Quote:
Originally Posted by trader220
I would doubt that happens because if they ever got caught that would be the end of eBay
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You are assuming "long-term" thinking -- that is not always present in the business world -- especially the tech business world.
It would also be extremely difficult to catch, without someone involved in the fraud (if it was happening) spilling the beans -- even then, the company could easily claim it was a "false accusation by a disgruntled employee" as a defense.
I just do not see eBay's explanation as plausible -- a seller would have to use multiple computers, with multiple IP's, with multiple identities to engage in "shill bidding" in an attempt to harm other sellers with competing items. It would just be too easy for eBay to catch and shut down such activities before they ever affect anyone else.
I have personally experienced eBay shutting down a seller's account (probably because eBay had not been paid their fees) and NOT bothering to notify the winning bidders of that seller's auctions of the action they had taken! They even re-instated one of those sellers (I assume after he paid eBay) and let him post negative feedback on the buyer (my wife, in this case) because she chose not to complete the transaction after she learned -- on her own -- that eBay had suspended the seller's account!
EBay operates from the philosophy that "there will always be another bidder, so we don't have to care much about the buyers" -- it would not surprise me at all if they had their own "internal system" of shill bidding.