Bots bidding against bots?

[ynr8622]

I'm a private seller - garage sale type thing to raise some cash fast. Never had issues in the past (been on here a year).

But - just this week I've had:

1) an offer for a higher-priced item. Seller didn't pay and when I checked out their profile, their profile pic was a list of 'instructions' (further images/video by email etc. Realised it was a bot/scammer... cancelled the sale)

2) an auction ended last night. Both bidders also bots, as far as I can tell. No payment, no response, crazy amounts of positive feedback, for people who don't even seem to sell stuff (who buys 5000+ items on Ebay??)

My questions -

1. WHAT IS THE POINT of a bot outbidding everyone in an auction?

2. Is there somewhere you can report bots? (I only get the option 'there was a problem with the buyer's address' etc).

I really don't get it. Will probably close my account and forget about eBay, all seems a bit unpoliced and effing pointless! 

[myriad*seller]

They aren't bots, but they are possibly people trying to spoil your auction

Perhaps they have listings of their own they want to sell (on their selling account) so they overbid on your item to put other bidders off

The one who bid last night may still pay, perhaps they were asleep when bidding ended, they have time to pay now 

Or are you talking about snipe bidders? Snipe bidder usually do pay though, as they want their items! 

[myriad*seller]

The orange satchel?

Hardly a classic item targeted by scammers! 

Just give the buyer time to pay

They may have forgotten they placed the bid and might not be online every day, or they might have used a bid sniper, which you can use to bid when you are asleep

[ynr8622]

No it was a piece of jewellery about £400. Relisted! But I think I'm gonna take it out of the equation. 

[myriad*seller]

The buyer won the item last night and you have already cancelled? You did not give the buyer time to pay! The buyer may have not even woken up before you cancelled the transaction! 

You know the buyer can report you for cancelling for the wrong reasons AND leave you negative feedback?

[myriad*seller]

Why don't you make the listings "immediate payment only"?

That way, nobody can buy your items without paying?

eBay provide the tools for you to use to ensure your items don't sell unless paid for

Why don't you use this option? 

[m25jet · Accepted solution]

In answer to the first of your two questions, my suspicion is that the winning bids were placed by people who are using automatic sniping websites instead of bidding manually, who subsequently failed to pay for the items they won.  Either that or it's just a group of idiots who see eBay auctions as some kind of game, and they are actively competing against each other, all trying to "win" as many "rounds" (ie:  auctions) as possible, with not even the slightest intention of paying for the items won.  Report the buyers to eBay and cancel the transactions in question, citing "Buyer Didn't Pay" as the reason why, then add the User IDs of those buyers to your Blocked Bidders List in order to prevent them from winning any more of your auctions and causing you any further aggravation.

With regards to the second question, I don't think there is actually an option to report bots, as eBay actually allow bidders to use snipe bidding sites to place bids on their behalf, so I don't think you'll get anywhere on that one.  Just follow the instructions given at the end of the first paragraph - there isn't really much else that you can do other than that.  However, it's a bit pointless closing your account down unless you're absolutely certain that you're never going to want to buy anything advertised on sale on eBay.  If there are items that you would like to buy on eBay and you close your account down just because of these idiots that have been wrecking your auctions then you're just cutting your nose off to spite your face.

[ynr8622]

Yeah, think I just need to calm down a bit!  Thanks. 

[ynr8622]

I've spotted the email address they listed in their profile (now deleted) on other sellers' accounts, asking for more info / take sale offline etc. Deffo a scammer. 

[martmarg41]

I would never sell £400 of jewelry on eBay. A definite scammers attraction.

[lighting_signs_and_vintage]

Deffo, I'll take the fees hit of a dealer or proper auction house every time.

And it can pay off too, having that expert knowledge. A sadly departed distant relative left us to clear their (rented!) house a few years ago, and jewellery wise some of what we thought was tat was actually quite valuable. When we went on an open day, the auction guy to our surprise wasn't the rude or haughty person we were expecting (tbf our bag of bits really didn't look like it was worth much) but sat us down in the office with tea, he knew every inch of it and put it in more appropriate sales for the item / bidder interest so it took longer, but got far more than the beer money we were expecting. He was even honest about where scrap sales would get us a better return leaving us free to choose our own outside buyer for that. Every item sold. They earned every penny of their commission, and no-one did a chargeback or return 😉

[myriad*seller]

I see the scam now

The buyer wants you to email them on the address shown in the image (DON'T!) .

They can't exchange contact details on eBay unless they actually pay (this is to protect sellers like yourself from scams like this). 

So the image tries to get you to email them so they can get your email address and this is how they perform the scam. 

Not they have YOUR email address, then they can send you a fake (but very convincing!) payment notification to make you think the item has been paid for 

Then you happily post the item off before realising a few days later that you haven't been paid and that your item is gone 

[ynr8622]

Exactly. And I've not heard from ANY of the people so I've deleted the lot. Haven't got the time or energy for benefit of the doubt! 

[myriad*seller]

Make the listings "immediate payment only" to prevent this in future

The items are not sold until the moment the buyer pays

Scammers will not be able to use this method 

[martmarg41]

You would still be open to scammers using INAD or Card charge-backs on expensive items.