Attention fraudsters!

[HP-Collection]

On Ebay someone is once again trying to drive up bids with the help of a second account:

https://www.ebay.de/itm/SMI-48SC-Standar...EBIDX%3AIT

I offered the seller $50 which he felt was too little. So he outbid me with a second account, because I only bid to $46.... Too bad for him, now he's sitting on his own merchandise.

The item is now listed again, by the same seller:

https://www.ebay.de/i/333581036518?ul_noapp=true

[aurelio]

Thank-you Matthias, for the warning!

[BillBee]

I have been looking at HP41s and I did notice this seller had one that I thought had sold once or twice and *poof** magically relisted. Always similar ".... from dad's estate".

-Bill

[HP-Collection]

In my mail correspondence with him he wrote me that he has several of the HP48 cards and always uses the same image, just like he does with his HP35....



By the way: the HP48 card I bid on originally had no minimum sale price and was listed at $25. After I gave my offer of $50 to the seller he added a minimum selling price within 24 hours (twice as high as my bid).

[Paul Dale]

(04-22-2020 12:09 PM)HP-Collection Wrote:  By the way: the HP48 card I bid on originally had no minimum sale price and was listed at $25. After I gave my offer of $50 to the seller he added a minimum selling price within 24 hours (twice as high as my bid).

The trick here is to place a bid, then the start price is fixed.


Pauli

[rprosperi]

(04-22-2020 12:57 PM)Paul Dale Wrote:  

(04-22-2020 12:09 PM)HP-Collection Wrote:  By the way: the HP48 card I bid on originally had no minimum sale price and was listed at $25. After I gave my offer of $50 to the seller he added a minimum selling price within 24 hours (twice as high as my bid).

The trick here is to place a bid, then the start price is fixed.


Pauli

Exactly. I've never understood why more buyers don't do this.

But twice recently, after doing this to secure the low start, and then seeing no other bid activity, the seller ended the auction as 'error in listing' and within a few days, item was relisted at much higher starting price. eBay 'looked into it' but nothing changed. All smart buyers can do is avoid sellers like this, but there are so many buyers out there, some idiot will eventually the stupid high prices... sigh,,,

[mfleming]

At least he has an appropriate user name. Would be nice if there was a way to block a seller so their listings would not show up in a search.

[Dave Frederickson]

(04-22-2020 03:41 PM)mfleming Wrote:  Would be nice if there was a way to block a seller so their listings would not show up in a search.

There's a Sellers section near the end of the Advanced Search menu where specific sellers can be excluded.

[toml_12953]

(04-22-2020 11:23 AM)BillBee Wrote:  I have been looking at HP41s and I did notice this seller had one that I thought had sold once or twice and *poof** magically relisted. Always similar ".... from dad's estate".

-Bill

His dad must've died about fourteen times so far by my count.

[mfleming]

(04-22-2020 08:02 PM)toml_12953 Wrote:  His dad must've died about fourteen times so far by my count.

And keeps coming back ... and back ... and back
[good place to put Monty Python "Bring out your dead" clip]

[Allen]

(04-22-2020 07:51 AM)HP-Collection Wrote:  On Ebay someone is once again trying to drive up bids with the help of a second account:
https://www.ebay.de/i/333581036518?ul_noapp=true

Matthais, good observation!! The best course of action if you believe a second account is being used to drive up bids is to click on "Report Item" then
Report Category-> Listing Practices
Reason for Report -> Fraudulent listing activities
Detailed reason-> Seller is using other accounts to inflate item prices

If you look at the activity of the "shilling" account, they have bid 60 times on 24 items - all of them from the same seller, no bids on any other sellers' items- very suspicious indeed.

Code:


Business & Industrial > Levels & Surveying Equipment     4     Seller 1     3h
Consumer Electronics > Vintage Calculators     5     Seller 1     6h
Business & Industrial > Office Equipment     7     Seller 1     <1h
Consumer Electronics > Vintage Calculators     1     Seller 1     6d 3h
Consumer Electronics > Vintage Calculators     1     Seller 1     6d 3h
Consumer Electronics > Vintage Calculators     1     Seller 1     6d 4h
Consumer Electronics > Vintage Calculators     1     Seller 1     6d 4h
Consumer Electronics > Vintage Calculators     1     Seller 1     6d 4h
Consumer Electronics > Vintage Calculators     4     Seller 1     14h
Consumer Electronics > Vintage Calculators     1     Seller 1     14h
Consumer Electronics > Vintage Calculators     1     Seller 1     14h
Consumer Electronics > Vintage Calculators     2     Seller 1     14h
Consumer Electronics > Vintage Calculators     3     Seller 1     14h
Consumer Electronics > Vintage Calculators     2     Seller 1     8h
Business & Industrial > Levels & Surveying Equipment     2     Seller 1     12h
Business & Industrial > Office Equipment     1     Seller 1     1d 12h
Consumer Electronics > Vintage Calculators     1     Seller 1     1d 12h
Consumer Electronics > Vintage Calculators     2     Seller 1     1d 12h
Business & Industrial > Levels & Surveying Equipment     3     Seller 1     11h
Business & Industrial > Office Equipment     3     Seller 1     1d 11h
Consumer Electronics > Vintage Calculators     1     Seller 1     12h
Consumer Electronics > Vintage Calculators     1     Seller 1     1d 21h
Consumer Electronics > Vintage Calculators     9     Seller 1     11h
Business & Industrial > Test Equipment Parts & Accessories     3     Seller 1     11h

[HP-Collection]

Already done

[Allen]

I assumed correctly that the "2" feedback score on the shilling account is from the same seller, who left himself feedback on 2 recent transactions.

Since Ebay's system anonymizes slightly different each time, it acts like an inefficient fountain code

Combining information from the 24 listings, one can piece together an anagram of the shilling userid: fr113356789

(may or may not contain double 1's or double 3's)...

I suspect ebay's userid scrambling code/polynomial is related to the item number, if anyone wants a good puzzle to write a "decryptor" for ebay's obfuscation.