eBuster looks a shill bidding and discovers eBay is turning a blind eye as stopping it will cost eBay commision on listings

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Shill bidding and what is eBay doing about it

Shill bidding is the process of bidding prices up against yourself or getting friends to bid the price up and whilst eBay claims to be doing all it can to combat this growing problem the reality is they are making shill bidder much harder to detect by removing the bidders name from the bid history page and encouraging private listings.

Can you work out from these figures if this member is bidding the price up ?

eBay has deliberately made if difficult for those without PHD�s in mathematics to see what�s going on and that�s if you can remember all the information from the previous page that is needed to come to a rational conclusion.

The points and feedback for the bidder in the above example looks fine but maybe that�s because eBays have gone out of there way to help us all and you will be please to know you can now buy feedback from as little as 1p a point from eBay or you can trade points with friends.

The fact of the matter is eBays profits increase with the bid amount going up and time and again eBay have failed to act against these scamsters when they are reported by honest eBay members and eBay themselves try to Justify the removal of names by saying it�s an attempt to reduce the number of second chance offers but maybe someone needs to explain that bit to me because I don�t get it.

eBay disingenuousness (some classic examples)

Who knows what the real reason was for eBay�s introduction of absolute anonymity of bidding (�Bidder N�). I would maintain that it has nothing to do with fraudulent �second chance offers�: that supposed problem was solved with the blocking of access to underbidders� direct email addresses. There never was any good reason for absolute anonymity except to make otherwise blatant and obvious shill bidding �disappear� which means that genuine bidders can no longer be on the lookout for and thereby protect themselves from such activity and as a consequence eBay does not have to waste any of their valuable resources doing anything about it. Full story

So what happens when you complain.

It appears that eBay will not tolerate any detailed critical discussion on the matter of absolute anonymity of bidders, that further increase in the level of anonymity that they have recently introduced (at least) to their Australian and UK sites and which serves no other purpose than to further obscure bidder IDs to the point that genuine bidders have got absolutely no chance of detecting and thereby protecting themselves from shill bidders. This is a reprehensible action that serves only to deceive consumers. Full story

Clearly eBays customers are not happy but what does the press say

The Sunday Times says its investigation has revealed that the practice of artificially driving up prices � known as shill bidding � is widespread across the site.

An undercover reporter last week taped one of the UK's biggest eBay sellers admitting that he was prepared to use business associates to bid on his goods for him.

The Sunday Times said it found evidence that a number of businesses � from overseas property agencies to car dealerships � have placed bids on their own items using fake identities.

The cases raise questions about whether eBay, the world's biggest auction site, is doing enough to protect consumers.

Shill bidding is against eBay rules and is illegal under the 2006 Fraud Act. However, the resulting higher prices on the site boost the value of eBay's share of the sales.

Last November eBay changed its rules to conceal bidders' identity � making it even more difficult for customers to see whether sellers are bidding on their own lots.

Since its launch seven years ago, eBay's UK website has attracted more than 15m customers. It sells more than 10m items at any given time. Full story

But surly they must have the bit wrong about �15m Customers� because I�ve come across much bigger figures like 181 million but since we are talking numbers and if we are talking about sales activity in a 90 day period then I have very good reasons to believe the first figure is closer to the truth but why not read this excellent case study by Philip Cohen on shill bidding