SHILL BIDDERS

[bluebaby49.405]

I SHOULD LIKE TO KNOW IF EBAY INVESTIGATES SELLERS ACCUSED OF USING SHILL BIDDERS?

[3eyedfishcatcher]

The only way they can prove such activity is if the bidder is using the same IP address as the sellers IP address.

[fashunu4eeuh]

It is difficult to know what eBay investigates. They do not comment on any findings, or whether or not a seller has done something wrong. They do not share what actions are taken against a seller who violates policies. Sometimes the only way to know if eBay acted on a report is when that seller is NARU'd or items suddenly disappear from the platform.

[3eyedfishcatcher]

A long time ago a eBay rep told me they can see the seller and bidders IP address. If they see that the bidder is using a IP address that is the same as the seller then they would take action on their end. Other than that If the seller had other people using IP addresses that are different than the sellers they really could not detect or prove anything unless they were using eBay messages to communicate what items to bid up

On auction items you can click on the bidders abbreviated name. While you can not see any personal information you can see their bidding history. This will show you roughly how many sellers they are bidding on and a percentage for bidding on that sellers items. You can see their history of bid retractions, if they are manipulating bids they would have a large number of retractions.

Always figure out the most you would be willing to pay and you can never be bid up to a price you would not be comfortable with.

[glasser]

Any suspicion of shill bidding should be reported. They can look at more the IP address. They can look for patterns of bids by the same people on on a buyers items, can look at feedback history to see if they built feedback to create a user with experience, etc.

I had a situation many years ago where I was the under bidder and less than 10 minutes after the auction ended  the seller reached out to sat the other bidder dropped out and would I like a second chance offer. Yet, another way shill bidding works.

[pburn]

@glasser wrote:

Any suspicion of shill bidding should be reported.

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Not according to this page:

 Shill bidding policy

How do I report shill bidding?

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.

[clemowbooks]

If the seller had other people using IP addresses that are different than the sellers they really could not detect or prove anything unless they were using eBay messages to communicate what items to bid up

Which would be a very complicated way not to sell something and pay fees for the privilege.

Most accusations of shill bidding turn out to be from bidders who do not understand how automatic bidding and snipe bidding work.

Basically, if you are losing to a last second bidder, you are not being shilled.

The sign of a possible shill is a sudden retraction or  cancellation of a bid that exposed your maximum bid.

The way to avoid being shilled is to bid only once, bid only your maximum (and remember to allow for shipping), and most would say bid late.

That way, you can get sucked into auction fever and bid more than you planned to pay, and if you bid late there is no time for a shill to overbid you and then retract his bid.

An even simpler way to avoid shilling, is to ignore Auctions entirely in favour of the 85% of Fixed Listing available on eBay.

[the_other_side_of_the_coin]

as a frequent buyer on ebay i see it all the time- easy to check how many times bidder bid on  only sellers items. but good luck reporting it ebay cares less they get more of a fee the higher the price.

[the_other_side_of_the_coin]

and watch how fast ebay deletes my previous replies. lol

[ckimodog]

@the_other_side_of_the_coin 

This thread is over 2 years old and it appears the person who started this thread no longer sells here. 

Ebay doesn't delete threads on this forum,  Khoros does. 

[kh-gary]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread HERE if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.