Hi All,
My computer was recently hacked and amongst other issues that have arisen from it, a number of bids were placed on a few cars on an online auction site (not ebay), Fortunately most of these did not win the cars, however one did.
I have rang the company to explain to them the situation, however they don't want to know, they insist I either purchase the car or pay £120 to release myself from the contract (though £100 is clearly stated on the terms and conditions), if I had bid, I'd have no issue with this.
So that leaves me with a car I don't want or a fine I don't want to pay.
However, with this particular site, there is information provided about other bidders, which includes a nationality of the buyer which is something you have to provide to be part of the site. Having looked at the bidding history, it seems a mystery bidder with no nationality has bumped up the price.
Curious, I looked at other items from the same vendor and they all have this same mystery bidder with no nationality. No other vendors have this mystery bidder bidding, even those local to the vendor.
More curiously, when this mystery bidder wins, the items are relisted immediately, even when a reserve is met, which leads me to think this mystery bidder is in fact the vendor and they're bidding to push the price of their items up.
I have no proof but this is very suspicious, what would my next port of call be? I don't think I can go to the police without any evidence (apart from bidding histories) but equally I think it needs investigating, any ideas? It's all electronic so there would be a paper trail for someone with the right powers
My computer was recently hacked and amongst other issues that have arisen from it, a number of bids were placed on a few cars on an online auction site (not ebay), Fortunately most of these did not win the cars, however one did.
I have rang the company to explain to them the situation, however they don't want to know, they insist I either purchase the car or pay £120 to release myself from the contract (though £100 is clearly stated on the terms and conditions), if I had bid, I'd have no issue with this.
So that leaves me with a car I don't want or a fine I don't want to pay.
However, with this particular site, there is information provided about other bidders, which includes a nationality of the buyer which is something you have to provide to be part of the site. Having looked at the bidding history, it seems a mystery bidder with no nationality has bumped up the price.
Curious, I looked at other items from the same vendor and they all have this same mystery bidder with no nationality. No other vendors have this mystery bidder bidding, even those local to the vendor.
More curiously, when this mystery bidder wins, the items are relisted immediately, even when a reserve is met, which leads me to think this mystery bidder is in fact the vendor and they're bidding to push the price of their items up.
I have no proof but this is very suspicious, what would my next port of call be? I don't think I can go to the police without any evidence (apart from bidding histories) but equally I think it needs investigating, any ideas? It's all electronic so there would be a paper trail for someone with the right powers