So what's going on here?

Same zero-feedback buyer bidding a silly sum on this old KH250:

4503605882

And this (rather nice) Suzuki X5

4503614370

And this Yamaha scooter....

4503583736

And this old Vespa

4503612126

And this scooter

4503608103

And this trials bike lighting kit (nt the bike, just the lights)

4502702584

And this Yamaha XV535

4502692646

And this kart

4503621301

And he's been bidding on the PW80, which is now at nearly 30 grand.

.....and probably dozens more.

I see from bid history that oboma123 is part of the bidding ring - he
bid on the X5 and is, at the time of writing, high bidder on this old
Gold Wing:

4502706438
So what's going on? Can't be a scam. Just some timewasting twat(s)???

 

Mark Olson wrote:

No, I was simply looking at the list of bikes for sale and these wildly
overpriced ones jumped off the page at me.

They're all timing out one after another, too.

I still can't figure out what the idiots are trying to achieve. Just
random spoiling of auctions?

 

Yes you can by doing an advanced search for bidders username...

Jo

 

Hi,

I've noticed a lot of items (not just these) getting idiotic bids. It
happens in the area of specialist or cult items like the vaio picture
book.

I wondered whether it happens more in the areas where there is greater
criminal activity. I know the area of Vaio picturebooks has been hit
hard by fraudsters.

I also wondered if it was a way of destroying legitimate auctions to
clear the way for illigitimate ones OR to damage the pricing market so
that scammers can frustrate sellers into letting them go cheap?

Of course there are the more sad senarious like bids from people with
mental disorders (highs in manic depression can sometimes induce
unrealist activity) or people drunk and pissing around.

I wouldn't be against eBay capping the amount first time bidders could
bid. Means that to get an item they want they would first have to bid
on something smaller but that I geuess would just induce feedback
buying

Hohum.. Kind of makes me glad I don't sell things...


Pete

 

Wonder if this is an anarchic attack for all those "will not post to
Singapore" signs we see........

Is there not a way of blocking buyers from outside of your sale zone
from entering a bid?


Pete

 

Yeah. I always keep track of my stuff, but then I've got access at work
and home. Anything like this and I'd simply block bidders, but I guess
not everyone can access their Ebay pages at work.

I had one last week - FB of about 76%: three negs and seven positives.
I politely told him I'd be cancelling his bids unless he could provide
decent contact details. Never got a peep out of him.

This was silly, really. I might have had a bid at that little Suzuki X5
myself, but not at 15 grand or whatever the tits had bid it up to...

 

"Are from countries to which I don't post."

Cheers Gizmo.

Pete

 

There are third party tools which will scan your auctions and keep you
abreast of any dodgy goings on. MOOsell springs to mind. Link in the
FAQ in my .sig.

 

["Followup-To:" header set to uk.people.consumers.ebay.]
Pete was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

Well, I can't reply to TOG's original post as it appears that the
Goiman server has dropped his post...

Anyway, the pattern TOG describes (apart from the "silly sum" bit)
matches exactly what the scammer who won the auction for my MX-5
did. Zero-rated bidder, bidding on and winning 30-40 vehicles and then
sending out the usual "boys from Nigeria" emails. Only that he
probably was slightly more clever and used a sniping service or sniped
manually, as the bids only came in a couple of minutes before the
auction finished. Too late for me to cancel them, anyway...

It's probably also a way of destroying your competitor's auctions -
which I can see happening for sought-after items.

That's probably a bit harsh, but *some* way of not quite blocking low
feedback bidders would be nice. Along the lines of "require all
bidders up to 5 feedback to be pre-approved while others can just bid"
or something like this.

Well, it's kinda put me off sticking higher-value items on there for
the moment...

 

http://search.ebay.com/ws/search/AdvSearch?sofindtype=3