posted on March 28, 2001 11:38:53 AM
I was just reading the Ebay Wanted Board and came across this post:
Why would anyone use two or three ebay id's?? It's not hard to figure out the two or three are the same person! P.S. Then, when they outbid themselves with their other id's..it's hilarious!
Are many people actually doing this? Bidding on their own auctions??? My wife was actually accused of this not to long ago simply because we have 2 ID's. However our second ID is for us to purchase "adult" items, because we don't want that kind of thing on our selling account. But one of our bids was cancelled because the seller said that anyone with 2 or more ID's can't be trusted.
How did this person even know that we had 2 ID's? Is there a way to find that out?
Mondo
[ edited by meandmystuff on Mar 28, 2001 11:41 AM ]
posted on March 28, 2001 11:57:54 AM
Hi! Bidding on your own items to drive the price up is known as "schilling" and is an absolute no-no. I don't think there's any way for someone to absolutely identify people by their ids, but if you look at one person's auctions, and there's always someone else who bids on them, and only them, but never wins, then you may have a schilling situation. It involves a lot of research and even when you're pretty sure, you can't be absolutely sure than schilling is occurring.
On the other hand, there's absolutely nothing wrong with having two or more ids. Lots of folks do it to have a separate buying and selling id.
posted on March 28, 2001 12:03:07 PM
Another seller I know of had only one id, but was accused of having more than one. Someone was ripping people off but in the EOA email was saying to the effect pay with confidence because I'm also so and so and look at my feedback. This seller didn't even know this scam artist, he/she just picked her because of her good feedback.
posted on March 29, 2001 09:11:00 PM
I have seen a lot of people have 2 ids. They use one to buy things and the other to sell things. Or they use it to buy things that they don't want others (i.e. thier next door neighbor) to know about.
Ethics comes into play at this point. It is not ethical to bid on your own items. At one point I ended up retracting several bids because the same person outbid me a day before auction end, only to retract thier bid one hour later. When I checked the emails it was the same as the seller. I had to retract because I saw a scam, but now I have about 5 retracts...
posted on March 29, 2001 09:27:38 PMmondo
I have a second ID for the exact same reason you do...I have NEVER been questioned by a buyer, and I am curious how a buyer can FIND a second account..it DOES need to be registered under a second e-mail address, and I don't think that eBay search allows for searching the bidder/seller actual name.
Have you been bidding on your own auctions with another ID? Or are u like that husband in the Visa ad who doesn't know his wife is selling a lamp?
Keith
I assume full responsibility for my actions, except
the ones that are someone else's fault.
posted on March 29, 2001 10:14:30 PMHow did this person even know that we had 2 ID's? Is there a way to find that out? - meandmystuff
It is possible to pull up users' buying/selling activity on eBay using their email address instead of their User ID.
One possibility that comes to mind is perhaps you accidentally emailed your customer from the email address you use for buying instead of the one you use for selling, and he looked it up?
[ edited by triplesnack on Mar 29, 2001 10:15 PM ]
posted on March 29, 2001 10:24:29 PM
No, actually I am bidding on materials to build a computer and I don't want somebody to know what I am doing... They can get into my regular email account but they don't even know that I have other email accounts. Plus I don't want their friends to know either. The only problem with this is finding places to hide all of the parts to build the computer...
posted on March 29, 2001 10:47:17 PM
I have a second ID - there are things I would not want young ones to see that I sell (or buy) as I feel there might be a chance a child playing with his parent's computer might look at my stuff just for fun. I feel it is about responsibility for the kids.
OK, I know they are not supposed to be on eBay it is cool - and neat stuff attracts kids - both young and old!
posted on March 30, 2001 08:20:19 AM
I din't bid on any of my own items. And as far as I can remember I have never dealt with this user before now either. I have no idea how he would even know about me having 2 ID's.
That's why I am asking.
If there is way to find this out, I would sure like to know it though. I think that a power seller that I frequently buy from is (and has been) doing this.
