ebay question

06-07-2005, 16:11

at the risk of seeming nieve.
is it possible for someone to have two ebay accounts (user id's)at the same address thereby being able to run up the bids on an item the person has for sale.

regards
andy

**Chris** · 06-07-2005, 16:14

It would be technically possible, but against the site terms of use - and in a very short while, darned suspicious if it looked like the same person was bidding on everything you sell!

Jules · 06-07-2005, 16:14

As far as I am aware it is but if found out they are banned from Ebay for life.......but I may be wrong

STONEISLAND · 06-07-2005, 16:21

I was bidding on a camcord once I was out bided so I bided on anouther by the same seller and again out bided these where last min bids by me.
The next day I recived 2 email offering the price I bided on both camcords. Which tells me he had his mate doing it to starch
me as far as my cash would go!!!!

Florence · 06-07-2005, 16:27

Just don't buy from the second chance offers if you keep trying you will win one at a price you wish to pay

06-07-2005, 16:28

thanks for the replies guy's.
its just that i've just been outbid for something on ebay and the buyer lives in the same town as the seller.
both buyer and seller are experienced ebay users and the things that where bought today by the buyer were also bought by the buyer last month.
only last month the buyer payed 3.50p for two items,yet today he paid 21 pounds for the same items.

seems strange to me

andy

Dave Stones · 06-07-2005, 16:30

it's called shill bidding, and is wayyyy against the eBay T&C's...

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policie...l-bidding.html

06-07-2005, 16:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by whyme38

As far as I am aware it is but if found out they are banned from Ebay for life.......but I may be wrong

Perhaps, but eBay don't stop them setting up another account.

I remember a seller that was shill bidding on just about everything they sold. I noticed something was wrong when I'd bid on an item. Anyway - reported the seller and sure enough their account was closed within days.
Also within days, the same seller was back - I only knew because the location and goods for sale were the same. And the shill bidding was happening all over again. Reported the account and it was closed too.
Only for the seller to re-appear a few days later - slightly different location this time (i.e. county instead of town) but the same trademark goods for sale.
I did check it a few times, and it did appear that the seller had learnt their lesson, as there was no detectable shill bidding.

Caveat emptor, as the saying goes.

Halcyon · 06-07-2005, 17:11

It is possible as both me and my sister are registered at the same address.
If Ebay satch on to someone doing this they will probably get banned.
You could ask Ebay to check the IP being used to see if the bids come from the same machine.

06-07-2005, 19:50

As Dave Stones Said...

Not advisable....

Charlie_Bubble · 06-07-2005, 19:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by skunk4u

I was bidding on a camcord once I was out bided so I bided on anouther by the same seller and again out bided these where last min bids by me.
The next day I recived 2 email offering the price I bided on both camcords. Which tells me he had his mate doing it to starch
me as far as my cash would go!!!!

Not necessarily. A guy I worked with had a brother that bought things in bulk and sold them on ebay (adsl routers etc). He would put maybe 5 on there and then would offer others to losing bidders, because it saved him the fees to ebay.

Wicked_and_Crazy · 06-07-2005, 19:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Halcyon

You could ask Ebay to check the IP being used to see if the bids come from the same machine.

i sometimes place bids from work, where another 1000 people would be on the same ip address. So it is still possibly legit but unlikely

cookie_365 · 06-07-2005, 23:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlie_Bubble

Not necessarily. A guy I worked with had a brother that bought things in bulk and sold them on ebay (adsl routers etc). He would put maybe 5 on there and then would offer others to losing bidders, because it saved him the fees to ebay.

Isn't that also a breach of eBay rules?

Halcyon · 07-07-2005, 00:21

Yes it is a breach of ebay rules.
There is also no protection once the deals go through this way as there is no record on ebay of these deals taking place.

andygrif · 07-07-2005, 01:12

I was under the impression that you could have a number of IDs owned by th same person, definitely worth checking with eBay's T&Cs on this one.

Of course if you started bidding for your own stuff I think the alarm bells would be triggered fairly quickly. There are practical reasons for allowing this, such as a personal and a business account, two people at the same address, child bidding on a parent's card, etc etc etc.

Of course what you're talking about is someone fraudulently increasing the total amount. If you are in any doubt, ask eBay to investiagte. This is one of the things they take quite seriously.