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From: RichA on 6 Jul 2010 07:08
BBC:
A man has been fined £3,000 and ordered to carry out 250 hours
community service after fixing an online auction on eBay.

Paul Barrett, 39 and from County Durham, became the first person to be
convicted of shill bidding in April.

That's when online sellers bid on their own items to artificially bump
up the price or get friends and family to do it for them.

Barrett was sentenced after admitting 10 counts at Bradford Crown
Court.

The minibus hire firm boss pleaded guilty after an investigation by
North Yorkshire Trading Standards found he had bid against himself on
several items, including a pie and pasty warmer on sale for £127.

Mr Barrett told the court that he didn't realise the practice was
against the law.

BBC News: How do you catch online auction cheats?
'Happens regularly'

Critics of eBay say shill bidding is a widespread problem on the site.

eBay spokesperson Vanessa Canzenni denies that not enough is being
done to prevent it.

She said: "We spend £6 million every year to try and stop shill
bidding from happening.
Paul Barrett Paul Barrett claimed he was not aware he was acting
illegally by shill bidding

"The fact that we're the number one e-commerce site proves that
customers can buy and sell with confidence."

She also claims eBay is able to spot when shill bidding is happening,
although wouldn't provide any details about how that's possible.

She added: "We have leading technology that enables us to detect when
people are trying to do this."

However, Jo Boutflower, the trading standards officer who brought the
case against Mr Barrett, does admit it's very difficult to prove shill
bidding.

She said: "We have to have sufficient evidence or suspicion of an
offence before we can exercise powers to get eBay records for
example."

Regular eBay user Rezza Faizee, 27 and from Workington in Cumbria,
reckons it's a massive problem and something that has happened to him
when he was trying to buy a mobile phone.

"It's definitely something that happens regularly," he admitted.

"I've had friends, family, and the same thing's happened to them.

"I honestly don't know what you can do to tackle the problem, I
honestly don't."
Bookmark with
From: Rich on 6 Jul 2010 15:54
On Jul 6, 9:20 am, krishnananda <kris...(a)divine-life.in.invalid>
wrote:
> In article
> <505de634-400e-45bb-8be8-52dbca06f...(a)y4g2000yqy.googlegroups.com>,
>
>  RichA <rander3...(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> > Paul Barrett, 39 and from County Durham, became the first person to be
> > convicted of shill bidding in April.
>
> *One* person convicted since eBay's founding in 1995? I would say the
> odds are with the shill bidders -- there shouldn't be another conviction
> until 2025!

I actuall caught one of the biggest camera sellers doing this (a
pattern of bidders, all same, bidding at the mid-level, whenever the
action stalled). I reported it to Ebay who claimed that nothing was
wrong, but those bidders who had been involved in nearly every auction
for months suddenly disappeared. I guess Ebay didn't want to hurt one
of their top sellers.
From: Russ D on 6 Jul 2010 16:25
On Tue, 6 Jul 2010 12:54:59 -0700 (PDT), Rich <rander3127(a)gmail.com> wrote:

>On Jul 6, 9:20�am, krishnananda <kris...(a)divine-life.in.invalid>
>wrote:
>> In article
>> <505de634-400e-45bb-8be8-52dbca06f...(a)y4g2000yqy.googlegroups.com>,
>>
>> �RichA <rander3...(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Paul Barrett, 39 and from County Durham, became the first person to be
>> > convicted of shill bidding in April.
>>
>> *One* person convicted since eBay's founding in 1995? I would say the
>> odds are with the shill bidders -- there shouldn't be another conviction
>> until 2025!
>
>I actuall caught one of the biggest camera sellers doing this (a
>pattern of bidders, all same, bidding at the mid-level, whenever the
>action stalled). I reported it to Ebay who claimed that nothing was
>wrong, but those bidders who had been involved in nearly every auction
>for months suddenly disappeared. I guess Ebay didn't want to hurt one
>of their top sellers.

When buying a nice electronic piano not long ago, I noticed a pattern with
some sellers. Since I research things for a long time before deciding on a
purchase, this gave me several weeks of watching some items being sold on
ebay and how they were panning out. There's a large group of sellers who
are completely bogus. They just take the paypal payment and run. At first I
thought of reporting the simple pattern they use and how to spot them. But
then I noticed that all bidders would bid on their items, leaving the
genuine sellers alone. This allowed me to pay bottom dollar for a genuine
item while all others were being distracted by the theives. I decided it
was in my best interest to not convey how to easily spot the theives.

From: Russ D on 6 Jul 2010 16:26
On Tue, 6 Jul 2010 12:54:59 -0700 (PDT), Rich <rander3127(a)gmail.com> wrote:

>On Jul 6, 9:20�am, krishnananda <kris...(a)divine-life.in.invalid>
>wrote:
>> In article
>> <505de634-400e-45bb-8be8-52dbca06f...(a)y4g2000yqy.googlegroups.com>,
>>
>> �RichA <rander3...(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Paul Barrett, 39 and from County Durham, became the first person to be
>> > convicted of shill bidding in April.
>>
>> *One* person convicted since eBay's founding in 1995? I would say the
>> odds are with the shill bidders -- there shouldn't be another conviction
>> until 2025!
>
>I actuall caught one of the biggest camera sellers doing this (a
>pattern of bidders, all same, bidding at the mid-level, whenever the
>action stalled). I reported it to Ebay who claimed that nothing was
>wrong, but those bidders who had been involved in nearly every auction
>for months suddenly disappeared. I guess Ebay didn't want to hurt one
>of their top sellers.

When buying a nice electronic piano not long ago, I noticed a pattern with
some sellers. Since I research things for a long time before deciding on a
purchase, this gave me several weeks of watching some items being sold on
ebay and how they were panning out. There's a large group of sellers who
are completely bogus. They just take the paypal payment and run. At first I
thought of reporting the simple pattern they use and how to spot them. But
then I noticed that all bidders would bid on their items, leaving the
genuine sellers alone. This allowed me to pay bottom dollar for a genuine
item while all others were being distracted by the thieves. I decided it
was in my best interest to not convey how to easily spot the thieves.

From: RichA on 6 Jul 2010 16:55
On Jul 6, 4:25 pm, Russ D <ru...(a)myowndomain.org> wrote:
> On Tue, 6 Jul 2010 12:54:59 -0700 (PDT), Rich <rander3...(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> >On Jul 6, 9:20 am, krishnananda <kris...(a)divine-life.in.invalid>
> >wrote:
> >> In article
> >> <505de634-400e-45bb-8be8-52dbca06f...(a)y4g2000yqy.googlegroups.com>,
>
> >> RichA <rander3...(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> >> > Paul Barrett, 39 and from County Durham, became the first person to be
> >> > convicted of shill bidding in April.
>
> >> *One* person convicted since eBay's founding in 1995? I would say the
> >> odds are with the shill bidders -- there shouldn't be another conviction
> >> until 2025!
>
> >I actuall caught one of the biggest camera sellers doing this (a
> >pattern of bidders, all same, bidding at the mid-level, whenever the
> >action stalled).  I reported it to Ebay who claimed that nothing was
> >wrong, but those bidders who had been involved in nearly every auction
> >for months suddenly disappeared.  I guess Ebay didn't want to hurt one
> >of their  top sellers.
>
> When buying a nice electronic piano not long ago, I noticed a pattern with
> some sellers. Since I research things for a long time before deciding on a
> purchase, this gave me several weeks of watching some items being sold on
> ebay and how they were panning out. There's a large group of sellers who
> are completely bogus. They just take the paypal payment and run. At first I
> thought of reporting the simple pattern they use and how to spot them. But
> then I noticed that all bidders would bid on their items, leaving the
> genuine sellers alone. This allowed me to pay bottom dollar for a genuine
> item while all others were being distracted by the theives. I decided it
> was in my best interest to not convey how to easily spot the theives.

Great for the buyer, not great for legit merchants. I'd have reported
the scum.
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