Shopping Discussion

Bidfun, Scam Site

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  • May 10th, 2011 12:02 pm
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Deal Addict
Dec 17, 2001
2497 posts
388 upvotes
Ajax

Bidfun, Scam Site

Just reading about scam sites and this one, really is something.
Here's what one reviewer on Sitejabber said:

[QUOTE]
If you do choose to ignore the warnings in these reviews and play on this website, make no mistake that each time you hit the bid button, you are in-fact making a bet and not a bid as you would in a legitimate auction. As many others have already noted, placing a bid on this site is akin to dropping $1.00 into a slot machine - except that I doubt that even slot machines are rigged to the extent of these so-called auctions.

At least with a slot machine, you are well aware that you are betting against a machine that is operated by the casino or club or whatever. In bidfun, you are bidding against their robot who is disguised as another genuine bidder (although anybody participating in this rort should be clearly labelled as a punter rather than a bidder), but after watching one of these auctions run for another 7 hours after the bidding went down to 1 second remaining, it is clear that most of the bids are placed by robots created by bidfun themselves. Just take a look at several of the auctions running simultaneously and you will see that many of the bidders are placing bets in multiple auctions and these bids are amounting to thousands of dollars for just one bidder.... and for items that retail for only a fraction of the amounts they are bidding. For example, I watched the same bidders bidding on an ipod nano, a pspgo and a wii and I estimated that their bids in all 3 auctions totalled in excess of $3,000.00 each. That's not bad for items that had a combined RRP of around $1,000.00!!!! So I ask, who in their riight mind would do this and the answer is nobody .... that is, at least, nobody who was a genuine bidder.

I also do not agree with those who say that if it looks too good to be true then it probably isn't true, because the principle behind bidfun is sound and there's no doubt they could still turn a tidy profit just by relying on the genuine bidders to push the price up. In other words, bidfun are blatantly rigging the auctions to increase their own profits and not just by a few dollars, but by thousands. I'm sure that if you were caught doing this in a real auction, then you could expect to end up in court on a host of criminal charges.

I think what I find most appalling about this website, however, is the clientelle they are targetting or scamming. Take one look at the items they list and the age group of the people they are predominantly aiming to screw-over becomes quite apparent. ...... ahhhhh ..... just like taking candy from a baby eh guys????

And on a final note .... Paypal should disassociate themselves from this scam real fast and before they also find their integrity being questioned when these guys are finally brought down.[/QUOTE]


Here's a link to sitejabber:

http://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.bidfun.com

I'm hoping that this posting may save at least one RFDer problems as a search didn't yield anything on them on RFD.
13 replies
Jr. Member
Sep 5, 2005
195 posts
41 upvotes
Thanks for the warning. I almost signed-up to use this site!
Newbie
Nov 30, 2010
1 posts
montreal
Ya I tried this site yesterday.. was looking for a deal on an ipad that I want to offer to my little girl.. to good to be true.. they ask you to buy points to be able to bid.. lost 20$ on the spot withou being able to get nothing..
it is a real webiste scam and it should be stopped as soon as possible.. I just don t know who is in charge o this kind of things...
Banned
User avatar
Nov 19, 2010
519 posts
2 upvotes
Toronto
How can these sites just keep doing business as usual and nobody does anything about it? It's fraud, it's a crime. pedophile sites don't even last 12 hours, why are these fraud sites allowed to do whatever they want?
Deal Addict
User avatar
Apr 11, 2003
1558 posts
734 upvotes
This is not a scam site the bidding rules are very clearly stated on their website you pay for each bid.
Member
Nov 4, 2008
411 posts
21 upvotes
Toronto
bigphil26 wrote: This is not a scam site the bidding rules are very clearly stated on their website you pay for each bid.

And do you pay to go against the so named 'robot bidder'...I think that would be the scam.
Deal Addict
Nov 15, 2010
2043 posts
793 upvotes
Ottawa
I don't think that they use robot bidders, but anyone who participates in the auction isn't thinking clearly. If you look at this game from a game theory perspective it is clear that you have very little chance of winning an auction without paying an exorbitant amount in bid points. Once the bidding gets started each person has the incentive to pay just one more point for a bid because the price is far below the regular price of the good. Since everyone has this incentive, the bidding will keep going until the good reaches a price relatively close to the retail price. You might win the auction at a price less than the retail price. However, in the meantime you will have spent a lot of money on bids, so in total you will have paid far more than the retail price.

If you look at how much money is being spend on each item you will see it is a suckers deal. Say a PSP gets sold for $40, which is far below its normal price. To get to this price there must have been 2000 bids because each bid adds $0.02. Since each point is worth about $1, $2000 was spent on that PSP. Definitely stay away.
Deal Guru
Aug 14, 2007
12807 posts
3837 upvotes
--
I'd like to voice my opinion on this.

For one, who knows if they use robot buffers except them and if say 50 people work for this company (as am example) I can almost guarantee only 2 people know about it, the owner and the programmer of the so called robot.

On the other hand it COULD be all legitimate I'm sure they have checks in place somewhere. Either way you see it this can't be seen as a scam, if all of the bids were being placed on different items at EXACTLY the same time then yes it would be much more convincing.


Regardless of wether it's a scam or not, these guys are making a ton of money while the idiots who buy $100s of dollars worth of bids are convinced that they only paid say $100 for an iPad when in reality it was around probably $1500
eiad77 wrote: I don't think that they use robot bidders, but anyone who participates in the auction isn't thinking clearly. If you look at this game from a game theory perspective it is clear that you have very little chance of winning an auction without paying an exorbitant amount in bid points. Once the bidding gets started each person has the incentive to pay just one more point for a bid because the price is far below the regular price of the good. Since everyone has this incentive, the bidding will keep going until the good reaches a price relatively close to the retail price. You might win the auction at a price less than the retail price. However, in the meantime you will have spent a lot of money on bids, so in total you will have paid far more than the retail price.

If you look at how much money is being spend on each item you will see it is a suckers deal. Say a PSP gets sold for $40, which is far below its normal price. To get to this price there must have been 2000 bids because each bid adds $0.02. Since each point is worth about $1, $2000 was spent on that PSP. Definitely stay away.
Newbie
Jan 9, 2011
1 posts
toronto
Thank you for all the warnings about this website. Too bad I didn't read them before I signed up to this site and lost $20.00 in about 5 seconds.
This site is the biggest scam I have ever seen and I am really surprised that they haven't been shut down yet! Also surprised that Paypal associates themselves with this site. Anyways a sucker is born every second ( I learned the hard way}. You have been warned!
Member
Oct 2, 2010
430 posts
173 upvotes
Before you mindlessly enter your credit card number and click OK you should probably take 5 minutes (about how long it took me to figure out how the site works) and realize that it is not worth your time. The site is (likely) not a scam, just an unethical business model. If you lose money to this site, you probably deserve it.
Newbie
Dec 14, 2010
6 posts
Hongkong
i've been watching some of these bidding sites, the robot just bid like crazy and some bidder names are always there. i won't trust any of these sites unless it's proven legit. some sites offers u free bids to seduce u. watch out.
Kuurgen wrote: Just reading about scam sites and this one, really is something.
Here's what one reviewer on Sitejabber said:




Here's a link to sitejabber:

http://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.bidfun.com

I'm hoping that this posting may save at least one RFDer problems as a search didn't yield anything on them on RFD.
Banned
User avatar
Sep 24, 2006
4699 posts
206 upvotes
The site itself is not a scam.

Think about it like this.


You buy 100 bids for $80. That's making each bid worth what? 60 cents?


if they go up in bids by 1 penny, and an item hits $35.. well you can do the math on how much money they are making off of items.
Newbie
May 9, 2011
1 posts
I suspect a computer system in place to make sure that you not win ... please join "bidfun is a scam" on facebook
Banned
May 12, 2004
9756 posts
4136 upvotes
Ottawa
Holy useless thread bump batman.

An idiot magnet is not a scam. There is no need for the government to hold you by the hand like a 5yr old and tell you what's poo poo and what's ok if you learn to read...I guess an idiot sporting a stiffy over a $7 ipad brings out illiteracy.

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