Shill Bidding on eBay: Case Study #2

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PhilipCohen

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Some more food for thought …

Shill Bidding on eBay: Case Study #2

Shining some light on the more sophisticated and therefore harder to detect shill bidding activity by some "professional" sellers on eBay auctions

Not another case study on shill bidding on eBay auctions? Yes, sorry, another one. This time a spreadsheet analysis of multiple auctions, from some "professional" sellers from the US and Australia. Needless to say the analysis demonstrates, once again, that, contrary to eBay's claims, shill bidding by many "professional" sellers is rampant on eBay auctions. The full comment and spreadsheet download links at:
http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=24296
 
Some more thoughts on shill bidding on eBay …

For all those eBay "buyers" who are still trying to find a bargain on eBay and are (hopefully) agile enough to avoid all the shill-bidding professional sellers that now infest eBay, eBay recently touted two Diamond/Titanium PowerSellers as major success stories of selling on eBay. An analysis of bidding patterns on these two sellers' auctions suggests that they both could be habitual shill bidders. A full comment thereon at:
http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=6502763

Why is "Noise" Donahoe trying to destroy eBay?
http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=6502877
 
http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=24411

Synopsis

11 April 2010

A synopsis? Better late than never. Well there is a lot of reading involved in the various linked articles. Not unreasonably, to convince anyone of the probable truth of the allegations that I make against eBay, it does require detailed analysis.

Let me then cut straight to the chase with a simple statement from one who has watched eBay very closely for a number of years and used to be a regular buyer on eBay auctions:

eBay (aka "the eBafia") is a criminal organization!

How could that be, you ask? Well, with a great deal of effort and some multi-auction analysis, it can be very clearly demonstrated that shill bidding fraud by unscrupulous professional sellers on nominal-start auctions, is rampant on eBay auctions, and the executives "in the know" at eBay, unless they are actually even more naive than they apparently think all we simple consumers are, cannot but be aware of that criminal activity.

Of course they will say they are not aware, because they do not want to be aware, because if they admit that they are aware of such criminal activity (which they cannot but be, and from which they are profiting), and they do nothing effective about it (which they don't), then they are guilty of the crime of "criminal facilitation". It's as simple as that!

And, it can also be demonstrated that, contrary to eBay's claims, they do not do anything proactive nor truly effective to prevent such criminal activity. Indeed, they have done the very opposite: during the second half of 2008 eBay introduced anonymous non-unique masking of bidding IDs, which serves no logical purpose other than to deliberately further obscure such criminal activity and aid and abet said criminal shill-bidding sellers to maximize their sale prices, thus maximizing eBay's final valuation fee (FVF).

It's even worse in the UK, where the form of bidder masking makes it effectively impossible for buyers to analyse the patterns of bidding on sellers' auctions and thereby protect themselves from the unscrupulous, sophisticated shill-bidding professional sellers that undoubtedly now infest eBay auction sales in the UK. And this is undoubtedly why sale by auction on the eBay UK site is now a fraction of what it used to be. Apparently, the UK consumer is not as naive as this unscrupulous eBay management believes them to be.

eBay's seller-selected "private listing" auction format serves the same devious, totally obscuring effect.

The only difference between eBay and any local unscrupulous traditional auctioneer is that eBay is facilitating the defrauding of unsuspecting consumers on a world-wide scale. Unscrupulous buyers and (unverified) "Nigerians" are defrauding eBay sellers, the very many unscrupulous professional eBay sellers who use nominal-start auctions are habitually defrauding eBay buyers, and eBay is effectively—and knowingly—facilitating such criminal activity and both eBay and PayPal are taking a cut of every transaction—sounds a bit like the Mafia of old!

Supporting documents

A fuller introduction to the several documents offered in support of the before mentioned criticism of eBay, at:
Why is the "eBafia Don" trying to kill eBay?
http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=6502877
 
Whenever I am asked about eBay or Craigs List, I tell anyone who listens to avoid those sites like the plague.

Its OK to look (and often amusing), but don't spend any money on those sites.

You have better odds of a return on your investment on the pass line of any casino in the world.

People don't listen, they trust those scammers like they trust their government.

Heck, people are still biting on a myriad of Nigerian internet cafe created scams, too!
 
I am curious... why do you say that this is criminal activity? What crime is committed?
People simply bid what they are willing to pay. It is that simple.
 
"What crime is committed?"

I thought that I had already made that clear in the above intro, but …

I think that my research shows that eBay, by its masking of bidder IDs, is obscuring and thereby deliberately encouraging and knowingly aiding and abetting shill bidding wire fraud, from which they profit. I am not a lawyer but I understand that such behaviour is known as "criminal facilitation".

Clearly you have not yet bothered to read my supporting documents. If you want to understand how I come to the conclusions that I do you will have to spend an evening perusing the various linked documents in which I believe I have proved my assertion—at least on the balance of probability.
 
Simply put Moose, they have shills that bid to raise the bid price.

No legitimate auction house or livestock auction is allowed to do it.

The various online auction sites allow and encourage it.

The higher the price the higher their commissions.

Those places are shameful.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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Well I get that- but that doesn't make it criminal.
People bid the amount they are willing to pay. Nobody makes them bid higher. They do it of their own will.
If you think there are people artificially driving up the prices then don't bid. That simple.
 
Criminal facilitation

As a matter of interest I have posted a summary of the current statute law on fraud by false representation in the US, UK and AU at
http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=24316
Fraud does not have to be successful to be a crime, the simple attempt of fraud is a crime.

You may also have noticed a summary of the US crime of "criminal facilitation", within
http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=6502877
and I quote:

The U.S. criminal code makes aiding and abetting a federal crime itself a crime:

A person may be convicted of aiding and abetting any act made criminal under the code [eg, 'wire fraud']. The elements of aiding and abetting are, generally:
(1) guilty knowledge on the part of the accused (the mens rea);
(2) the commission of an offense by someone; and
(3) the defendant assisted or participated in the commission of the offense (the actus reus).
To summarise: (1) eBay cannot but be aware that shill bidding is rampant on their auction platform; (2) It can be independently demonstrated, beyond reasonable doubt, that shill bidding is rampant on eBay auctions; (3) eBay effectively assists in the commission of such criminal activity by knowing that such criminal activity is occurring, profiting from such criminal activity, and doing nothing proactive or effective to stop such criminal activity; indeed they knowingly and deliberately facilitate such criminal activity by their application of non-unique masking of bidder IDs, and they will immediately remove any sign of such criminal activity whenever it is exposed and reported to them.

Have I leant to be distrustful of eBay? You betcha! And I believe any examination of the facts and all the surrounding circumstances will indicate to a reasonable person that, on the balance of probability, eBay introduced totally anonymous bidder masking (in 2008), not to protect the privacy or security of bidders, as they claim, but for just the opposite reason, to further obscure shill bidding fraud and indeed encourage such criminal activity by unscrupulous sellers, from which eBay then profits with a higher FVF.
 
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Well I get that- but that doesn't make it criminal.
People bid the amount they are willing to pay. Nobody makes them bid higher. They do it of their own will.
If you think there are people artificially driving up the prices then don't bid. That simple.

I know that, and you know that.

I wouldn't buy anything from eBay's colony of crime and scams.

I waited two years before I trusted Amazon enough to buy from them.

Now, I love Amazon, for their pricing, reliability, and no state tax ripoffs.

But, eBay, that place is a step below Craigs List.

Not everyone understands the principle of caveat emptor, and there are many bad actors in the world.

I'm sure you see your share of them daily in action.
 
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