[RANT]
I still can't get my head round Ebay's 'privacy' policy, simply because it allows bid shilling to take place over £100 and it is MUCH harder for Joe Public to find out. Why? Because once an auction goes over £100 then the bidders ID's are hidden from all except the seller. What that means is that once bidding goes over £100 it is much easier for a seller to use other accounts to bid up their auction. As it's so easy to open an Ebay account a crafty seller will just keep opening up new accounts all the time so that the current 'bidding activity' report won't show up anything suspicious.
This is what I recently saw whilst I was watching an auction before it went over £100. I always check the other bidders and see what they've been bidding on (just in case they're as Fiat nutty as me and I'll know I've got a fight on my hands!) The auction was for a Fiat Uno I was interested in, and when I checked one of the other bidders I found that they'd only done one transaction. They had sold a VW Golf, and the pictures in their auction were taken IN THE SAME PLACE as the car I was interested in! Their location was also stated as being virtually the same as the location of the seller
Of course, once the auction went over £100 the bidders list became 'hidden' to protect them (yeah right Ebay) and it wasn't possible to see what transactions they'd previously been involved with. So if I'd only found the listing after it had gone over £100 there's no way I would have been able to see that one of the bidders was clearly in league with the seller and shill bidding the auction.
There was even some somewhat suspicious bidding going on in the last minute with Bidder 4 incrementing the bid a number of times. Can't find any info. about where they are nor what they have bid on/ sold in the past because of the 'privacy' policy.
Here's the car I was interested in:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....om=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=170137917553&fvi=1
And here's a previous auction from one of the bidders of the above car:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....om=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=150147801126&fvi=1
Notice anything about where the two cars were photographed? Looks like the same location to me! So is it possibly that the bidder on the Fiat Uno auction just happend to have photographed his VW Golf he sold in exactly the same location? Doubt it...
See the two pictures below to see the bidder's and seller's cars photographed in exactly the same location and almost at exactly the same angle.
Now to make matters worse I was still going to bid on the auction. Except just as I went to put in a last minute bid either my computer or internet died on me and the auction ended :bang: Maybe it wasn't to be, but I was so pi$$ed off I reported both the seller and bidder to Ebay. I then got the standard Ebay reply saying they would 'look into it' and that was then followed by a cop out response as follows:
"Rest assured that I have now investigated these members with the
information you provided and compare it to our records of bidding
patterns and other activity involving the reported accounts. We will
take appropriate action (such as a warning or account suspension)
against the involved accounts to ensure eBay remains a safe and
reputable place to shop.
Please understand also that there are certain policies and procedures
framed by eBay which we have to abide by. Due to eBays privacy policy,
we can't share details of the action we take. "
Well I checked both Ebay members after I received the second response from Ebay. Both were still trading with no sign of any suspension. Is it any wonder that people don't have faith in Ebay's stance against crooks when their privacy policy effectively gives a perfect smoke screen for crooks to operate behind?
Ebay does my head in but I can't live without it :bang:
[/RANT]
I still can't get my head round Ebay's 'privacy' policy, simply because it allows bid shilling to take place over £100 and it is MUCH harder for Joe Public to find out. Why? Because once an auction goes over £100 then the bidders ID's are hidden from all except the seller. What that means is that once bidding goes over £100 it is much easier for a seller to use other accounts to bid up their auction. As it's so easy to open an Ebay account a crafty seller will just keep opening up new accounts all the time so that the current 'bidding activity' report won't show up anything suspicious.
This is what I recently saw whilst I was watching an auction before it went over £100. I always check the other bidders and see what they've been bidding on (just in case they're as Fiat nutty as me and I'll know I've got a fight on my hands!) The auction was for a Fiat Uno I was interested in, and when I checked one of the other bidders I found that they'd only done one transaction. They had sold a VW Golf, and the pictures in their auction were taken IN THE SAME PLACE as the car I was interested in! Their location was also stated as being virtually the same as the location of the seller
Of course, once the auction went over £100 the bidders list became 'hidden' to protect them (yeah right Ebay) and it wasn't possible to see what transactions they'd previously been involved with. So if I'd only found the listing after it had gone over £100 there's no way I would have been able to see that one of the bidders was clearly in league with the seller and shill bidding the auction.
There was even some somewhat suspicious bidding going on in the last minute with Bidder 4 incrementing the bid a number of times. Can't find any info. about where they are nor what they have bid on/ sold in the past because of the 'privacy' policy.
Here's the car I was interested in:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....om=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=170137917553&fvi=1
And here's a previous auction from one of the bidders of the above car:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....om=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=150147801126&fvi=1
Notice anything about where the two cars were photographed? Looks like the same location to me! So is it possibly that the bidder on the Fiat Uno auction just happend to have photographed his VW Golf he sold in exactly the same location? Doubt it...
See the two pictures below to see the bidder's and seller's cars photographed in exactly the same location and almost at exactly the same angle.
Now to make matters worse I was still going to bid on the auction. Except just as I went to put in a last minute bid either my computer or internet died on me and the auction ended :bang: Maybe it wasn't to be, but I was so pi$$ed off I reported both the seller and bidder to Ebay. I then got the standard Ebay reply saying they would 'look into it' and that was then followed by a cop out response as follows:
"Rest assured that I have now investigated these members with the
information you provided and compare it to our records of bidding
patterns and other activity involving the reported accounts. We will
take appropriate action (such as a warning or account suspension)
against the involved accounts to ensure eBay remains a safe and
reputable place to shop.
Please understand also that there are certain policies and procedures
framed by eBay which we have to abide by. Due to eBays privacy policy,
we can't share details of the action we take. "
Well I checked both Ebay members after I received the second response from Ebay. Both were still trading with no sign of any suspension. Is it any wonder that people don't have faith in Ebay's stance against crooks when their privacy policy effectively gives a perfect smoke screen for crooks to operate behind?
Ebay does my head in but I can't live without it :bang:
[/RANT]
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