Ebay - At least they got one on the hundreds

[Kickoff3pm]

The first UK seller to be prosecuted for artificially inflating prices by
bidding on his own eBay auctions has been told to pay 5,000 in fines and costs, and ordered to do 250 hours community service. Judge Peter Benson at Bradford
Crown court said he
Go to Source


You may view the latest post at
http://www.alternativestoebay......5000-fine/

[craig]

Kickoff3pm wrote:

The first UK seller to be prosecuted for artificially inflating prices by bidding on his own eBay auctions has been told to pay 5,000 in fines and costs, and ordered to do 250 hours community service. Judge Peter Benson at Bradford Crown court said he Go to Source You may view the latest post at http://www.alternativestoebay......5000-fine/

Does anyone know what item he bid on and what it sold for? £5,000 seems very steep to me? I would have imagined hed get a few hundred quid fine and probably less community service than that!

[Rocky]

Not quite what you're thinking Craig, but I suspect it happens in our hobby.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/10494724.stm

[seand]

I heard a little bit about it on the radio news yesterday. He was selling all sorts including vehicles, and got found out because he sold a clocked minibus. When the police investigated they found he had multiple eBay accounts and was shilling up his auctions because he 'realised the prices were too low' or words to that effect.

[sharrowblade]

Craig Mate, 'Too steep'. I think you're probably missing the point here.

The bloke is a thief & a liar.
'I didn't think I was doing anything wrong by bidding on my own items!'. He sounds perfectly innocent to me

In April, he admitted 10 offences of fraud, each carries a maximum of a £5000 fine. Potentially, he could have got a £50000 fine & a jail sentence.
He didn't get either.

The arrogant git then drove off in his range rover and will be shortly back on e-bay with a different identity ripping off more unsuspecting people.

[craig]

sharrowblade wrote:

Craig Mate, 'Too steep'. I think you're probably missing the point here. The bloke is a thief & a liar. 'I didn't think I was doing anything wrong by bidding on my own items!'. He sounds perfectly innocent to me In April, he admitted 10 offences of fraud, each carries a maximum of a £5000 fine. Potentially, he could have got a £50000 fine & a jail sentence. He didn't get either. The arrogant git then drove off in his range rover and will be shortly back on e-bay with a different identity ripping off more unsuspecting people.

Id been away all weekend and the article at the start of the thread was the first id read. I didnt realise it was on such a big scale to be honest and now think that he did get off lightly after seeing all the facts.

[sharrowblade]

That's alright mate, I didn't mean to come across as partially rabid.

I met a kid about three years ago, bought some rugby programmes off me and for a few weeks he was mad keen on anything to do with Sheffield Eagles. Nice lad, but he was new and very naive when it came to e-bay. Now the world of sheffield eagles collecting is a small one, but one seller (I'm not going to name him) got wise to this, and one week put a batch of 25 individual Eagles programmes ( a rare occurance, believe me) up for sale, starting price £0.99. Now in his foolish enthusiasm this lad bid for about 20 of these almost immediately. A few days later I phoned him, and said I believed he was being shafted and could he really afford to pay £100, for programmes worth £10 top whack. Of these 25 run of the mill programmes (1990s) all 20 had been counter bidded up to a Fiver (Senior1982 has now probably fallen of his chair), by the same bidder, with each programme attracting a handful of small bids from the same bloke.
To be honest, the lad was very stupid, the pattern of bidding, the amount etc etc, I even told him how much he had bid. (again I'm not to going to name names, Andy probably knows him?), but that doesn't excuse these t***ers taking the p**s.
I reported this to ebay, and I got a reply within 24 hours.
They agreed, and the seller was suspended for a couple of months.
He still trades via the same name today.
I know this is only one small example, but I think e-bay have had their heads in the sand too long over this subject. Its alright boasting that their auction site has its foundation based on trust.
Unfortunately, as we all know in life, there are a lot of untrustworthy people.

Sorry, rant over.