Incredibly Suspicious Bid - Bidder Bot?

[snugglasaurus]

Hi There,

I encountered some incredibly suspicious behaviour on an item I bought. I placed a bid on an item with 0 bids (listed at £70) seconds before the end of an auction for £85, then 3 seconds later somebody places a bid for £84.99.

Is this not incredibly suspicious and clearly indicative of some kind of bidding bot? Nobody would ever place a bid for £84.99 unless the owner of the item is able to game the system and know what people are bidding to maximise their return.

Anonymised screencap below:

What is best to do from here? From his profile + feedback it looks like they really do send the item. I just think they are applying some dodgy practices to make some more money unethically.

[corred]

@snugglasaurus 

There is no way for the seller to "game" the system....or have any idea what you bid

Why would nobody bid £84.99 ??  I never bid round amounts

[snugglasaurus]

Okay it is not impossible. It just seems so improbable that the most likely solution, to me, would be that it was an autobidder bot. But as you suggest, it was also my understanding that there is no way for a bot to game the system, unless they have found a new way to do through the backend of the website.