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.

[captain*obvious]

What it might be is shill bidding. I generally view .99 bids as suspicious.

People who want their bid to win tend to bid just over a round pound, or just over the .50p

People who want to inflate the price generally bid below the round pound.

I share your suspicion but I don't think it has anything to with a bidding bot - the seller couldn't have known what your highest bid was, however, they could easily have known what the least they were willing to sell it for.