From: Glenn Shaw (mpmutt@mtaofnj.us)
Date: Wed Jul 21 2004 - 10:40:00 PDT
Hi Steve
I got ya.
Tnx
Glenn
-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Grammont [mailto:islander@midmaine.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2004 12:59 PM
To: Military Vehicles Mailing List
Subject: Re: [MV] Mildoc Paypal and Ebay string
>Hi Steve
>How can you tell FOR SURE if a bid is a shill? I think that may have
>happened to me before. I wondered why the seller just didn't put a
>higher starting price in the first place. I was guessing it was but
>did not have any PROOF to give Ebay.
I manage a BBS with 15,000 members and we are very often able to tell
when people are posting with multiple accounts or are trying to come
back after being banned. You can bet your last dollar that eBay has
even more tools at their disposal than we have. They have access to all
account information. For example, if they check two accounts and find
they use the same credit card number, paypal account, deliverable
address, etc. that is enough right there. I;m sure there are more
subtle signs as well.
In my case it was a Dutch Auction for 2 items. The value of these
things is about $100 each. I had bid on one and someone else had bid on
the other. Price was something like $65. Someone comes along and
outbids us by about $150. If you know how Dutch Auctions work this is a
big tip off right there. The bidder had only a few bids to his name and
all were WWII Russian stuff (the auction was for 1980s Hungarian). Then
that one was disallowed. Then right before the auction another bidder
put in a bid for $200 some odd dollars for BOTH of them. That means if
the guy was legit he just paid $400 for something that is at most worth
$200
*and* it was roughly $280 more than the current bidding. Either he is
the biggest fool ever (possible), or he was a shill. Profile of the
successful bidder? A few bids to his name for WWII Russian stuff.
Gee... what a coincidence!
It is very hard to tell shills from real bidders. But this was so
blatant. And eBay never, ever responded. IIRC I even sent a follow up
email and got nothing back from that either. THEY JUST DON'T CARE
because that takes time, and time is money.
Steve
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