Topic: Ebay bid redrawl scam

[johnny-from-bel]

This was on TV last night. The ebay bid redrawl scam. This is how it works. The scammers make 3 independent ebay accounts A, B and C.

A makes a low bid early in the auction.
B makes a high bid, usualy above the newprice
C makes an even higher bid. This is to put off any potential bidders.


Bids B and C are there to hide bid A.

In the last minutes of the auction bids B and C are withdrawn making bid A the (low) highesd bidder.

So I you have something to sell on ebay beware.

[nickjtc]

The bid retraction rules are quite stringent

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/buy/questions/retract-bid.html

so I think someone would have to be really motivated to try it. Then again, for that must-have item perhaps the effort is worth it.

[johnny-from-bel]

The bid retraction rules are quite stringent

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/buy/questions/retract-bid.html

so I think someone would have to be really motivated to try it. Then again, for that must-have item perhaps the effort is worth it.

They actualy demonstrated it and bought a new laptop for 300 euros. It was dead easy. They confronted ebay germany with it and they said there was nothing they could do about it. Worst case the bogus accounts are deactivated.

[Gordon]

That's not really news, just typical T.V. sensationalism.  Can it happen?  Sure.  Does it happen often enough to really worry about?  No. 

A bid can only be retracted in the last hour of an auction if it was placed in the last hour, so the two scam bids would have to be placed in the last hour if they planned on retracting.  This would leave almost the entire duration of the auction for legitimate bidders to bid the item up to the current market value, thus nullifying Bidder "A"'s low-ball bid. 

[CrisPDuk]

Another method, using only two accounts, is to leave the high bid in play right through to the close, then let the low initial bid pick up the second chance offer

I've had somebody attempt this on me a couple of times