[Dunnymonster]

O.K. guys, as you know the question of "shill bidding" on E bay has been an issue that raised its head recently. However you feel about the practice personally, it would seem that both E bay and Trading Standards in the UK are looking to put a stop to it for good. A good thing in my opinion, although I fully understand why such activity takes place it is still technically fraudulent and if such a thing were done at an auction like Sotherbys it would be criminal. Needless to say E bay is an auction thus the same rules apply.

Anyway here is a newspaper clipping taken out of todays Daily Mirror newspaper here in the UK. As you can see from the fines being banded about it looks like anybody who engages in such activity would be wise to stop, after all if I can spot it as a casual observer, just think what information E bay has on every transaction bearing in mind they also own Paypal

[5'3_rmc_lover]

nice one dunny, the message is certainly strong about this sort of bidding

[Dunnymonster]

Yeah I think E bays poor reputation with regard to fakes being sold is giving them even greater incentive to give people who use it the confidence to buy items on E bay. Of course if potential buyers have no faith in the bidding system then ultimately nobody will use it and this will affect E bays profits. Clearly in this case it isnt simply an E bay in-house issue, trading standards themseves are getting involved, after all strict trading laws apply to legitimate businesses selling goods,so why shouldnt that be extended to private sellers too?

[Wez]

shit thats just scary lol

i never knew it was that serious in eyes of ebay etc .. might aswell just put reserve on items for extra cost instead of taking this big risk ..

[MartianMan#21]

good point Wez, 50,000 is a big ass fine!

[Gush]

yhh, no more shill bidding but i dont have a selling account !! . lool .. lets hope there are less fakes on ebay aswell !!