Today saw the first prosection for shill bidding in the UK resulting in a £5000 fine.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/10494724.stm

Paul Miloseski-Reid, an e-commerce spokesman at the Trading Standards Institute, warned shill bidders are committing a criminal offence which could lead to prosecution.

"It's basic fraud - you are pretending that your product is worth more than it is and misrepresenting the demand," he said.

"You might not know consumer laws, but you do know that it is deceitful."

I wonder if ebay had been made aware of it before Trading Standards got involved.

the thing is, its really hard to prove on shill bidding and to compare within original bid,

unless you see a trend from various auction
even that is innocent until proven guilty

I would assume ebay is monitoring events like casino bosses monitor their gambling tables.  They can't have people disrupting their business, so they know what to look for.  And are always watching. 

How am I not surprised, as much shrill bidders are they need to go after the real criminals before going after the little guy.

Hey thats not a bad idea :-)

Never did this before but - at least you get to set a minimal price w/o paying the ebay min-price tax :P

razrx wrote on 05.07.10 at 19:43:03:

I would assume ebay is monitoring events like casino bosses monitor their gambling tables.  They can't have people disrupting their business, so they know what to look for.  And are always watching.

They don't care, they get the fees so it does not matter to them.

Ebay is getting really bad, great to buy from but not so much to sell.

gdonovan wrote on 13.09.11 at 23:39:03:

Ebay is getting really bad, great to buy from but not so much to sell.

Fees are pretty bad tbh. £53.21 for £492.05 sold.  :-/

Tim wrote on 19.09.11 at 15:47:08:

gdonovan wrote on 13.09.11 at 23:39:03: Ebay is getting really bad, great to buy from but not so much to sell. Fees are pretty bad tbh. £53.21 for £492.05 sold.  :-/

More than 10%. WTF, that's a ripoff. Here in Romania we have a "local" ebay, they ask 2.8% fee and a lot of people think even that is high and do everything they can to avoid the fee (like inserting phone numbers in product picture and ask to be called directly, etc)


pipat6 wrote on 13.09.11 at 14:34:25:

Thanks for the update, and it is particularly interesting and have a good lot.

Anyone else who noticed this is an obvious spam ? Chinese style posting, only to spread the signature...

RaverX wrote on 19.09.11 at 23:36:32:

Anyone else who noticed this is an obvious spam ? Chinese style posting, only to spread the signature...

I missed the tiny link at the bottom and removed the posting.