EBay

Controversial practices of users

• Bid sniping is placing a high bid during the last few seconds of an auction such that no time remains for other users to counterbid. This practice is allowed on eBay, however many other auction sites, such as Yahoo! Auctions, prevent this by automatically extending the auction by five minutes when a last-minute bid is placed. http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/outbid-ov.html
• Shill bidding is the deliberate use of secondary registrations, aliases, family members, friends, or associates to artificially drive up the bid price of an item. (This is also known as "bid padding".) Shill bidding is not allowed on eBay. http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/seller-shill-bidding.html Furthermore, shill bidding is a crime in many jurisdictions, and can be prosecuted under United States wire fraud laws. http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/Fetterman_indict.htm