A man who bid against himself on auction site eBay to artificially drive up prices has been fined almost £5,000 (approx $7,500), the first to be convicted of such a scam in UK.
The convicted man, Paul Barrett, who supplemented his income as a minibus driver using online auctions, will also have to do 250 hours of unpaid community work.
Originally convicted of the scam in April, Barrett was told he was being spared a jail sentence because the eBay fraud was a first offence.
Items put up in the so-called 'shill-bidding' fraud included two Mercedes vehicles, several mobile phones, a digital camera, and a cash register.
The fraud was basic by shill bidding standards, involving only two identities, 'paulthebusman and 'shanconpaul', which he used to bid against one another, even to the extent of sometimes winning his own auctions and leaving positive feedback.
The extent to which the fake bids drove up prices higher than would otherwise have been achieved was hard to factor, the court in Bradford heard.
"This sort of conduct strikes at the heart of that trust which is vital if this very, very useful commercial medium is to continue to operate successfully," said Judge Benson.
Comments
G. Barton said: I suspect this is the tip of the jolly old iceberg Have had some moody experiences on PayPal Nowadays I mostly use the Buy it now option
sandy7m - totally agree with y said: Before annonymous bidding it was very easy to spot shilling I now mainly use Buy it Now I have also been looking at the likes of PreLoved or similar websights which offer free advertising Example - sold my Vintage GT6 on CarsandClassics - bought from me for 3500 pounds - cost for the advert - ZERO Similar auction through Ebay would have cost somewhere in the region of 300 pounds Ebay are their own worst enemy - we pay for a secure trading environement but Ebay can only see ways of increasing their profits which opens the doors to conmen like this guy
PG said: It can work the other way A mate had a load of bids withdrawn on the last day bringing the price down to much lower than expected after earlier bidders had been scared off
Dragon said: The only way to completely avoid shill bidding is to use a sniper like Goofbay which places your bid in the last few seconds Then the shill bidders dont have time to start a bidding war I have saved hundreds of s this way Strangely enough the worst cases I have had of shill bidding have been on cheap garden plants and seeds starting at 99P
Henry Wood said: I stopped using eBay on a regular basis when they decided to hide bidders identities Before that it was quite easy to spot and report blatant shiling Perhaps eBay prefer the higher price shilling may leadt to Higher price - higher fees noI now only go there for buy it now stuff like birthday cards
Kevscar said: This has been going on for years with e-bay turbing a blind-eye same as with pirate sellersIs someone finally forcing e-bay to clean up its act
Judge?????? Benson said: This sort of conduct strikes at the heart of that trust which is vital if this very very useful commercial medium is to continue to operate successfullyThatll impress victims of violent crimeNo victims here - only mugs