Warning about shill bidding on ebay.

[mikegilbert]

Hey guys.

Just thought I'd give you a little heads up about some unscrupulous bidding activity on ebay.
User Farmall100owner has been working with user peeweeherman4 to artificially inflate his auction prices for Motorola items.

There's a proven history of user peeweeherman4 (feedback 53) placing high bids to reveal the high bidders maximum bid, then retracting and placing a bid just below the highest bid. This keeps the high bidder at the absolute highest limit of their proxy bid.

I noticed this on an HT-210 I bid on, then did some sleuthing. Take a look at the bidding history of his completed listings and judge for yourself. Take note of the time all of his bids are placed.

Sorry for the large images:

[tuckerm]

Thanks for the heads up, but, have you reported it to eBay yet?

[mikegilbert]

Reported the auction. Now I'm on the phone with them filing a complaint. I did contact the seller to ask what the deal was. He's decided not to respond.

[MT2000 man]

Thanks for the heads up !!!

[radioeng462]

I have stopped buying used radios on Ebay. Sellers are not truthful in their descriptions. One listed a CDM1550 LS+ with MDC1200 in conventional which it did not do, was able to get some money back. Bought a Astro Spectra which was programmed with an ASK so it was worthless. Contacted seller who sent me an Astro Spectra Plus that was not re-banded (which he claimed) and the RX was so bad it could not hear a signal a mile away. Eventually got my money back minus return shipping. Whole thing just pissed me off.

[MTS2000des]

yeah that guy is a turd. People like him and Turdbay's don't give a damn attitude are why I don't sell anymore, aside from their OUTRAGEOUS rape fees, charging us sellers FVF's on shipping (even those of us who are honest and don't inflate the shipping charge a cent), and lousy support.

Then you have the no-account shill and bum bidders. We get rammed up the rear the instant an item shows sold (though we never get paid) and have to jump through hoops and wait days to have our FVF's credited.

We're required to give up our bank account, credit check, etc to sell, but any shill with a Gmail address can bid? Absurd.
Buyers can leave negatives all day long, but sellers can't warn others when we get boned? Not gonna happen to me anymore.

Screw Ebay.

So much better dealing amongst professionals here on BL and avoid the pond scum like the douche nozzles displayed in the images above.

There, I feel better.

[Leadenwah]

Yes, indeed, shill bidding is rampant on a popular auction site.
Did you every wonder how you often happen to hit the winning bid right on the penny?
The other jewel in their crown is the seller who is unable to test the radio at all,
" no way to test " then you notice that in the photo of the item, right behind it and just out of
focus you see a nice service monitor and extensive radio shop equipment.

How often are you promised that it won't be DOA, but when you get the radio
you are still SOL ? Most of those guys can't spell, but have become very creative writers.

[batdude]

buy the seller, not the radio.

although - this is why i don't sell on greedbay anymore --- shill bidding that they DO NOT care about - and FVFs... charging me final value fees on shipping is just so silly it should be illegal.

d

[sataraid1]

I immediately recognized the ID Farmall100owner. So at some point I must have been seriously considering one of his auctions.

Thanks for the heads up.

[FireCpt809]

I only rarely buy on Ebay.. Rarely any radios. Parts mostly and if they are new. I wont sell too much BS. I have an HT-210 actually .. Im kind of attached to it though its from my first FD that is now defunct.

[Garyf629]

This is why I only buy/sell here at BatLabs BatBoards "For Sale/Wanted/Trade". You also save on those obscene charges fro eBay.

[RADIOMAN2002]

I suggest if it is possible with the moderators to make this a sticky, and keep it on the top of the board menu so members can look through it and determine if a seller is on the scam list. To go through all the feedback messages is a pain and is not always worth the time and effort. A listing of findings as above would keep our members informed of bad dealers. I also suggest that anyone who finds problems like this complain to the auction site and also send an e-mail to the seller letting him know that he is on a published s**t list, as well as under post a question state the problems others have had, and maybe list the URL to this post. It may do nothing or it may disuade these sellers from trying this crap.

[mikegilbert]

Well it looks like Farmall100owner and peeweeherman4 are up to their old tricks again. Here are several more completed listings- as well as one current listing which are being shill bid once again by peeweeherman4

I never posted the response from Farmall - aka 'Rich' as I believed his ALL CAPS response to my complaint. Seeing that he (er, his daughter) is at it again, It's time to air the dirty laundry.

If any of you were bidders in the following listings, I suggest contacting ebay and filing a complaint.

[escomm]

"The kitty cat did it"

[khw]

Wow, that's weird - I got this spam message today in my mailbox. Wonder if it's related?


Hello,

I am a Nigerian Princess, all of my family's fortune is tied up in Motorola radios for sale on eBay. If you could just help bid the value of my items up, my families good name and fortune could be restored...

[WB6NVH]

I'm curious how you knew the actual ID of the shill bidder since eBay has been obscuring the other bidder's ID for some time now. Which just makes it harder to detect this kind of stuff.

One way to beat the attempts to discover your highest proxy bid is to use a sniping service. That way they have no time to do it. I can't believe anyone would still bid hours (or worse, days) early on eBay auctions.

Shill bidding is a crime in probably every state. But good luck getting law enforcement interested.

[MTS2000des]

Efraudbay really doesn't care about shill bidding. After all, when prices get jacked up, so do final value fees. People's true greed comes out and "bidding wars" start over used junk that if you were in your right mind, you'd never pay that if the item was in your face and you saw what you were really getting.

[buck85]

I found this post interesting. I bid on ebay , and will be more cautious

[jmr061]

I believe the point of this post has been made...therefore being locked.

Jason