How to detect shill bidding

porto_bello

I spotted some very strange bidding earlier today....

Notice the third bid down on this item: a bid strangely of not a rounded up price point (e.g. £25) or just above (e.g. £25.01), but just under the £25 price point.
http://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&_trksid=p2047675.l2565&rt=nc&item=160997126800

Notice the 2nd bid form the top: the same bidder placing another bid, on another of the same seller's items, this time just under the £50 price point.
http://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&_trksid=p2047675.l2565&rt=nc&item=160997135199

And here the same bidder gently nudges an item up from £10 to £15.
http://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&_trksid=p2047675.l2565&rt=nc&item=160994318215

If you click on the bidder's (hidden) ID, you can see that they have bid 38 times, on a diverse range of 16 different items, across 11 completely unrelated categories ... but all from exactly the same seller!
http://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBidderProfile&mode=1&item=160997135199&aid=c***a&eu=iBmM0EWRr1rClNKeax18AWb0Yxi5AKcY&view=NONE&ssPageName=PageBidderProfileViewBids_None_ViewLink

Here's the business seller's ID, whose name begins with 'Matt'
http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/modern_antiquities_2012

And here's the mystery bidder's ID, which also begins with 'Matt':
http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/mattbatcc

I was going to bid on one of this seller's items, but once I saw this bidding pattern correlation of 100%, I gave it a complete miss!
Hopefully these examples may help others looking to avoid shill bidding and paying over the odds. :money:

luvvlyjubbly

Out of interest...how did you get to find out the bidders ID?

emweaver

Where does it say the sellers name is Matt?

eaglesrjh

emweaver wrote: »

Where does it say the sellers name is Matt?

It's in the business seller information on the listings and it's down as matthew, but can still see the op's point

eaglesrjh

luvvlyjubbly wrote: »

Out of interest...how did you get to find out the bidders ID?

If you look at the feedback score of the "mystery bidder" then look at the sellers feedback you will find that the "shill" account won some items a while back. That's how to trace it.

porto_bello

eaglesrjh wrote: »

If you look at the feedback score of the "mystery bidder" then look at the sellers feedback you will find that the "shill" account won some items a while back. That's how to trace it.

Yes, to confirm, you take the ID with the same numerical feedback score in the feedback and have a quick look at what that eBay ID has bid for lately... and hey presto! The 'mystery bidder' ID is revealed!

nlj1520

I was bidding on an audio book recently and left a bid for the max I was prepared to pay. 3 times I got notification that I had been outbid and 3 times the winning bid was withdrawn leaving me the winner......if it had happened once I would have thought someone had made a mistake. It wasn't likely that they had already won a bid on the same item elsewhere as it weas the only one listed. 3 times.......surely that indicates shill bidding? ???? I didn;t bother to do the research that you guys have done as I'm not a regualr ebayer, but maybe I should have done.

Chrysalis

it happens I guess, I have been a victim of it myself I think (but obviously cant be sure), I just paid up and moved on.

There was one time it got silly tho.

I bid on an item that I would expect to normally go for £20 or less. I bid early and bid £15. I soon entered a bidding war with some other person (suspected shill). It ended up at £60 when I realised it was out of control and didnt really need the item so I left it. Needless to say that person won at £60 but the item got relisted. I also notice the item got relisted again and again for several months even after a successful bid many times.

duncan-biscuits

funny when you get second chance offer and dont even look at the bidding pattern, even super sleuth snooping shillbid ebay detectives stupidly pay the item as they think it was a bargain , people on the web dont care and ebay dont care, it is too widespread to even detect it! No one even cares why people waste their time complaining on here or to ebay who do zilch.

daveeeeed

duncan-biscuits wrote: »

I do it all the time now, just got to remember to click PRIVATE option on all my sales so no one guesses, it is really great, it is the way to be! People never suspect a thing and you get great sales ! SMASHING!

people who shill bid are a bit thick

It goes on day in day out not one person can say they never bid up a friends car or big item for them , everybody does it!

Interesting moral code. Can't say I agree with you, and I get a feeling that many others won't as well.

luvvlyjubbly

daveeeeed wrote: »

Interesting moral code. Can't say I agree with you, and I get a feeling that many others won't as well.

Well let's face it....we're not going to hear from those who agree on here, are we...lol
Also Duncan has posted as a newbie so could quite possibly be a regular on the Ebay boards...;)

It's not a lot of difference to the people who won't sell because they didn't get a fair price......I've had that happen to me plenty....the "sorry the dogs ruined it" messages for example.