How To Spot A Shill Bidder

[bob01376]

I'v just watched a clip on YouTube. How To Spot A Shill Bidder can you still do this on ebayor has it been stoped

[red_magpie · Accepted solution]

It's been very difficult to spot shill bidding since eBay prevented members from seeing other members' buying and bidding histories.

In any case, even spotting it now counts for nothing, as eBay no longer wishes suspected shill bidding to be reported. This is what they say: "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 behaviour, we'll take steps to prevent it." in other words, don't bother to report it because no action will be taken.

I'm sure the above will fill you with confidence. Even though eBay itself benefits from successful shill bidding, as higher prices mean higher fees. None of us would suggest that this influences eBay's judgement but, even when shill bidding was reportable, it often seemed strangely slow to act compared to when fee evasion is suspected.

Your best protection against shill bidding is bid as late as you can, just a few seconds before the listing ends. No seller will then risk trying to drive the price up further by shill bidding, in case they end up winning their own auction.

[bob01376 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the reply it's not very convincing to know you can't check something is going on if you suspect something even if it meant not to bid on a item and move on.
KG
Bob

[john1297576 · Accepted solution]

It has always been very difficult to prove, as several members working together could confuse the issue, and many members do not understand Automatic Bidding and think this is shill bidding.
Best thing to do is use a sniping tool to bid in the closing seconds. Just place your maximum bid and at worse if you win you pay no more than you wanted to pay.

[agogley · Accepted solution]

I suspected bid shilling. It seems pretty obvious to me. You can tell its a the same bidder on two items by the same seller. The % category shows 30% of all the bids by that buyer is for this seller. Then I notice the items are immediately relisted.

I don't know how eBay detects this sort of activity or if it even cares. So now I'll just pay for an app that will snipe for me.

[banyera · Accepted solution]

Having been an ebay member for 20+ years - (NO LONGER A SELLER THOUGH ) I still remember when you could see a sellers AND bidders ID , Previous User Names etc , etc
I am certain I have been affected by SHILL Bidding , ie multiple bids placed on various auctions , same seller - all placed within a short time period , and strange that they have Zero feedback - Never received +ve Feedback for one transaction despite multiple bids totalling £1000+ .
This is only possible on open auctions (not Buy Now).
Sniping and Last minute Bidding is great in theory ,but you are still paying OTT prices