An eBay seller may be fined up to £50,000 for shill bidding on his own auctions, reports The Sun. In the first case of its kind, the 39 year old Co. Durham man was found guilty of ten offences against consumer protection laws, each of which could earn him a fine of up to £5,000. He told the court that he hadn’t known he was doing anything wrong: “I realised the price was too low on some things and put the prices up using the second account.”
The shill bidding was uncovered when Trading Standards Officers investigated a minibus he had sold with incorrect mileage. Rather than “gushing feedback”, as The Sun has it, the four positive feedbacks he left for his own selling ID – variants on “thanks very much” – look rather sad now: at £12,500 each, it’s an expensive way to buy feedback.
Both his and accounts have been NARUed (suspended) by eBay.
20 Responses
You mean eBay’s automated system for detecting shill bidding didn’t spot this?
They must have done, why else would his accounts be NARU?
Hang on, the selling account has been active until the last few days!!!
Shouldn’t eBay be legally required to report suspected offences?
Good old eBay, always out for No.1.
And of course eBay made it much harder to spot shill bidding when they introduced bidder anonimity. Trading standards should investigate eBay’s systems as it could be argued in law that eBay are implicated and duplicite in this crime as a result of the bidder anonimity changes they have made to their trading platform.
shouldn’t the title be..
Stupid eBay seller convicted of shill bidding
???
Is this a case of irony?
shanCONpaul
Or foretelling?
Paul – “Latin origin, and its meaning is “small””
Shan – “Gaelic origin, and its meaning is “old””
Small Old Con ……
/*
“You picked his pockets without actually stealing anything. Cool.”
Parker, Leverage
goes on all the time in real world auctions,
though on ebay it should be a crime subject to the death penalty, as it can do more harm than volcanic ash to buyers/ bidders confidence
Lets not forget that eBay used to advise you to shill bid!
Stanly co Durham is a strange tribal place
until recently they still ate visitors
Between Crook and Stanley…is Stanley Crook.
they put a lot of thought into place names up there huh?