Bid Shilling

Caroline · Post by **Caroline** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 6:30 pm

So today, some horribly angry bidder contacted me, accusing me of "bid shilling"(which, by the way, i had never heard of before then... because i am a good girl!) Anyways, they reported me to eBay and I'm waiting for the whole thing to just blow over, since it is obviously untrue.

BUT Is there a chance that my account will be suspended anyway? Has this ever happened to anyone?

*paranoid...*

And this week was going so well...

Ronin · Post by **Ronin** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 6:34 pm

What the heck is Bid Shilling?

Nene · Post by **Nene** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 6:35 pm

If Ebay can't find any evidence of you shilling, they won't do anything. I wouldn't get worried over it personally. Evidence might include both accounts having the same IP address but if they can clearly see that it was a completely different person bidding on your auctions, they won't do anything.

SME · Post by **SME** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 6:39 pm

Wow Caroline, I'm sorry that happened to you! I have heard of bid shilling before, and I have heard of people getting their Ebay accounts suspended. I'm not sure how the entire process goes, but I think if someone tracks auctions by the same sellers and sees the same people 'bidding' on it but not winning, then it's probably bid shilling. But you have to have proof of it occuring, so I don't think you have anything to worry about.

HOWEVER, I and a bunch of others believe this is occuring right now on some Sailor Moon auctions, and this looks like a case of bid shilling. The one thing about Ebay is that they can track on what people have been bidding on (the Ebay.com bidder list) and if they see a frequent 'bidder' bidding up auctions but mysteriously not winning, then it can be reported as bid shilling. I'm watching this person however, b/c in no way should one of the auction's prices be as high as it is.

RalphVboy · Post by **RalphVboy** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 6:40 pm

Ronin wrote:What the heck is Bid Shilling?

Bid shilling is when a seller has an auction and goes into another username to bid on their own auction to drive up the final price.

- RalphVboy

SME · Post by **SME** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 6:41 pm

RalphVboy wrote:
Ronin wrote:What the heck is Bid Shilling?
Bid shilling is when a seller has an auction and goes into another username to bid on their own auction to drive up the final price.

- RalphVboy

Or when they have their 'friends' or people they know raise the bid up purposely for more profit. Just thought I'd add a little more to your definition.

Caroline · Post by **Caroline** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 6:43 pm

SME wrote:Wow Caroline, I'm sorry that happened to you! I have heard of bid shilling before, and I have heard of people getting their Ebay accounts suspended. I'm not sure how the entire process goes, but I think if someone tracks auctions by the same sellers and sees the same people 'bidding' on it but not winning, then it's probably bid shilling.

Well, the person who contacted me pointed out that one or more bidders with (0) feedbacks have registered in the past week, and are making multiple small bids on one of my auctions. The truth is, I don't know the bidder(s), and I am hoping that if they win the auction, they were certainly pay for it! (0) feedback bidders make me nervous!

Ronin · Post by **Ronin** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 6:43 pm

RalphVboy wrote:
Ronin wrote:What the heck is Bid Shilling?
Bid shilling is when a seller has an auction and goes into another username to bid on their own auction to drive up the final price.

- RalphVboy

Ohhh, I seee..thanks for that! I dunno where all these stupid terms come from, but I wouldn't worry about it Caroline, eBay are probably more interested in you listing items, giving them more money.

irmgaard · Post by **irmgaard** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 6:48 pm

Ronin wrote:What the heck is Bid Shilling?

definition:

shill

n : a decoy who acts as an enthusiastic customer in order to stimulate the participation of others v : act as a shill; "The shill bid for the expensive carpet during the auction in order to drive the price up"

Source: WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University

They don't need to have matching ISPs to find evidence of collusion. Have you ever made a post asking for a party not interested in an item to help you bid up its price? It doesn't have to be the seller him or herself.

Caroline · Post by **Caroline** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 6:52 pm

Have you ever made a post asking for a party not interested in an item to help you bid up its price? It doesn't have to be the seller his or herself.

Nope! The only thing I can think of that I've done is promote items to people that may be interested in it (ie. www.myspace.com). I don't know *any* of the bidders on the auction.

But promotion isn't againt the rules, that I know of....

Nene · Post by **Nene** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 7:21 pm

Caroline wrote:Well, the person who contacted me pointed out that one or more bidders with (0) feedbacks have registered in the past week, and are making multiple small bids on one of my auctions. The truth is, I don't know the bidder(s), and I am hoping that if they win the auction, they were certainly pay for it! (0) feedback bidders make me nervous!

If those bidders have only bid on that one cel and nothing else of yours, I can't see how that would be enough evidence for Ebay to come to the conclusion of shilling. It's perfectly natural for new users to sign up once they see something they want to bid on. Plus it's obvious you own none of those usernames. Don't let that angry bidder get to you. ^_^

wELCOME cONSUMER · Post by **wELCOME cONSUMER** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 8:18 pm

I am guessing that someone does not like you personally and is trying to threaten you via eBay. Or, it is a random jerk. It happens sometimes, so don't be too worried about it. Like the others have said, you did nothing wrong and the evidence speaks for that.

Shill bidding is whenever the price for an auction is articially raised by any disinterested party, whether as a "favor" to the seller or merely as revenge against another buyer. Without actual intent of purchase, a bid can be considered a "shill bid" or "shield bid." Any bid higher than the buyer is actually willing to pay is also considered the same. This practice is, of course, illegal. Here is more information...

Shills, or "potted plants", are frequently employed in auctions. Driving prices up with phony bids, they seek to provoke a bidding war among other participants. Often they are told by the seller precisely how high to bid, as the seller actually pays the price (to himself, of course) if the item does not sell, losing only the auction fees.

Shilling is an even larger problem in online auctions, where any user with multiple accounts (and IP addresses) can shill without aid of participants. Many online auction sites employ sophisticated (and usually secret) methods to detect collusion, and a number of people have been sent to jail for online auction fraud in the past decade.

A common shilling tactic is to have two shills. The first is a young child who offers a low bid for a moderately-priced item. Other auction participants will be reluctant to outbid him. The second shill is an ill-mannered and usually overweight man who does just that—he outbids the kid, who starts crying. In theory, this should provoke other auction participants to outbid the man solely for the sake of beating him; by bidding well beyond the item's value, he can artificially increase prices. (hahahahaha

)

This practice is illegal in virtually all jurisdictions.

Caroline · Post by **Caroline** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 8:34 pm

gahhhh well i'm not a fat man, and im not worried about serving jail time... so i have that going for me! *phew*

wELCOME cONSUMER · Post by **wELCOME cONSUMER** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 11:00 pm

I thought that might catch your attention!

I don't think there is anything to worry about. It's just an annoyance.