Has anyone else had a problem with fake bidders on ebay lately? We had an item for sale this past week and it turns out the 'winner' was not real. We emailed them and got no response.

It's so annoying and I don't see the point of it?

Arse holes - whoever they are

yeah i have had a few over the past couple of weeks

then a few days after the auction, you get an email from ebay saying that the account has been compromised and is being returned to its owner

sale is cancelled


Thats really annoying too, as you have to then relist the item

Is there a way you can block the obvious fake bids? The bidder had only joined about 3 days ago and had zero rating.
Like you say, we'll have to relist it now

Is there a way you can block the obvious fake bids? The bidder had only joined about 3 days ago and had zero rating.
Like you say, we'll have to relist it now

Is there a way you can block the obvious fake bids? The bidder had only joined about 3 days ago and had zero rating.
Like you say, we'll have to relist it now

I have always assumed that they are either the seller or the seller's friend and are bumping the price up in the hope that a genuine buyer will pay more than they would have.I don't think there is any way of blocking them so either the real buyer loses as they pay more (but the seller also gets more) or the seller because the item has not sold.Most annoying.

That's called shill bidding which is also a problem.

I won something on eBay last week and the seller obviously wasn't happy with what it went for as they contacted me and said the item was sold else where.

Elizabeth, I block everyone from my auctions and buy it now items.

You need to block people with negative or zero feedback

Block those with no credit card on file

Block those with no PayPal account

Block those who have had any non payment strikes

Block those in areas you won't deliver too

It will filter all the idiots out.

There's only one way I know to avoid becoming a victim of shill bidding. When you've identified something you'd like to buy at auction, think of the absolute maximum you are prepared to pay for it. Keep your proverbial powder dry and WAIT UNTIL THE VERY LAST MOMENTS OF THE AUCTION before you bid your full amount. If you put a speculative bid in early then you're giving an opportunity for shill bidders, (and genuine ones too), to take little pot shots at your highest bid, slowly bumping up the price of the item.

Genuine little bid patterns should make a seller optimistic because this indicates more than one person taking a kind of mental ownership of the item before the end of the auction, which moreoften than not will net you a higher finishing price than a couple of big bidders.

If you're a seller, none of that's useful when trying to avoid non-paying bidders, only do what Ste said and I also always report them to ebay.

That's how I always bid on an item shambo due to the amount of shill bidding that goes on at the moment.

Also if you look at the bids that are taking place and click on a bidder it will show you their bid status and the amount of activity they have had with the seller (marked as bid activity with this seller as a percentage) if you smell a rat steer clear.

Also as shambo states try not to show any interest in an item ie: asking seller to sell off auction or telling them your interested as that will more than likely cause shill bidding too.

No doubt about only making a bid in the last few seconds.It ensures that you have put in the most you want to pay and that you cannot be tempted to go higher to beat another bid.It also give probably no time at all to be gazumped apart of course from those who put in a high bid early on which you have no way of knowing.

I use a sniping site to place a last few seconds bid.

i've had a few non-payments lately, my girlfriend has too, even 2nd chance offers go untaken...

Same here, sent an email to the second chance bidder, and lo and behold they also have not responded.

When it was first posted for sale all seemed genuine, we had a couple of messages from people nearby asking about it, then all went apesh*t with these ridiculous bids closer to the closing date.

I think I might just stick up an advert in the local supermarket on their 'local items for sale board' instead.