eBay Jewelry Seller Fined $400,000 for Placing 232,000 Shill Bids On Own Items

[mandy]

NARU eBay member JewelryByEzra, feedback rating 75,308,  fined $400,000
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=jewelrybyezra&ftab=AllFeedback

A jewelry company on eBay Inc. that allegedly bid on its own auctions to illegally drive up prices by as much as 20 percent agreed to pay $400,000 in restitution and penalties, the New York state attorney general's office said on Saturday.

Ezra Dweck and employees of his company, EMH Group, placed more than 232,000 such bids worth some $5 million over about a one-year period, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office said.

Dweck and EMH Group have also been banned from the online auction industry for four years under the terms of the settlement agreed to by the parties, Cuomo's office said...

full article: http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,132740...ticle.html

[bargainbloodhound]

placed more than 232,000 such bids worth some $5 million over about a one-year period,

eBay has such great controls in place to protect against shill bidding...NOT.

[BellisimaJ.]

What a   

[FiberGuy]

[quote author=bargainbloodhound link=topic=11888.msg56314#msg56314 date=1181484934]

placed more than 232,000 such bids worth some $5 million over about a one-year period,

eBay has such great controls in place to protect against shill bidding...NOT.
[/quote]

So much for their "state of the art anti-shilling software" they were supposed to have rolled out six years ago. 

Oh wait... silly me... that couldn't have been a ruse to bump the stock prices up, could it?  Nah! 

Unfortunately, we won't see many shillers get busted like this anymore, with the new bidder "identity protection" scam in place.

Dweck and EMH Group have also been banned from the online auction industry for four years

After which, they will be welcome back by ebay with open arms, and welcome to continue their shilling practices, protected by ebay itself.

"We do not tolerate criminal activity and proactively assist law enforcement to prosecute any individual who may try to defraud our users," spokeswoman Nichola Sharpe said.

Sure... but only after the subpoenas fly.