An ethics question

[Chip and Dale]

Hi everyone,

Looking for some imput....

What would you do if you knew someone was bidding on their own Ebay auctions under an alternate ID?

I told this person before that I was aware they had done this several times , but they just pooh-poohed me...like everyone does it.

The big difference is that previously the items were small ones. This time the item is over a hundred dollars..

I'm torn between friendship and ethics.....

I try to teach the kids to do the right thing and here I am...wondering what I should do.

Any and all input appreciated. If you'd prefer to e-mail rather than post publicly, that would also be appreciated.

 

[Luv2Roam]

Would you want someone doing that to you or your family? It's scamming, in JMHO.
Just guessing what may happen if you report it is that they get kicked off and move onto a different site and do the same thing. Or start up under yet another alias.

 

[Chip and Dale]

You're absolutely right...I do know what I should do and the reasons I haven't done it yet are the very reasons you state. I know of several Ebay-ers who have lost privileges, only to come back under another ID. I have no idea why making this decision should be so difficult--I hate to think that notifying Ebay will merely be a bump in the road! I have much higher hopes----but I guess I have to face reality.

 

[TIGGERSMOM]

If I am not mistaking that is shilling and illegal under Ebay guidelines. He/She is committing a fraud and depending if it all adds up to over 250.00 it is an E cls Felony.

I would definitely warn them it they get caught they can be criminally charged never mind ostracized from the pin community.

 

[BeautyLLM]

Way back when (maybe a year ago) I was bidding on a pin (don't even remember what it was). I couldn't believe how high the bidding was going, and my DH said.."what makes you think that the owner isn't the one doing the bidding under a different name?" This really bothered me, and I decided not to bid on pins again.

We have no way of knowing, and it seems like the chance is great to be ripped off!! So beware.....

Leslie

 

[Cheshire Figment]

I used to be an internal auditor. I feel that if a person is dishonest in one thing that person is probably dishonest in other ways. If I knew of this happening I would report the person to eBay. Now, with the controls eBay is using to verify a new user it would be harder for the person to come back on using another identity.

 

[Luv2Roam]

what goes around comes around.
It may take awhile, but...

 

[RamVA]

......but I've been thinking about it since you first posted it, and there really are only a couple of things you can do. You can talk to him, but you've already tried that and it didn't seem to make a difference. I think if people are basically dishonest, they are not going to change just because you say something to them. If they are basically honest, but maybe making a "mistake" because they didn't look at something clearly, or didn't see any harm, then they might change their minds and their actions because you've given them something to think about. But, that being done,with no change, then your only other option that I see is to report them. Sure, they may come back under another identity, but that shouldn't be an "excuse" to help you (or anyone in a similar situation) from trying to do something to stop the practice. You will have followed your conscience and done your best to change the course of something unethical and hurtful happening to other people. I think we have become too complacent about not speaking up when we see something being done that's wrong like shoplifting, or maybe animal abuse by our neighbor, or spousal abuse. We figure we won't really by able to change anything in the long run, so why get involved? You never know when you do step in if maybe your choice did change something for the better, or keep someone from getting hurt or taken advantage of.

It may be hard to betray a friend, (I don't know how close he is) but you have to look at the larger moral question. Good luck in whatever path you choose.

 

[Eeyore's Pal]

You may want to ask eBay if they inform the culprit of how they were found out.

I remember reading that eBay has a very sophisticated algorithm for comparing bidders to sellers and it looks for all kinds of patterns. Perhaps eBay just takes your "tip off" and investigates from there.

It may be that they don't reveal the source of their tip, just the results of the investigation. If that's the case, your "friend" could accuse you, but you could sidestep by pointing out that eBay is looking for this all the time, and he just got caught.

I don't know if this would give you any actual piece of mind or not.

 

[firedust37]

I would first do what you've already done - talk to them.Since that did no good,I'd report them to eBay.The technical term is shill bidding but the plain term is stealing.They're cheating their customers and stealing from them.If they had not artificially run up the bid,then the selling price would have been lower and so they stole whatever the figure was between the last legitimate bid and their shill bid.

This is becoming more common at eBay and is ruining a lot of experiences that should have been pleasant.I completely agree with the poster who was an internal auditor - if they steal one way,they almost always steal in another.You'de be doing a real favor to the patrons of eBay by reporting the thief.

 

[megashark]

Ebay has gotten much better at detecting various forms of cheating, but they still need help from users to catch this.

In the long run it's much better for both buyers and sellers if people doing this are bumped. And since buying pins at auction is often the only way to get the harder pins, I'd like it to be as 'cheat-free' as possible.