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Shilling
This is a popular scam where sellers persuade friends or associates to bid on their own items in order to inflate the price.

Phantom Bidding
Similar to the above scenario, the seller creates multiple user names and bids against himself.


Shill bidding
Shill bidding is where people work in cahoots to inflate the bidding on an item.

A seller has a "partner" who makes bids on the seller’s items with a view to bumping up the bid price. They have no intention of buying the item.

Fortunately, shill bidders and their associated seller can be stupid. The shill bidder will usually make bids on other items from the same seller.

Here’s how to check to see if shill bidding is a feature of a particular seller: First, look at the seller’s closed auctions over the last 30 days. If most of the closed auctions have no bids, it is unlikely the seller has shill bidders working with them. If all of the closed auctions have bids, take a look at the bid history. See if the same bidder appears in the list of bidders, usually with aggressive bidding and normally at the start of the auction. If so, you may have uncovered a shill operation, so avoid that seller’s auctions.

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