Angrytown News

Ebay now a haven for "shill bidders".

"As online shopping evolves, eBay continues to focus on preserving our marketplace's open and level playingfield whilst protecting our Community of members. We have decided to change how bid history information is displayed so unscrupulous people cannot target bidders with fake offers using this information. In certain cases, some bidders will no longer be able to see other bidder's User IDs on the listing page. Your User ID will be shown only to you and the seller of the item you're bidding on. Other members will see an anonymous name, such as Bidder 1, Bidder 2 etc."

This is, to my mind, the most blatant attempt on their part to max out their profits from listings, sales and other sundry charges.

Shill bidders must be wetting themselves laughing at the fact that they've been given carte blanche to proxy / shill bid with total anonmnity with the full backing of ebay & paypal to do so.

Disgraceful!! Something must be done.




Kofi Annan
Secretary General
United Nations
UN Headquarters
760 United Nations Plaza
New York
NY 10017
USA


Dear Kofi,

re: Ebay policy of anonymnity for bidders.

Mr Angry here, again. I know you're a busy bloke, what with that Darfur malarkay and the preparation for your retirement on New Years Eve, but I just felt moved to draw your attention to a potential threat to western democracy that stands to become a blight on the world of free commerce and trade. It would be most excellent if you could undertake and complete an investigation of same prior to your pending retirement - it could well be the feather in your cap which has so often eluded you over pressing matters such as Israel, Palestine, Lebanon et al.

Ebay, a small online trading affair of some considerable reknown and noteriety, have just recently introduced a measure whereby all bidders appear on bidding history lists as anonymous entities as opposed to their actual user / member id's. In effect this means that "shill bidders" can grossly inflate the bidding on items and innocent, law abiding participants (such as myself) are powerless to detect same due to the cloak of secrecy afforded them.

I strongly suspect that this is a plot connived by David Icke and the dictatorial despot leaders of several unsavoury African / Islamic nations to undermine western democracy and the financial centres of the civilized world - either that or a clear attempt by ebay to increase their profit margins by affording scam artists carte blanche to hike prices (and profits from listing / selling fees as due to ebay / PayPal) without fear of detection.

In the past a modicum of cursory detective work would have afforded people like me a degree of protection from any such activities by researching the bidding patterns / correlation of users simply by viewing their id's. This has become considerably harder with the introduction of this new "security measure" on the part of Ebay. Last night, for example, I was intent on bidding on some "used Best genuine George - special for to you toilet roll - sniff adn scratch" from a seller in Nigeria.

Obviously, being from Belfast, this particular collectors item appealed to me as part of my cultural heritage. Imagine my surprise to find that "Bidder 1" was simultaneously bidding on 27,605,211 items!! How am I expected to wade through the bidding patterns of an obviously deranged multi millionaire compulsive buyer to ascertain if he / she is shill bidding? It was so much easier in the olden days (the day before yesterday).

With the "War on terror" in full swing how are we to know if these anonymous bidders are not Al-Quaeda cells planning to blow up not only bids but foreign interests? I could have sworn, though I cannot be sure, that at least one anonymous bidder, whom I shall refer to as "bidder 3", may have been wearing a burqa. "Bidder 3" appears to be in league with "bidder 7" and I have it on good authority that "7" is Al Quaeda code for a plane bomber, or someone who once saw a plane, I'm not sure which.

Could I ask you, in the name of global security, the "war on terror" and the age old spirit of fairness of auctions to approach your friends Tony Blair and George Bush to enquire of their colleagues at Mendip Hill if there is any truth in the rumour that there are plans to commercially release their software in order to make internet shopping "safer" in line with the New Labour ecommerce policy?

As ever, many thanks in advance.

Look forward to seeing you on the 31st.


Mr Angry




ps. I was outbid but have now received a very heavily discounted "second chance" offer from prince Keith Umbutuganda III of Nigeria - a thoroughly nice chap.

posted by Mr Angry @ 8:51 PM