eBay Warning

[O L Leigh]

Hi All,

At the risk of getting slapped wrists from a Mod, I wanted to report a bad experience on eBay so that others may be aware.

I was involved in an auction for a Bachmann Class 20 which I duly won. However, following the closing date of the auction it has emerged that I have been victim of Shill Bidding (this is where another bidder linked to the seller bids against you for the purpose of artificially inflating the final price, in my case a family member) and ended up paying £17 more than I should. Thankfully eBay have agreed with me and taken action against the seller. However, it appears that the seller has simply moved all outstanding auctions onto another account dormant since 2008 and is continuing to trade.

I'm not going to publicly name and shame the seller, but anyone thinking of purchasing a Bachmann Class 20 from eBay needs to be very careful. This seller majors in these items, usually ex-DCC sound models, together with back-issues of Traction magazine.

Please be aware.

O L Leigh

 

[yorkie]

Sorry to hear that. How did you find out? (If you can't answer it publicly without revealing too much, feel free to send a PM).

 

[O L Leigh]

The matter came to light as a result of scrutinising the bid history.

With about a minute and a half left to run on the auction and with the highest bid with me at £33.00, a higher bid was entered which had the effect of exposing my maximum bid of £50.00. This higher bid was then immediately retracted without explanation and new bid entered just 25p lower than my maximum thereby ensuring that I held the winning bid at my maximum amount. With still a minute to run on the auction no further bids were submitted and I duly won having to pay my maximum, so clearly this person was not interested in actually winning the auction.

With bidder details masked I complained to eBay initially about an invalid bid retraction. They denied that this had happened but did at least give the bidder's username. I then received an e-mail from the seller via Paypal giving delivery and contact details. Both of these identities had an identical format and family name with two initials, the same (relatively uncommon) surname and the same three digit number, and both were shown as coming from the same county. At this point I decided to do a bit more research on the internet and discovered that these persons had to be linked because the only listings I could find for this name in this county were all centred around one small village (it's amazing the tools you can find online). I then presented this information to eBay and complained of Shill Bidding, a complaint that was upheld.

Having now taken delivery of the loco I was horrified to discover that the sender's details were not what I expected, but was actually the SAME as the bidder I was up against. But I was also surprised to see all the seller's other items listed again against a different username, hence my warning.

O L Leigh

 

[transportphoto]

Hi,

How much did you pay for it after e-bay upheld the complaint? (compared to your max £50.00?) What was your initial bid?

Thanks

 

[O L Leigh]

The cost of the item is not changed as a result of the investigation. You can choose not to continue with the purchase but, being a trusting fool, I'd already paid before the extent of the scam had fully come to light.

To add insult to injury, I have just now examined the loco and found it was not as described. Instead of being new it showed clear signs of use (the bottoms of the bogies were slick with oil) and there are parts missing from inside a very tired box.

Enough is enough. It's going back.

O L Leigh

 

[142094]

One of the main problems with shill bidding is that when it is done right (even though it isn't), it is very hard to detect. In mos cases you'll never know and the price will rise by only a few quid, but in your case it seems they were being stupid (related to one another) and greedy.

 

[deltic1989]

After reading your posts I fear that I may have been a victim of a similar scam that may have been orcestrated in the same way as the one against you. This was a few years ago though and I doubt that Ebay will be interested in investigating. My problem was with a Hornby "Flying Scotsman" model which again was not as discribed when it arrived, I reported this to ebay and it seemed that the seller had totally disapeared. I think the moral of this story is that you sould be very careful when buying on ebay and only buy from sellers with good feedback.

 

[colpepper]

I'm wary of items with one bid, especially if that first bid is a substantial one. It's safe to assume the item is being bump started to attract interest.

 

[Wigan Wanderer]

You also need to be very wary if you're a seller. A couple of years ago I sold a 'oo' model on ebay. The buyer didn't pay so I sent a couple of polite reminders which got no response. Eventually I lodged a dispute with ebay for non payment, in order to recoupe my sellers fees. I got an email from the buyer almost immediately, saying he had sent payment and if I didn't post the item to an address he gave then I'd get negative feedback.

I tried to ring him on the phone number given on his account but it was bogus. I then used the electoral roll and got in touch with the people at his account address and they had never heard of him.

He only had one feedback but I managed to get in touch with the person he had bought the other item off and heard a similar story, but he was able to give me this guy's true name to go with this alternative address.

I did some more research and found an article on the net about this same guy who had apparantly been involved in fraud previously. He'd bought a load of stuff on ebay, paid by paypal, then said he'd never received it so got a refund off paypal. He then had another account set up where he sold it all on again! It was mostly 'oo' gauge models, which is why the previous post reminded me of it.

So my advice is if the buyer has little or poor feedback always send by registered post, and if the buyer asks you to send the item to a different name and address to that shown on his account then be suspicious, and of course don't send items until they're paid for.

I sent all the details to ebay and got a standard computer generated email response. This guy's account was eventually closed down about a month later, however it wouldn't surprise me if he's still out there with another account.