flippa is the pits

There is so much scamming going on that Flippa has gone mad, they are more paranoid than a crackhead running from the police.

Typically not. That seems out of the ordinary for them. I have had similar things happen on Flippa but never had them ask me to verify via a passport.

I think Flippa is finally cracking down on some of the shady stuff that happens on their site unfortunately you must have been caught up in that.

Good news though I've been hoping they would crack down on some of the crap going on.

Well, there are always 2 sides to a story but:
No one but Flippa Admin is to blame for the current state of affairs , they let the scammers run wild for too long. They did not do enough early on and now they are behind the 8 ball..

Support insist that I provide my passport as proof whom I am as they say I am a shillbidder. I posted on there facebook fan page, verified my phone, used a domain that is registered in my name and they still claim I am a shillbidder.

As a matter of principle I will not provide them with my passport as they not customs and I stopped bidding on a site @ $50 and this is not the way to treat new comers to flippa. If that is the treatment I get now wonder what it will be later. Not interested

Just got a email from flippa and they say they except my facebook account as enough proof and lifted my suspended account. They say they tracked a lot of shillbidding on this auction and suspended all bidders. What I don't understand is the sellers account which is the culprit is not suspended

Hey everyone -- Ophelie from Flippa here. I'm not "the owner", but I am an admin there.

I can't comment on the specifics of the case here (both because that's privileged information and because I don't know which auction this refers to), but we're very, very strict when it comes to any suspected shill bidding, and make no apologies for that. It does sometimes cause false positives, but if everyone involved is up-front about providing us with identification, the issue gets resolved quickly and with a minimum of impact on the auction.

Our system may have detected a link between the OP and the seller, which would turn into an automatic suspension and questions from our support team. We also monitor bidding activity for irregular patterns (i.e. membership in a bidding ring).

Here is the auction i was accused of shill bidding

https://flippa.com/2899630-micro-job...ree-mini-sites

and here is the bidding that took place as i have nothing to hide

Public auction sold for $70

View Listing Sold at Public Auction

$70

Bidding History: 12 bids Started:6 days agoCompleted:2 days ago
Bidder Bid Amount When? Bidder 1has bid on 4 listings from 4 sellers $70 Highest Bid 2 days ago Bidder 2has bid on 11 listings from 11 sellers $65 2 days ago Bidder 2has bid on 11 listings from 11 sellers $61 3 days ago Bidder 3has bid on 5 listings from 4 sellers $60 3 days ago Bidder 4has bid on 13 listings from 13 sellers $55 3 days ago thesitedude ( new ) has bid on 1 listing from 1 seller $50 3 days ago Bidder 6has bid on 16 listings from 14 sellers $40 3 days ago Bidder 6has bid on 16 listings from 14 sellers $30 3 days ago Bidder 2has bid on 11 listings from 11 sellers $25 3 days ago thesitedude ( new ) has bid on 1 listing from 1 seller $20 3 days ago Bidder 6has bid on 16 listings from 14 sellers $10 3 days ago Bidder 7has bid on 8 listings from 8 sellers $1 5 days ago

You guys are fighting over peanuts. I got scammed for over a Thousand dollars on Flippa when I first started on Internet Marketing. Flippa just turned a blind eye to what was going on. It took many complaints (from many people that got scammed) for Flippa to finally ban the seller of these scammy websites with fake everything. Some punk kid known as the "Australian scam boy" lol, guess Flippa didn't know of him until he ranned amuk.

Anyways, Flippa is good for advance IMers that know what is going on. If you're a newby... stay clear of that place, you're quite likely to get ripped off.

In my opinion... Flippa needs to do a lot more to be considered an ethical business. I take some of the blame for my newbie ignorance, but they pretty much knew what was going on and allowed it to happen.

Anyways, proceed with caution is what I'm trying to get at.

Most of the sites on FLIPPA are pure crap. I have bought on flippa and you are better off not using em. Lots of empty promises. Still, asking for photo ID is common. Most sites are certain that we are all some scummy scammers. Glad that people are waking up. Site point use to be super. However, that is not the case any more.

There are a lot of sites being sold that are video or "movie" sites that were generated using a Wordpress plugin that can be licensed for around $600.00 for 10 site licenses. Now someone else has come up with a cheaper version and the garbage has compounded.

Although I don't agree 100% with everything Flippa does, I do have to say that as a buyer or seller it's OUR responsibility to do our due diligence on site research, the buying and selling history of who you're doing business with, etc.

I almost always use Escrow.com on anything more than $200.00 or so. I ask the buyer to split the fees with me. I let them know that it's for their protection and mine. They get to see everything that they're getting and have an inspection period to make sure that everything is as you say it is and you're guaranteed to get your money. It's worth spending an extra $30-$40 in order to not lose $200.00 or more.

On the other hand, if I've done business with someone before and they were trustworthy or if I thoroughly check their history and they have mostly positive reviews, then I'd be more likely to accept Paypal on a smaller sale.

My advice is to always protect yourself. If you get screwed the chances are you could have done more to prevent it. Don't get caught up in "hype". Check for FACTS.

Just sayin'.

By the way, this did get a bit off topic from shill bidding, but I just wanted to reply to those who've been scammed. I'm truly sorry that you got ripped off, but you should always do your homework before you do business with others, especially strangers. That's just common sense.

honestly the OP here sounds like the Lilboy who cried wolf..

You came here probably knowing Flippa checks. Why else would you post here?

WHy not just provide them with ID if it's an important site for your financial growth?

No one has yet answered the question of why would buyers shill bid that weren't connected to the seller. OP said that the seller wasn't suspended. Could someone please tell me why buyers that weren't acting on behalf of the seller participate in shill bidding? Makes no sense to me.

This is strange case. I need to be more careful, as I had increased my activities over there.

Hi Suzanne:

In the bad old days of ebay back in the 90's shill bidding was major. A person would get "shills" to up the price. Also, back then they had a sort by number of bids option which would give your auction a pop. This means you get a higher final price.

Ebay found out that the same IP would bid over an over. They thought this gave an unfair advantage to shillers so they did clamp down on shill bids and accuse some bidders of gaming an auction. Rest is history as we say.

Typically shills will bid low amounts (like $4 or $5) to swell the total number of bids for an item and make it appear to be the hot new shiny object of the year. Human nature does the rest as voracious bidders will fight over the items like angry pigs.

Please remember that in the early days ebay was selling a lot of one of the kind antiques that are very scare. Bidding wars were common. This was before buy it now took over. Frankly, I hate buy it now. Yeah, going to ebay is not fun anymore.

Flippa does fear the shills, but to tell you the truth most sites on the world biggest web site auction are pure crap. Shills are used to great a false illusion of interest in yet another cookie cutter site made using nerd press - COUGH, I mean WORD press.

What the case clearly shows is that Flippa needs to go back to being a place where there was a consistently friendly and patient attempt by customer service to sort out an issue, not a harsh action that sours buyers, prevents bidding, or ignores the party actually most likely to be doing the scamming.

Perhaps the time for a new rival auction site has come, one that 1) manually reviews and approves all auctions, 2) asks for ID verification upon joining, 3) manages all auctions through escrow.com, and 4) has a system that provides third party verification of claims prior to the auction. The site might have to be exclusively devoted to auctions starting at $200, to keep out the low level riff-raff.

Also just an FYI update.
The partially exposed id I already submitted is viewable on a Flippa Zendesk link.
I had no idea when I attached it as an email to Flippa that it would be uploaded and on a link that isn't protected.
Really glad I didn't send in full id.
Flippa is now ignoring me and I am incredibly disappointed in their customer service.

I'm not surprised at all, I've been scammed on flippa so many times now so they're just taking precautions

Ever notice how some sites with 'SOLID EARNINGS HISTORIES' and 'verified' income claims end up being sold for THOUSANDS but later on their domains expire? When I first noticed this I thought it was a coincidence or a fluke. But there seems to be a pattern. It is understandable why Flippa is extra vigilant. There seems to be a lot of shenanigans with the sellers at that site.