On Jan 28, 8:09 am, "Bignose Bernie the Bagelman"
wrote:
Revealed: How eBay sellers fix auctions

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspap...570050,00.html

Recorded excerpts of meetings with Paraskevaides

CUSTOMERS of the internet auction site eBay are being defrauded by
unscrupulous dealers who secretly bid up the price of items on sale to
boost profits. An investigation by The Sunday Times has indicated that
the practice of artificially driving up prices - known as shill
bidding - is widespread across the site.

Last week one of the UK's biggest eBay sellers admitted in a taped
conversation with an undercover reporter that he was prepared to use
business associates to bid on his goods for him. Our inquiries found
evidence that a number of businesses - ranging from overseas property
agencies to car dealerships - have placed bids on their own items
using fake identities. The cases raise questions about whether eBay,
the world's biggest auction site, is doing enough to protect
consumers.

Shill bidding is against eBay rules and is illegal under the 2006
Fraud Act. However, the resulting higher prices on the site boost the
value of eBay's share of the sales.

Last November eBay changed its rules to conceal bidders' identity -
making it even more difficult for customers to see whether sellers are
bidding on their own lots. Since its launch seven years ago, eBay's UK
website has attracted more than 15m customers. It sells more than 10m
items at any given time. One of the beneficiaries of the boom is Eftis
Paraskevaides, a former gynaecologist, from Cambridgeshire. He has
become a "Titanium PowerSeller" - one of eBay's handful of top earners
- selling more than £1.4m worth of antiquities a year on the site.

In a conversation with an undercover reporter last week, Paraskevaides
claimed shill bidding was commonplace on eBay. When the reporter asked
whether he arranged for associates to bid on his own items, he
replied: "Well, if I put something really expensive (up for sale) and
I was concerned that it was going for nothing, I would phone a friend
of mine, even a client of mine who buys from me, and say: For Christ's
sake, I sell you 100 quids' worth of items a week . . . just put two
grand on it, will you?" The reporter was posing as a seller of
valuable antiquities. He inquired whether Paraskevaides could sell
them on eBay and guarantee a minimum price. He replied: "Leave it to
me (laughs). Don't call it shill bidding. Then I won't be accused of
shill bidding. Yes. I mean - I've got people. "I've got some of my big
clients who buy big items off me, I look after them. So I can get on
the phone to America and say: Mr XXXX . . . you're a multi-
millionaire. You buy a hundred grand's worth off me a year. Do me a
favour would you. Just put - yeah. Exactly." He claimed eBay would
never follow up a complaint against him for shill bidding because he
generated about £15,000 a month in commission for the company. "Are
they going to ban somebody who's making them the best part of 15 grand
a month? No," he said.

After being told that he had been talking to an undercover reporter,
Paraskevaides denied that he had ever shill bidded on eBay and claimed
he was talking about clients who sometimes bid on expensive items if
they wished to protect the price. However The Sunday Times discovered
businesses that have been bidding on their own items. One leading
dealer from London admitted last week that that he had shill bidded in
the past.

A spokesman for eBay said he expected that the company would now
launch an investigation into Paraskevaides. Anyone caught shill
bidding risks a permanent ban. The spokesman added: "The change to the
way bidder IDs are shown has already resulted in a safer environment
for users."



I guess I'm not surprised - shills have been a part of Ebay since the
early days. It is so easy for an unscrupulous seller to set up fake
bidder ID's, or to just call a few buddies who will cross bid on one
anothers auctions. And now Ebay has made fraudulent bidding even
easier by hiding id's. Apparently Ebay is rolling out another
improvement that hides bidder id's and bidding history.