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: Rules & Safety (SafeHarbour) : Shill Bidding
Shill Bidding: What It Is and Why It's Not Permitted on eBay
Shill bidding undermines trust in our community and is not permitted on eBay.
In addition, shill bidding is considered a felony with severe consequences.
We want to ensure that all eBay users understand what shill bidding is, why eBay
treats it so seriously, what can happen if one engages in shill bidding, and ensure
that one does not unknowingly engage in the practice.
Q. What is shill bidding?
A. Shill bidding is the deliberate placing of bids to artificially raise
the price of an item and is not allowed. To avoid the appearance
of being involved this activity, family members and individuals living together, working
together or sharing a computer, should not bid on each other's items.
Q. Can my friends bid on my item?
A. If your friend sincerely intends to purchase your item, then her bids are
certainly allowed. Bidding on your item for the sole purpose of inflating the final bid
amount is forbidden.
Q. If I turn someone in for shill bidding, will they be suspended?
A. It depends on the situation. Many factors will be considered when determining
whether shill bidding has occurred. These factors are carefully weighed. In the end, only
bidders determined to be shills (based on the evidence) are suspended.
Q. Why are some reports of shill bidding to Safe Harbor not acted upon? Why are
reported shill bidders allowed to continue to do business on eBay?
A. Shill bidding reports received by SafeHarbor are investigated thoroughly.
Sometimes, what appears to be a shill bidding may actually be a legitimate bidding activity.
This can occur for a number of reasons, for example, a bidder may bid almost exclusively on
one or two sellers whom they have come to trust.
Q. I only bid on items listed by one specific seller; will I be considered a shill bidder?
A. In some cases, placing bids in only one seller's listings might raise
suspicions about whether or not you are a shill bidder (insincere bidder). However,
bidding on only one seller's listings is not the sole factor that eBay would use to
make a determination about the possibility of shill bidding.
Q. Why isn't a seller suspended permanently the first time shill bidding is discovered?
A. eBay recognizes that some people might not understand that shill bidding
is wrong and believes in educating members and providing them with a second chance.
This is why a temporary suspension is made. A temporary suspension is serious, and
sellers take it as such.
Q. What happens if the seller shill bids again after the temporary suspension?
A. If the shill bidding continues at any time after the temporary suspension
has ended, the shill bidder will be suspended from eBay indefinitely.
Q. What happens if the seller sets up new accounts after the other accounts are suspended?
A. Use of secondary registrations (new accounts) to avoid suspensions is
cause for indefinite suspension of all participating registrants.
Q. Is a seller allowed to have more than one registered eBay account?
A. Yes, a seller is permitted more than one eBay registration as long as
their reasons are legitimate. However, there should NEVER be any interaction (especially
in the areas of bidding or feedback) between the accounts, and all user information MUST
be accurate and consistent.
Q. Can sellers bid on their own listings?
A. Not any more. eBay originally allowed sellers to bid on their own listings
as a way to close their listing without selling to the highest bidder. Unfortunately,
this privilege was abused so it had to be eliminated. Now, bidding on your own item is
considered shill bidding and is not allowed.
Q. What if I need to end a listing early and it already has bids?
A. You can do it. When you want to end your listing because you've changed your
mind about selling an item, be sure to cancel all bids before you end it. If you don't cancel
all bids before ending your listing, you will be required to sell the item to the high bidder
when the listing closes.
Q. eBay appears to benefit from shill bidding so why does it care?
A. This violation creates a barrier to success since bidders hesitate to bid if
they suspect shill bidding. This leads to decreased bidding, decreased seller success, and,
ultimately, decreased success for eBay. Furthermore, it is unfair to our treasured community.
Thus, it is in the best interest of eBay and its community to prevent shill bidding.
Q. Changes to enhance privacy make it more difficult for me to detect potential shill bidding since I cannot easily see email addresses. How do I manage this?
A. The changes related to privacy, including limiting the visibility of email addresses
are essential to address a number of issues, e.g., spam, bid siphoning, and fee avoidance.
Although this will eliminate one community avenue for shill bidding detection, we believe that
this is the right move as we have implemented internal tools along with enhancements to Bid History
and Bidder Search to effectively address the concern.
Q. How exactly does Bid History and Bidder Search help?
A. The Bid History page provides a moment-by-moment view of the bidding and possible
retractions that take place in a transaction. This allows visibility to bidding patterns.
Patterns that suggest no advantage to the bidder but significantly increase the bidding price
of the listing may suggest shill bidding. Questionable patterns include multiple bids by a bidder
in short, deliberate intervals and bidding several times in small amounts even if not having been outbid.
Sample Scenarios:
- A member bids several times just under the highest bidder towards the end of a listing,
incrementing the final sale price by a dollar and retracting if he/she inadvertently bids
more than the high bidder.
- A member bidding 30 times or more even when there are no other bidders on the listing
(an attempt to create a Hot item).
The Bidder Search page allows you to view the Sellers of the items that a member has bid on.
Sorting this list by the Seller ID allows unusual patterns to be seen, for example, a member
who bids exclusively on a seller's items. Of course, there are cases where it may be
valid for a bidder to buy frequently from a particular seller. However, this is the
exception and SafeHarbor will be able to rule this out after analyzing the trading patterns
using internal tools.
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