CAP071

Ebay Sellers Fined for Phony Bid-Boosting

Eight Ebay sellers have been ordered to pay about $90,000 in fines and restitution after falsely inflating the prices of items they had up for auction.
The sellers on Ebay bid on their own stuff, to drive up the prices so items sold for thousands of dollars more than they were worth.

The buyers took their suspicions to court.

The cases were the result of specific complaints, not a broad investigation, so the New York attorney general's office says there's no telling how much phony bidding goes on on Ebay

open87

iTrader: (2)

hey capo , i checked my ebay last night and someone jacked my account i feel so violated. seems now i am in the heavy equipment business emailed all the bidders saying "account hi jacked / stolen item". alot of crooks on ebay ,a few bad apples f'n it up so this seems fitting

David

I suspected a scam one time, as well. I wanted to bid on an item that started at $1.00. I looked at the item 1 day later, there was 1 bid, and the price was up to $800.00. With 1 bid, it should have only gone up to $2.00, or so, regardless of what the bidder offers.

dreamer

the seller sometimes out bid you to see how much youll pay then e mail you a second chance offer for some reason like winning bidder bows out

robyw1

That's odd. He must have revised the starting price before a bid was posted. Then maybe someone or him actually bid on it at $800

Roby

David

The starting price was still at $1.00. I have bid on items before, and the current price stays the minimum bid amount above the current price till someone else bids. If the start price is $1.00, and minimum bid is $5.00, even if you bid $1000.00, the current price would be $6.00 till someone else bids. There was only 1 bid, which made me suspicious.

LivinVIP

Hi David,

Unless you hit the "reserve" then it will shoot up to that price.
If there is no reserve it is a scam.

VIP