An eBay seller has escaped a jail sentence after he was found guilty by an English court for bidding on his own auctions to boost the final selling price of his goods.
Paul Barret from Stanley, Co Durham was fined £5,000 and received 250 hours of community service for the fraudulent bidding activities on eBay.
Barrett created two different usernames and would post items for sale from one account and then log in from the other account to bid on his own items in order to push the price up and make it appear that there was more interest in these auctions in a practise known as shill bidding.
The activities were uncovered while he was being investigated for selling a clocked minibus and was subsequently reported to the Trading Standards Officers. It was found that the username selling certain goods and the username bidding on these goods were registered from the same IP address and using the same contact details.
The judge presiding over the case, Judge Peter Benson, said: “This sort of conduct strikes at the heart of that trust which is vital if this very, very useful commercial medium is to continue to operate successfully,” as reported in the Telegraph.
