eBay

greaseball · ‎03-02-2021

Curious if anyone else is having issues with no/low feedback bidders winning fairly expensive items (two different watch auctions in my case) and immediately sending a cancellation request after they win the auction. In both cases, the high bidder said that they fumbled and accidentally bid and didn't mean to, and that they didn't know what they were doing. I have blocked and reported them. Somehow they don't know how to bid, but they are expert at sending cancellation requests within 3 seconds following the close of the auction.

See text from their messages below:

"Hey I didn’t mean to bid on this my phone is lagging everywhere I don’t even no how I bidded twice I’m so sorry but is there anyway we could sort this out please. You had one other bidder before me and can’t you get hold of them. It was an accident And I didn’t mean it mate and I’m am truly sorry, I’ve used all the money I have to buy my partners engagement ring so I can’t pay, why would I bid if I could t afford it."

And another one:

"So sorry. My second time bidding and my fingers got too excited toward the end.... I would greatly appreciate it if I can cancel because I can’t afford that amount right now."

releasethekraken_1 · ‎03-02-2021

So where's the scam?

silverstatetreasureboxes · ‎03-02-2021

@greaseball

Ahhh geez, yeah they are everywhere these sport bidders with big fat zeros and bank accounts to match! Just be glad they told you instead of sitting on it for days..." Mate".

dizzardx · ‎03-02-2021

Could they be trying to get you to OK a "second chance offer" to the next lower bidder (that they'd be in cahoots with)?

greaseball · ‎03-02-2021

They could be trying to inflate the value of a specific item so that when they sell their similar item people will see higher prices on recently ended listings and bid accordingly. Just a thought.

greaseball · ‎03-02-2021

Definitely possible.

ra_201044 · ‎03-02-2021

And be glad they didn't pay yet or you would be out some fees.

Just cancel their order using 'buyer requested' to get the sold fees back.

releasethekraken_1 · ‎03-02-2021

@dizzardx wrote:
Could they be trying to get you to OK a "second chance offer" to the next lower bidder (that they'd be in cahoots with)?

That offer would be at the 2nd-place bidder's max bid amount, i.e. only one bid increment below the winning bid. Not much of a strategy.

luckythewinner · ‎03-02-2021

@dizzardx wrote:
Could they be trying to get you to OK a "second chance offer" to the next lower bidder (that they'd be in cahoots with)?

But wouldn't the second high bidder be just one bid increment below the winning bidder?

I do not believe that canceling the winner's transaction would also cancel his bid.

greaseball · ‎03-03-2021

I agree, not really any incentive to be working a scam with next highest bidder. And in my experience, most 2nd chance offers aren't accepted. I really think that this is a schill bid scam where bidders are trying to artificially inflate prices on specific items so that their stuff has a chance to sell for more money when they list it (likely using a different account). They seem to know what they're doing and always have the same store, "I fumbled and accidentally bid, and I can't afford the item. Please cancel and offer it to the next highest bidder." In spite of their fumbled bidding, they are expert at sending cancellation requests within seconds of the auction closing. I truly miss the days of being able to block bidders with less than 10 feedback. New buyers should have to complete 10 BIN transactions and get their feedback up before they can bid on auctions IMO. Cheers

royalcourtsofjustice · ‎05-06-2021

Yes, I have had this happen to me as well and I am wondering what this is all about? I did look into it and there IS a category of complaint you can make, - that a bidder put a bid with no intention of buying but just to screw up the bidding on an item.

I'd be interested to know what eBay does with these complaints. I reported that the bidder had put in no explanation whatsoever for retracting his winning bid and curiously I didnt receive eBay's usual reply to my 'report buyer' complaint that eBay is committed to protecting the privacy of scammers who use aBay in breach of the TOU!

it would be interesting to see if they dare to publicise results of the numbers of buyers who perform this abuse who are barred from bidding in future because of the number of times they have done this.

royalcourtsofjustice · ‎05-06-2021

It appears to be a way of depressing the price of a watch you want to buy.

In my case, there were over 600 views of the item and comparatively spirited bidding first time around pushing the price up to over $750 within the context of my never shill bidding up my items.

Second time around, the price/offers have not made it even up to the $600 level!

(But only eBay can see if the scam-bidder is using some alter-ego to lowball me, and then, it wont be easy for them to know this?)