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SHILL SPOTTING
If you suspect fraudulent bidding - AKA Shill Bidding, this guide provides some assistance in confirming or clearing your suspicions.
I. What is Shill Bidding?
A. Sellers using other ID's to boost the price of their items.
B. Sellers using friends to boost the price of their items.
II. Recognizing Shill Bidding.
A. Placing a maximum bid.
1. Once you have placed a maximum bid, shillers tend
to send in their other ID's to find out what your max is.
2. Usually, they do it in small steps, so as not to go over the
the maximum bid.
3. When the shiller does go over your maximum bid, they
normally withdraw their bid using the excuse of having
bid the wrong amount.
4. The shiller then bids again, only this time they bid just
below your maximum bid.
III. Looking for Proof.
A. The first step..
1. Open the listing and click on the number of bids located
above the current price.
2. Look for a (sometimes 2) bidder who often, but not
necessarily has low feedback or is a new member.
a. If the bidder has multiple bids, click on his ID and look
at the number of items and % of bids with the seller.
b. Look for the number of bid retractions.
B. Second step after seeing bid retractions and/or an unusual
amount of bids on items from the same seller.
1. Go to “see sellers other items.”
2. Click on completed listings on the left hand side of the
page.
3. Look for items that have had multiple bids.
4. Check to see if the same ID [ i.e. B****S(10) ] has bid
on any of those listings.
5. Again, look for bid retractions.
C. Check seller’s feedback.
1. Look through feedback for the bidding ID you suspect.
B***S(10) could be BullisFullofS(10).
2. Click on that ID’s feedback.
3. You can usually spot the Shillers easily when the leave
feedback for themselves.
a. Feedback is left for receipt of item within minutes of
the sale.
b. Items bought are re-listed right away.
IV. What Next????
A. If you are relatively certain that the item has been shilled,
then it is time to report the listing.
1. You can use the Report listing button that is located under
the item location in the listing.
2. I use both of these links:
http://prune.it/GWYE
http://prune.it/GqV7
http://contact.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ContactUs&wftype=2012&rcode=IV%25P10092&subject=Shill%20Bidding&bcrumb=Home%20%3E%20Help%20%3E%20eBay%20Policies%20%3E%20Rules%20for%20Sellers%20%3E%20Shill%20Bidding
3. Send a copy with explanation of your reports to:
Richmond Borough Trading Standards
2nd Floor
Civic Centre
44 York Street
Twickenham
TW1 3BZ
Telephone: 020 8487 5487
Email: tradingstds@richmond.gov.uk
Fax: 020 8891 7726
4. Send a copy with explanation to your MP.
5. Send a copy to European Parliament representative.
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/members/expert/groupAndCountry.do?language=EN
B. Check to see if anything has been done withing a week.
If not, I recommend contacting the press.
Example of suspected shill bidding details:
http://prune.it/VjdF
I have added another link below that helps compare buyer and seller feedback.
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