so how does ebay prevent people from registering under two accounts and inflating their own auctions?

[holden j caufield]

so I've had my eye on this one item and according to the page hit counter only like 4 people have looked although that really isn't a true measure. But the item is only useful to mechanical inclined people who might want to try and fix it, ie. useless to a good majority. Anyways it was like at 1 dollar for about 5 days and it ends 2:00 am PST. Not many people on the west coast will be awake at that time and not many on the east either. So then all of a sudden it gets one big bid (but not so big that I won't try to beat it) which I know isn't a snipe because it's about 1.5 hours too early and the emails of the seller and bidder are similar like Qwert_Asdf@yahoo and Uiop_Hjkl@yahoo, basically the same format but this isn't grounds to accuse anyone plus it's maybe just that the seller and the bidder happen to be programmers. But do they safeguard against this

 

[dabuddha]

sadly they dont

 

[BillGates]

They might have something that watches for IPs that put up the auction and then monitor IPs that bid on the auctions - but that would be a lot of work.

I have heard of people who have gotten busted before, so there must be some system in place.

 

[SaintGRW]

I wasn't even aware ebay allowed people to create accounts with yahoo/hotmail e-mails i thought it was required you have an e-mail from like aol.com or a service provider one..i must be wrong, but even if they do trace ip's it doesn't matter what you do, they can just have a friend bid on it...

 

[Murpheeee]

If I remember correctly....you can use a yahoo/hotmail address so long as you register a credit card

 

[ICantAffordIt]

I'm pretty sure that's called shill bidding, and they do try to protect against it...
What you need to do is look at any other auctions this guy has done and see if the same bidder shows up on other auctions towards the end. If so, contact eBay and let them know. That is how these people are found.

 

[XZeroII]

I've noticed that buying electronics on ebay is dangerous because it can very easily be defective. That's why I don't buy stuff on eBay, it's just too easy to get ripped off. For other stuff, people can very easily send you something that doesn't work, or it only partially works. It's not worth the headaches to me. Too much worrying about stuff like what you are asking too. Worrying about actually recieving the item, or having the person pull the item at the last minute because they didn't get enough money, etc..

 

[tk149]

Originally posted by: SaintGRW
I wasn't even aware ebay allowed people to create accounts with yahoo/hotmail e-mails i thought it was required you have an e-mail from like aol.com or a service provider one..i must be wrong, but even if they do trace ip's it doesn't matter what you do, they can just have a friend bid on it...

My ebay account is registered using a Yahoo email address.

 

[PsychoAndy]

They cant reinforce their "legally binding" bids. what makes you think they're gonna track IP's?

-PAB

 

[edro]

I don't really see a problem with it. If the buyer is willing to go that high, then let him. It is funny when the seller bids high at the last few moments and the high bidder backs down.... Haha. Then they gotta repost it!

I haven't seen too many poeple signing up under a few different account, but I have seen a LOT of groups of friends doing it. "Hey John, bid on my item #1273462334" (OF COURSE, I woul never do something like that )