remaining account at a huge discount.  Anyone else seeing this pattern?  This seems like an obvious gambit, and it makes eBay completely unusable for selling high value items.

[monster-deals]

• If there are 12 hours or more left before the listing ends, all of your bids can be retracted
• If the listing is ending in less than 12 hours, you can retract your most recent bid if it's been less than an hour since you placed it

Switch to BIN if you are worried.

[katzrul15]

Do you have a listing example of yours where we can see the bidding?  

ETA:  Is this the MacBook with the 4 bid retractions?

[jacorliss]

Correct, the MacBook is the listing in question.  The last four bids on the item were all retracted, and all wishing the final hours of bidding, where one would normally expect the auction snipers to come out.

[ittybitnot]

@jacorliss 

The procedure you are describing is called "bid shielding" .  Unfortunately, we cannot see who "retracted" in your bid history, and since all IDs are now masked and what they are bidding on is no longer displayed, it is basically impossible to see if they are making a habit of this on other listings.  Unless one of the "retractors" is also your buyer, you can't report it anywhere on site that I know about.   

[caldreamer]

Why don't you raise your "starting price" on your auction (that way nobody can "steal your items" for cheap prices).

[jacorliss]

Let's keep in mind the purpose of why I posted this question, to see if this was a known pattern of behavior that other sellers have experienced.  Everything about this stinks to high heaven, and obviously I will have to take countermeasures in the future.

I guess that's the one thing no one who has replied to date has stated, so perhaps this isn't a common occurrence on eBay.

[sodelight]

Its always something here.

[releasethekraken_1]

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@jacorliss wrote:

Let's keep in mind the purpose of why I posted this question, to see if this was a known pattern of behavior that other sellers have experienced.  Everything about this stinks to high heaven, and obviously I will have to take countermeasures in the future.

I guess that's the one thing no one who has replied to date has stated, so perhaps this isn't a common occurrence on eBay.

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Yes, it’s a known pattern of behavior; it even has a name, which was mentioned in a previous post.

No, it’s not common.

[tdumonde2014]

Does it happen, I would say it does, but there are no statistics on how often it happens. I would be very wary of shipping something that will ultimately land in Brazil. What does their feedback look like, both left and received?

[bearswatching]

This is definitely not a new scam, been around for years. eBay seems unwilling or unable to stop it.

[jacorliss]

13 positive over the last 12 months.  I am definitely leery about dealing with international transactions, it's one reason why I restricted this listing to the US to begin with.  I don't pretend to know all the ways I can get screwed that way...

[tdumonde2014]

Any notes or warnings from sellers?

[sin-n-dex]

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@monster-deals wrote:

• If there are 12 hours or more left before the listing ends, all of your bids can be retracted
• If the listing is ending in less than 12 hours, you can retract your most recent bid if it's been less than an hour since you placed it

Switch to BIN if you are worried.

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If it's been less than an hour, the bidder could bid 30 min before the end and cancel at the last minute. I know you can't cancel in less than 12 hours of ending, but that one hour allowance permits bidding and cancelling at the last minute.

C.

[jacorliss]

None that I saw, but I'd rather not tip my toe in that water, since it's likely they'll be paying from an account based overseas.