Defaulting seller/hoax ids in auctions

[psswaroop]

I have noticed this for sometime now. Many of the so called auction items have hoax buyers who bid. The purpose of hoax ids is hike the bid price say from Re.1. The id's are created almost near to the ending of the auction. This is being used by many sellers on high cost electronics like cameras and cellphones. The moment the sellers realise the auction is falling sort of their expected price, they automaticaly scaling up the bids by a fake id.

Could ebay insure such lapses of buyer interest.

[sapana@ebay.com]

Hi psswaroop,

First of all let me allow to assure you that eBay does not take such sellers lightly. We continuously work at the backend to identify sellers who indulge in shill bidding (bidding to increase price of own auction), and warn/suspend such sellers.

While it might not be possible to catch such sellers in their first attempt of shill bidding, they normally get caught slowly. However, if you ever feel that a seller is indulging in shill bidding, please report the seller by clicking on 'Report item link' at bottom of every item page. This will help eBay to monitor and take appropriate action agasint such sellers.

Thanks and Regards,
Sapana