Tricks of the Shill Bidder
In case you aren't familiar with the term 'Shill Bidding', it's a fraudulent practice in which the seller uses either another username (account) or a friend to put in bids to increase the price of the item offered. I've found it many times on Ebay, almost a common practice, especially from sellers of Chinese porcelain. Aside from coming directly from China, they have many locations within the U.S. used as store-fronts, so you think you are dealing with someone locally and not from China.
Years ago these sellers, crooks actually, were very careful in using this practice, it took time to catch them, and Ebay seemed to have more interest when it was brought to their attention. Back in the early days (about 20 years ago) you could contact other bidders directly to tip them off. We were more of a family back then, we looked out for each other. In doing so, I'm sure it took a small dent out of Ebay's profit with lower prices and fewer sales. But Ebay quickly changed the rules. They offered more protection (transparency) to the seller using shill-bidding by disguising the bidder's username. They also protected the crooked sellers even more by introducing the 'private auction'.
And since I'll be providing (exposing) the username that I suspect, here's my legal disclaimer. I only suspect them. There is of course a possibility that the seller I call out below is being held hostage and forced to use shill-bidding against their will. If so, than I thoroughly apologize and hope they are saved by someone. If you personally know this poor seller, please help them. And, of course, I encourage the reader of this to draw their own conclusions.
That being said, here is the most recent (June 2019) report I called in to Ebay on what is very obviously the use of shill bidding. I have notified them 3 times on it. As of this date, Ebay has done nothing.
In late May, an item caught my eye as possibly being authentic, and since it was not from China, from New York instead, I took a closer look. It was being offered by Ebay seller gunhuang108. Just over 800 transactions and 100% positive feedback rating. Starting at $1 dollar with $23 shipping. Worth watching for sure, if authentic it would be worth bidding on.
On the image below, taken just after the latest (3rd) auction ended , I used the advanced Ebay search in the 'sold' category to look for the exact phrase of "Exquisite Chinese peach-bloom red glaze round box" that the seller used to list the item. Just in June alone, gunhuang108 sold it 3 times to disguised bidder e***m. The 3rd auction was listed within hours after the 2nd auction ended. How odd.... e***m won that auction too.
Second Auction
Third Auction
In the 2nd auction, e***m could only run it up to $73 dollars. It was immediately (within hours) relisted by gunhuang108 for a 3rd time (above) and e***m could only run it up to $34 dollars.
In checking the gunhuang108's feedback rating for just the past 6 months, another buyer looks suspicious, y***e, possibly shill-bidding to make sure nothing is sold for the starting bid of $1 dollar or just too low a price. It's easy to see what is going on, but I encourage you to check and decide for yourself.
Hopefully the above example will help you identify shill bidding. Here are a few more things I've noticed that might also help.
The shill bidder usually has a very low feedback rating, as in e***m (10
) above.
Just about every time I suspect shill bidding, this is the case.
Probably because the seller doesn't want to create too much suspicion
in using the same name too many times. Easier to just create a new one.
Ebay's disguising the bidders identity with the darned *** in the middle makes it hard to identify them, but the transaction count in the way of (#) following the disguised name can usually help point them out. Clicking on the winning buyer e***m (10
)
will bring up their 'bid history' window.
It shows they bid on 26 items, total of 30 bids, in the past 30 days, 100%
with seller gunhuang108. In this window Ebay re-disquises
them even further as e***e
(10 ).It takes longer to contact Ebay now. You get what I believe is outsourced support. And when you finally get through, they have no email in which to contact them or send them info you have. Be sure to ask for a Reference Number after providing the info.
Oh, by the way, in case you (Ebay) are reading this, here is the Reference (SR) number I was given when I called this in. Just below that is my Ebay username. Hopefully the info I'm providing will help you look thoroughly into the matter and do a good job in resolving it.
a***b