suspicious bidding behaviour

[dukeborric1234]

HI 

bidding on an item, seller set a relatively high start price so I was confident that intrest would be low and  after 4 days no other bids came in. 

Then in the middle of the night UK time zone a zero feeback account puts in a bid  which is cancelled immediatly after becoming the top bidder. 

I am now fully expecting a bid to come in near the end of the listing that will conincendently be just below my max bid to inflate the price. 

Is this a common issue? 

[fredtech001]

I've come across a similar practice with a Car Dealer, South-UK.  Posts cars with no reserves, low start price  Towards the end of the auction, bids appear from members with 2 or 3 feedback's, obviously their own accounts, that out bid the current winner.  This either jacks the price up, if Auto-Bidding is selected by the original bidder, or they win the car themselves.   If the latter, the car re-appears on their listings the following week, and this goes on till they eventually sell it to someone.    Very dubious practice, I'm surprised E-Bay allow this as there seems to be a few comments in their Feedback identifying this practice.