Sunday Times exposes Titanium Powerseller shill bidder

cazmanian_minx

Full article here:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-2570050,00.html

One of their undercover reporters recorded a powerseller admitting artificially inflating his prices. It'll be interesting to see if eBay actually takes any action.


EDIT: There's another longer article, including quotes from an ex-eBay employee here:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-2570548,00.html

Caz

tomstickland

Don't hold your breath.

cammo12

Interesting reading, thanks

cazmanian_minx

tomstickland wrote:

Don't hold your breath.

Well, they've NARU'd the bloke in the article at least:
http://feedback.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=bidancient

Not holding my breath on them actually sorting out shilling once and for all though!

Caz

nightswimmer

cazmanian_minx wrote:

Not holding my breath on them actually sorting out shilling once and for all though!

How can they?

cazmanian_minx

nightswimmer wrote:

How can they?

OK, completely is a bit unrealistic, but having a program running that automatically cross checks the details (phone number, address, registered credit/debit card number) of the person selling the item against each user that bids and flags up any matches for a human to review would be a great start.

Caz

nightswimmer

cazmanian_minx wrote:

OK, completely is a bit unrealistic, but having a program running that automatically cross checks the details (phone number, address, registered credit/debit card number) of the person selling the item against each user that bids and flags up any matches for a human to review would be a great start.

That would be a start but it wouldn't solve the problem by a long shot. IMHO there isn't any possible way that they can actually stamp it out all together, or for that matter, even get close to stamping ito out, without making eBay too restrictive to function.

motorguy

cazmanian_minx wrote:

OK, completely is a bit unrealistic, but having a program running that automatically cross checks the details (phone number, address, registered credit/debit card number) of the person selling the item against each user that bids and flags up any matches for a human to review would be a great start.

Caz

plus it doesnt solve the 'getting your mate to bid your item up' scenario.

Besides, it means ebay gets bigger fees, so they are only ever going to pay lip service to it.

Plus the platinum seller - i bet he is back trading again after a weeks suspension - no way ebay will want to lose such a great fee generator.

Snooze_Control

pgilc1 wrote:

plus it doesnt solve the 'getting your mate to bid your item up' scenario.

Besides, it means ebay gets bigger fees, so they are only ever going to pay lip service to it.

Plus the platinum seller - i bet he is back trading again after a weeks suspension - no way ebay will want to lose such a great fee generator.

Exactly.

Personally I've nothing but praise for the geezer for shill bidding his auctions. His reasoning is spot on. I feel sorry for him that he was rumbled by an undercover reporter though. I bet he feels like a right !!!! now!

SC

Dealmad

Snooze_Control wrote:

Exactly.

Personally I've nothing but praise for the geezer for shill bidding his auctions. His reasoning is spot on. I feel sorry for him that he was rumbled by an undercover reporter though. I bet he feels like a right !!!! now!

SC

Praise??? Are you for real? when he out right conning people which is fraud may i add , how can you feel sorry for this scum bag baffles me :mad:




I think its disgusting and the less people on ebay who shill bid the better.

I always avoid Auctions if i suspect someone has been shill bidding and i always report it , dont forget this is illegal under the 2006 Fraud Act , like the Artical states.

Fair enough if you dont want your item to go under a certain value then place a reserve on that Auction or use Buy it now , this is the reason they are there!

I hope Ebay start cracking down on sellers who shill bid , but i very much doubt it as all they seem to care about is making profit...and time after time i see real obvious shill bidding going on

Well done to the Sunday Times for exposing this :T

I may understand it if its someone on a low income but this guy is selling more than £1.4m worth of so called antiquities a year on the site.

Also this seller is misleading people big time , Quote :


The day before the meeting, BidAncient sold a lion mosaic “masterpiece” on eBay for $1,900 (£970) claiming that the work dated back to AD 300. The sales literature noted the condition of the piece was “excellent” as it had been “restored and reconstituted from ancient tessarae fragments and ancient tessarae”.

During the meeting Paraskevaides referred to four Roman mosaics he had recently bought which he had described in a similar manner. He then admitted he wasn’t sure whether the mosaics had been produced 2,000 years ago or “whether some B!!!!!!d has just filled them in with a sack of ancient stones and made a pattern out of them”.

End of Quote



Now i say lets all report this ebay seller Eftis Paraskevaides for Shill bidding and the link to go with it.

Sellers id is : BidAncient

Update : looks like ebay has already closed his account :rotfl: : No longer registered with eBay

I wonder how long until he opens another account :rolleyes:

Also i wonder if all the people who brought of this seller can take any legal action agaisnt ebay or the seller

I now suspect this is a matter for the police if he is claiming items to be antiquities when they are not.

Snooze_Control

Dealmad wrote:

Praise??? Are you for real? when he out right conning people which is fraud may i add , how can you feel sorry for this scum bag baffles me :mad:

How is he conning people? People have the option to place a higher bid if they so desire. No-one is forcing them to do it. If you think the item isn't worth more than the current bid then don't bid!

As far as I can see he's shill bidding to keep his listing fees at 15p and also ensure that the item doesn't sell at a loss. I can't see how that affects anyone else except Ebay themselves and let's face it, it isn't as if Ebay are gonna be bothered when you consider the commission they make off the FVF. :rolleyes:

Fair enough if you dont want your item to go under a certain value then place a reserve on that Auction or use Buy it now , this is the reason they are there!

People tend to avoid auctions with reserve's on them and for very good reasons.

I may understand it if its someone on a low income but this guy is selling more than £1.4m worth of so called antiquities a year on the site.

Well that makes it alright then! You'd be happy for someone on a low income to shill bid but not a millionaire. Well that's not hypocritical at all, much. :rolleyes:

SC