Bid shielding

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Bid-shielding describes a procedure that makes it possible to purchase an item offered in an Internet auction below its market value .

definition

By submitting a temporary high maximum bid by a bogus bidder, the auction price is artificially increased before the end of an Internet auction so that no reasonable bid is possible for other (potential) bidders. If the bogus bid is withdrawn shortly before the end of the auction, the item price falls below its market value.

requirements

The procedure can only work if

  • the auction ends at a specified time
  • the auction platform allows the withdrawal of bids

example

  • The auction platform only sets enough of the maximum bid that the loser is just outbid.
  • "Alice" is offering an item in an Internet auction that has a market value of around 1,000 euros. Since there is still a long time to go before the end of the auction, the serious bidder “Bob” has not (yet) been able to bring himself to a higher maximum bid than 120 euros. He is currently the highest bidder; the highest bid is currently 100 euros.
  • With its first member account “Mallory”, the bogus bidder is now submitting a very high maximum bid of 1500 euros - well above the market value. The highest bid now rises to 121 euros, the highest bidder is "Mallory".
  • Now the bogus bidder submits an even higher maximum bid via a second member account "Marvin", for example 1,600 euros. The bogus bidder outbids himself: “Marvin” is the highest bidder and the highest bid rises to 1501 euros.
  • With the highest bid, the item is now "shielded" from reasonable bids from serious bidders, as it appears uninteresting due to the market value of only around 1000 euros.
  • A few seconds before the end of the auction, “Marvin” withdraws his bid under a pretext.
  • The remaining time means that serious bidders practically no longer participate in the auction, so the item “Mallory” falls to the last valid bid of 121 euros.

For the fact whether a sales contract between "Alice" and "Mallory" has come about, see below.

Evaluation of the action

The bid shielding procedure primarily damages the seller . The Internet auction house also usually suffers a loss if the sales commission is reduced accordingly by the manipulated maximum bid. The community of honest bidders and their trust in the auction platform are also affected.

It is unlikely that the action will be noticed by the seller if he does not follow the course of the auction, but can only be informed about the result (the remaining valid highest bid after the end of the auction). The extent to which the auction platform contributes to the detection of bid shielding through programs that search for certain patterns cannot be said, since the type and scope of such checks are not disclosed.

Criminal action is likely in Germany the offense of fraud to meet, although the prosecution is made more difficult by the fact that the filings with the internet auction site user data will be released only on the basis of a concrete suspicion. Since the contact address given in the member's account is rarely checked (i.e. it can also be a bogus identity) and, in the worst case, the trail leads abroad, there is only a low risk of discovery for the perpetrator.

In the help pages of the currently largest German Internet auction house eBay , only the somewhat vaguely worded passage in the chapter "Unwanted and malicious bidding" can be found:

"[...] Buyers are also not allowed to bid or buy if they intend to disrupt the proper course of the offer."

The “ General Terms and Conditions for the Use of the German-speaking eBay Services”, on the other hand, explicitly mention that no contract is concluded with the previous and then highest bidder after a legitimate bid withdrawal.

The British eBay calls the act at least by name and explicitly classifies it under bidding offenses .

Prevention

To curb this form of fraud, measures that prevent the success of bid shielding are more suitable:

  • Restrict options for withdrawing bids, for example having them authorized by the seller or the Internet auction house.
  • Declare the auction as invalid if bids are withdrawn within a period before the end of the auction and / or the item price falls by a certain percentage as a result.
  • Postpone the end of the promotion or only display an end interval (e.g. 15 minutes) so that serious bidders have a chance to place a bid after all, or the risk for the bogus bidder not to withdraw his bid in time is too great .

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ unwelcome buying , ebay.de
  2. ↑ General terms and conditions for the use of the German-speaking eBay services. §6 Offer formats and conclusion of contract, paragraph 7. Ebay , March 12, 2014, accessed on May 10, 2015 .
  3. ↑ bidding offces, ebay.co.uk