Bot-On-Bot eBay Scamming
from the when-the-bots-takeover dept
It's one of the oldest eBay scams in the book: sell something you don't have, pocket the money and walk away. However, these days, for it to work you need to have at least a decent eBay feedback reputation. A few years ago, this would work out with the scammer acting as a legit eBay user for a few months, buying and selling various cheap items, building up a decent profile... and then putting up some big expensive item for the scam payoff. Again, however, the times are changing and that process is too involved -- so the next generation of scammers has move on to eBay scamming automation. They use bots to scan eBay and buy $0.01 "buy it now" items. Apparently, many of the sellers who offer such things use bots themselves to manage all those offers -- including the near automatic "good feedback" stamps of approval. So, the bots talk to the bots, and any new scamming user can build up a nice looking feedback page with tons of successful deals -- all at just a penny a shot. The bots can create tons of new users as well, all of which are quickly building up good eBay reputations. Then, they can waltz in with the real scam and drop the account, and move right on to the next "primed" account their bot has set up for them. So far, there's no evidence that the bots on both sides may be controlled by the same scammers -- but each side benefits by getting a near automatic feedback boost.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Ewwww!
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hardly surprising
This is just me, using the plain vanilla web interface, with no access to the API. Meanwhile eBay, with God level access to the database have achieved...?
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Simple solution?
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Conspiracy Theory...
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Hrm
I rue the day when the Internet starts talking to all of us-- but in spam.. or in Scam Nigerian. What kind of deep buried "animalistic" urges will it have in it's brain? When it gets mad, will it yell V1aRA?
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Re:
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Re: What is a gift card?
Anyway,What is a visa gift card???
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Member for how long
In the end I think it's each person's responsibility to protect themselves from being scammed, the same way things are done in the real world. It would be helpful though if eBay provided the information that people need to make good decisions.
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Hijacked Accounts are the biggest problem
These auctions have several basic characteristics in common. First, they always ask the potential bidder to contact the seller via email before bidding at an email address and not through the 'ask the seller a question' link. Next, they'll almost always be one day auctions however the 'seller' will have a 'buy-it-now' price mentioned in the listing. And, they will most often be miscatagorized to avoid detection by eBay's own fraud bots, for example, a Plasma TV might be listed under Doll Clothing.
Should a bidder respond to the email, they will be told that the item, or one like it, is available if the bidder will Western Union the seller X amount of dollars. They may also mention Square Trade or some other service to try to build confidence. If the bidder/mark WU's them the money, then it's gone.
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Re: Hijacked Accounts are the biggest problem
http://cgi.ebay.com/Best-COMEDY-scene-Free-video_W0QQitemZ160014045357QQihZ006QQcategoryZ15 978QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
It's not a plasma tv, but it also isn't a doll or bear.
Matt
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Re: Hijacked Accounts are the biggest problem
At the time, eBay was doing very little to combat this problem, but I think they are doing a little better.
All you have to do is look at the history of a seller to find out if the item they are selling is normal activity for them. That pretty much exposes any scam.
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And after this...
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Re: And after this... bid sniping
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Simple Sniping Soltuion
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what would be nice is if there was one of those picture text things you had to enter before you bid. so no one could send a bot at like .0003 seconds before the auction ends.
there could be a little delay, like if you register to bid at .00001, you still have 30 seconds or something to complete your bid.
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i remember an ebay sniping bot...way back wen, like frogman or whatev
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Sniping..
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Use a Credit Card....
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Just Require Confirmation
Is there any reason eBay would not want to do this?
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Bid sniping
XX seconds.
I have no clue as to why ebay wouldn't do this, as it would certainly up their % profits and also up the profits for the seller.
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it's almost like when an auctionere goes "once, twice, sold *bang*" if i bit when it goes bang, did i get in? who can tell?
so, why should i have to bid again, when the auction keeps going on and on and on... it sucks, i know, but obviously you don't want the item as much as i do. if so, you'd either bit higher, or watch till the end.
if you say you can't watch because of other commitments, well then you don't have a high enough value on the item, otherwise you'd candel your event and bid. i don't mean to be rude or anything, i'm sorry. but that's life. that's...eBay.
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Re:
it's almost like when an auctionere goes "once, twice, sold *bang*" if i bit when it goes bang, did i get in? who can tell?
When a auctionere goes "once..., twicce....,sold" there is time to offer a counter bid and if there is a counter bid then it goes "once...,twice,....(counter bid),...(a few seconds to wait for another counter bid)....once...., twice....,(if there is no other counter bid)....., sold.
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This is just like an auto extending auction would work.
The arguement against it is simple. Proxy bidding makes it pointless. Bid the absolute max you are willing to pay, if someone bids higher (whether that is 10 minutes before or 0.01 seconds before) then that was more than you were willing to pay, Right?
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Re:
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if any bid was placed within x minutes of the end of the auction, it would be extended for another y minutes. if another bid came in within x minuts of ending, another y minutes from the "end" till the new end..
did it not take well with useres and they discontinued it?
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This has all been discussed before. Check the link above for why none of that works to fix sniping. Basically, automatically extending an auction turns *everyone* into snipers because everyone has to be at their machine at the end of the auction.
It's better (for buyers) to just put in your maximum bid, and leave it at that. Of course there will still be an advantage to doing that near the end of the auction, so there will always be snipers. But snipers don't "win" against you unless they are willing to pay more than you are.
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My 2 cents
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People who complain about snipers bug me to no end.
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BOooooring!
As always: Buyer beware!
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sooooo naive....
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there onto you !
They are rigourous in defending their business.
d
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Email spamming
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bot bidders
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Re: bot bidders
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