Wake-up call for eBay users as person convicted for bidding against his own items

A man has admitted 10 counts of offences of bidding against an item he was selling on eBay in order to drive the sale price up on the popular online auction site. The case was brought in Skipton Magistrates’ Court against a Mr Barrett by Trading Standards. The sentence has not yet been handed down, but he is likely to receive fines totalling tens of thousands of pounds. eBay has welcomed the action. It says that the practice, which is known as ‘shill bidding’, is illegal and it spends over £6m a year trying to counter fraudulent activity on its site. Trading Standards says: ‘We certainly hope this case is a bit of a wake-up call to people who do trade on eBay, or other auction sites.’