Shill bidding on an eBay overseas site= eBay shined it on

[happycamperdan]

I entered the starting bid on an item. Then, at the last second of the
auction, a second bidder bid one increment, half a Euro more, and the
next big was the second bidder's: exactly one Euro below my maximum bid. How could this second bidder, at the last second, just
guess to go from 15.5 Euros to 177 Euros, with my max bid entered
with my sniper service at 178 Euros.

Naturally, I won the auction at 178 Euros but I get the impression there was maybe no interest but me and that I might have won
with the one opening, starting bid of 15 Euros.

eBay insisted that their servers are super secure.

The odds of an eBayer guessing from 15.5 Euros to exactly 177 Euros
is in the millions and millions.

I want the item as I was willing to max my bid at 178.

If I file a complaint with eBay, the seller will cancel the sale.

I feel like I am between a rock and a hard place.

Comments, observations, suggestions, please?

Thank you

[happycamperdan]

eBay will not tell me what is or what will be going on

I got an email from eBay Australia so maybe that is where the
shill bidder is registered

Such sophisticated shill bidding scares me...

[Tradguy]

But you were willing to pay 178...and that's what you paid.

I don't know what this item is, but you determined that it's value was 178 euros. Isn't it possible others made the same determination?

[happycamperdan]

I actually expected it might go for one bid, the opening bid
that I left, as it is an unusual item for that particular site.

I could have been from the opening bid to more than 300 if I wished.

I picked 178.

It's the principle of the issue, not the money.

Sophisticated sniping with fancy software can also encourage
others to mess with other online stuff.

Thank you!

[Tradguy]

But other than the final bid being close to yours (so your proxy hit your highest number at the next bid increment), nothing happened here.

Unless there were canceled bids, there's no evidence of foul play.

Your assumption that someone very sophisticated somehow has infiltrated ebay's database to cheat you out of 178 euros is a bit far fetched and not supported by anything you've said here.

[happycamperdan]

good news is better than bad news

once again, merci

[PhilipCohen]

Hi happycamperdan,

What's the auction number?

And if you want an understanting of how open to abuse is eBay's proxy bidding system see http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=24033, although "Tradguy" will undoubtedly disagree.
_________________
Clearly, the lunatics at eBay have taken over the asylum and are bent on burning it down.
“The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.” ~ Albert Einstein.

[PhilipCohen]

I don’t know how it can be done “in seconds” from the end; I guess it depends on just how early your sniping service places your final bid (my sniping program is set for eight seconds). Only an examination of the bid times on the Bid History page can provide any more information. I would be surprised though if there were not enough seconds for the following process to have taken place.

It’s really quite simple: the shill simply places a ridiculously high bid, he is then displayed as the winning bidder, one increment above the proxy maximum of the previous highest bidder, he then retracts his high bid with an excuse such as “incorrect amount”. He then places another bid at or just below that maximum proxy amount. Of course, it would look less suspicious if he used yet another shill ID to place the subsequent bid.

And eBay would have us believe that this proxy system is secure—secure for them, that is.
_________________
Clearly, the lunatics at eBay have taken over the asylum and are bent on burning it down.
“The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.” ~ Albert Einstein.

[Ebuster]

Shill bidding makes eBay money pure and simple and that's why they do nothing to stop it and have removed names from bid history so no one can see whats going on.

yes i suspect eBay wanted the commision on $177 and not the $15 but unless we get 1000's of cases like this then it's hard to make a case.

maybe the shill bidder was some type of eBay bot that knew your max bid well in advance or something.

please let me know about any shill bidders or register them at
www.eBuster.co.uk

philip manged to force some action by eBay against a shill bidder and the result was a 14 days ban on listing items without a buy it now price so that sends out a clear message how serious eBay are about stamping the pratice out.

[happycamperdan]

With today's technology, shill bidding should be at least as easy
as the online poker swindle. It had to be a computer program
as all the bids were executed at exactly the same second.