This eBay mistake can cost you dearly
The temptation is great: if your own eBay auction isn’t gaining momentum, simply use a second account to drive up the bids. But that can have bad consequences, as Stiftung Warentest warns.
Meaningful description, beautiful pictures, realistic starting price – and still nothing happens. Sometimes eBay is bewitched. When the bids for their own auction come in at a snail’s pace, many people are tempted to create a second account and thus drive the bids up a bit. The Stiftung Warentest advises against this in clear words.
Shill bidding on eBay: Stiftung Warentest warns against bidding
Because this so-called “shill bidding” can also backfire properly, as court rulings show. There is an old scam behind the term: Decoy Deals. With a second account or with the help of friends, the creator of an auction tries to to push the bids up.
That this bid-busting anything but a trivial offense is shown by two court decisions. In both cases, the competent court considered it proven that the auctioneer had submitted bogus bids either himself with a second account or through a friend. According to the court, the seller wanted to use this scam either to drive up the price or to prevent the sale at what he considered to be an insufficient price (source: Stiftung Warentest).
These eBay tips are guaranteed safe:
In extreme cases, anyone caught may have to pay damages
In both cases the auctioneer had to pay a lot of damages – namely to the bidder who last submitted the highest bid and thus actually bought the goods. In the first case, the bidder had to pay more than 7,400 euros in damages, in the second case it was even higher over 16,000 euros.
When asked by Stiftung Warentest, eBay explained that the auction platform Do not bring shill bidding cases to criminal charges yourself – This way is open to damaged eBay users. However, auction organizers who are caught bid-driving are threatened with exclusion from eBay.
The following therefore applies to eBay users: Even if the temptation is great, stay away from shill bidding. Rather take a realistic starting price that you can live with in extreme cases if the bids don’t come in as hoped.
