Mach
10-01-2007, 06:23 PM
This is sorta old but I just saw this happen on an auction that I was watching. Basically, a shill bidder runs up the auction bidding, flushing out the maximum bid, then retracts his bid once he learns what the max is. He can then come in later as another user and bid $1 below the max bid to make sure the seller gets the maximum. Pretty sleazy.
If you see someone bumping the bids by $2-5 at a time and then retract, its likely a shill bidder.
Iraq Museum International explains how a "Sniper Trap" was used in the
online sale of a fake Mesopotamian artifact, costing the victim thousands of
dollars.
(PRWEB) August 13, 2005 -- While monitoring online auction sites for the
sale of illegal artifacts from Mesopotamia, Iraq Museum International
(http://www.BaghdadMuseum.org) discovered a way that bidders on eBay can
influence the highest bid and cheat other bidders.
Using an eBay listing and its bidding history, Iraq Museum International
demonstrates how a 4-step price-fixing process led to the online sale of a
fake "Sumerian Stone Statue of a Seated Male" on eBay for $3,726 on Monday,
August 1, 2005.
Dubbed the "Sniper Trap," the process can be executed on eBay from any
computer in the world and involves the following steps for any auction
listing on the site:
1. The seller and a second person posing as a bidder prepare to precisely
synchronize their keystrokes on two separate computers logged onto eBay.
2. In the final minute of bidding, the person posing as a bidder places an
extremely high bid on the item. This has the effect of triggering all
automatic bids set by any other bidder, instantly revealing his or her
secret maximum bid.
3. Meanwhile, the seller has filled out a bid cancellation form at eBay, and
is ready at the keyboard with a finger over the "Enter" key. Within the last
30 seconds of the electronic auction the seller presses the key, submitting
the form to automatically cancel the bid placed by the false bidder.
4. During the few seconds while the false bid was in play, other bidders
would be deceived by what they saw: a high bid placed by the false bidder
that was only a few dollars higher than the maximum set by the real high
bidder. Thus, the last-second bidder, or "sniper," would know that he or she
would have to bid over that amount in order to win the auction.
This method would account for higher-than-normal bids placed during the
final 30 seconds of an auction on eBay.
EBay is the Internet's largest auction site, with over 114 million
registered members worldwide.
Iraq Museum International is a volunteer organization created after the
looting of the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad. It seeks to accelerate the
recovery of Iraq's stolen treasures by bringing the rich history and
cultural heritage of Iraq to the world. It invites the active participation
of the Iraq reconstruction community as well as students, professors,
professionals and cultural enthusiasts from all countries. To see how a
variation of the "Sniper Trap" played out in eBay's antiquities market,
visit Iraq Museum International at http://www.BaghdadMuseum.org.
If you see someone bumping the bids by $2-5 at a time and then retract, its likely a shill bidder.
Iraq Museum International explains how a "Sniper Trap" was used in the
online sale of a fake Mesopotamian artifact, costing the victim thousands of
dollars.
(PRWEB) August 13, 2005 -- While monitoring online auction sites for the
sale of illegal artifacts from Mesopotamia, Iraq Museum International
(http://www.BaghdadMuseum.org) discovered a way that bidders on eBay can
influence the highest bid and cheat other bidders.
Using an eBay listing and its bidding history, Iraq Museum International
demonstrates how a 4-step price-fixing process led to the online sale of a
fake "Sumerian Stone Statue of a Seated Male" on eBay for $3,726 on Monday,
August 1, 2005.
Dubbed the "Sniper Trap," the process can be executed on eBay from any
computer in the world and involves the following steps for any auction
listing on the site:
1. The seller and a second person posing as a bidder prepare to precisely
synchronize their keystrokes on two separate computers logged onto eBay.
2. In the final minute of bidding, the person posing as a bidder places an
extremely high bid on the item. This has the effect of triggering all
automatic bids set by any other bidder, instantly revealing his or her
secret maximum bid.
3. Meanwhile, the seller has filled out a bid cancellation form at eBay, and
is ready at the keyboard with a finger over the "Enter" key. Within the last
30 seconds of the electronic auction the seller presses the key, submitting
the form to automatically cancel the bid placed by the false bidder.
4. During the few seconds while the false bid was in play, other bidders
would be deceived by what they saw: a high bid placed by the false bidder
that was only a few dollars higher than the maximum set by the real high
bidder. Thus, the last-second bidder, or "sniper," would know that he or she
would have to bid over that amount in order to win the auction.
This method would account for higher-than-normal bids placed during the
final 30 seconds of an auction on eBay.
EBay is the Internet's largest auction site, with over 114 million
registered members worldwide.
Iraq Museum International is a volunteer organization created after the
looting of the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad. It seeks to accelerate the
recovery of Iraq's stolen treasures by bringing the rich history and
cultural heritage of Iraq to the world. It invites the active participation
of the Iraq reconstruction community as well as students, professors,
professionals and cultural enthusiasts from all countries. To see how a
variation of the "Sniper Trap" played out in eBay's antiquities market,
visit Iraq Museum International at http://www.BaghdadMuseum.org.