Sniper (software)

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

A sniper - literally a sniper - is a computer program that observes selected offers at online auctions or similar transactions on the Internet on behalf of a bidder and at the last moment submits a bid that, if possible, exceeds the current highest bid within an upper limit and so on the auction wins. The behavior that a bidder can show even without the support of a program has the advantage that other bidders no longer have time to increase their bid, and the disadvantage that the bidder also has no chance because the time has run out. The success of this behavior is linked to the fact that the auction has a fixed time limit and that other bidders do not use the same tactics.

Such programs are available for setting up on your own computer. But there are also service providers on the Internet who - usually for a fee - take on the task of following an online auction and bidding on it for the bidder. Pay attention to the currency and the time zone with which the service provider works. In addition, your own user data must be passed on to an (unknown) service provider, which is regularly prohibited in the auction houses' terms and conditions and of course also represents a security risk.

Some programs or service providers determine the variable runtime from sending a bid until it arrives at the auction house and take this into account. Some online auction houses prohibit the use of snipers or prevent it by not specifying a fixed time for the end of an auction or by postponing this by submitting bids (e.g. at Ricardo and at the request of the seller at Delcampe).