How to Spot Shill Bidding on eBay
Bidding on eBay is a great way to find bargains and hard to find items. The site prides itself on rooting out unreliable buyers and sellers, but even so, you should be wary and responsible when buying anything online. Shill bidding, or phony bidding, is one way unscrupulous sellers drive up prices of auction items. It is also against eBay's terms of service and should be brought to their attention via Safe Harbor.
- Difficulty:
- Moderate
Instructions
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Check the seller's feedback. Make note of times of sales and how quickly he received feedback from sales. If there are many relistings of sold items, that is a red flag for shill bids. If you notice this activity, how fast was the turnaround on the sale? Was there really adequate time for the bidder to receive the item, complain, work out a return arrangement and send the item back before feedback was left? The process often takes 10-14 days if the return is a legitimate one.
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2
Look for frequent buyers of the seller. Do they have a similar eBay ID to a favorite seller? For example, if the seller's id is JonDoe79, the shill bidder ID might be something like JDoe79. Do the frequent buyer or buyers often win bids? Or do they bid in small increments, only to eventually lose the auction? If you aren't sure, do a search on the bidder's ID and look over their history and feedback. If they are often bidding in small amounts and concentrating their efforts on one or two sellers, that is also a red flag for shill bidding. Another warning sign is bid retraction. A bid retraction is rare, and if you see many of them on a buyer, they are likely part of a shilling scheme. Move on and don't bid against this person.
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Look at the bid history, if you think you have encountered shill bidding. Again, look for bids in small increments that are designed not to win, but to drive up the price of the item. For example, if bidding started at $9.99, a shill bid might be $10.27, which drives the legitimate bidder to bid higher to win the item. If you suspect that you've been shilled, copy this bid history along with any other correlations you find on the bidder and seller pages and email it to eBay's Safe Harbor.
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