Details:
Normally, on eBay, the process works like this:
- You place a max bid for the item.
Say the item is an antique vase. You like it, think
its worth $100. Bidding opens at $2. You place a bid of $100. eBay gives you the
opening bid at $2. You are protected up to $100.
- Another bidder. Bidder 2 comes along and he wants the vase for
$50., so he bids that amount. Bidder 1 is still the high
bidder, at $55 ($50 + $5 increment). So Bidder 2
comes back and bids again, this time at $105. Viola!
Bidder 2 is now winning at $105 (he met your high
bid of $100 + the $5 increment.
- More bids. Bidder 3 thinks the vase is worth $125, and bids
that amount. He becomes high bidder with a price
of $110. Bidder 4 thinks the vase is worth $130,
and becomes high bidder posting that amount. The
auction continues in this way until the end. Usually, in
the last minutes, the bidding gets very heated, and
the vase may end up selling for $600., which is close
to what your local antique shop might charge.
This is how the scam works:
- Same vase, opens at $2. Only this time, Bidder 1
bids $1000. The opening bid still shows only $2. He
immediately follows with a false identity Bidder 2, at
$990. Bidder 1 becomes high bidder at $995. Since
this is more than you can get a similar product locally,
and in a price range the average user is not going to
spend lightly, there are no other bidders.
- Scam complete. 15 seconds before the auction ends,
Bidder 2 rescinds his bid, the "high" price drops back to
the opening bid of $2, and Bidder 1 wins at that amount.
Unless the seller has a substantial reserve to protect his
investment (which is discouraged by eBay) he will be
obligated to sell the vase for $2. If he does have a reserve,
he doesn't have to sell, but he still owes eBay posting fees
and the auction was a waste for him. For those of you who
will say that the seller is not obligated to sell -- two things:
- Seller must first be aware he was scammed.
- Seller will likely end up getting neg feedback from scammer if he does not sell!
Of course, this is over simplified. yabe6 (the guy who scammed me) was clearly not
GOOD at what he was doing, otherwise I wouldn't have
caught him. A smarter scam artist would push the bids
up less obviously, and use more than one false bidder.
eBay's solution of removing the offending user is silly -
they operate off email aliases anyway, they just move to
another and continue. Scammers don't have to win ALL
the time, but when they do, they strike gold.
Back | Continue to Page Three (examples)
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