Business & Finance The Great QuiBids Scam?

[Geelong_Sicko]

Haven't really watched much TV lately but I did earlier last night. Noticed quite a few adverts for an online 'auction site' called www.quibids.com. Supposedly you can buy plasma TVs for sixty bucks and so on.

Sounded like bullshit to me.

So I've just been googling the site and come across this January article from The Age. Apparently there's QuiBids and a slew of similar websites all out to con the unwary (or at least that's how it seems to me).

Beware: '$24 iPad' penny auction deals could leave you penniless
http://www.theage.com.au/digital-li...could-leave-you-penniless-20120105-1plxc.html

...On Quibids, for instance, each bid costs 60 cents and users are able to buy packs of 45 to 800 bids. Users then bid on the items and the last person to place a bid before the auction expires gets to buy it at the listed price.

Every time a person bids, the auction price goes up in small increments but only one person gets to buy the item for that cheap price. All the others who have bid lose their money.

Quibids allows people who miss out on the item to buy it at full retail price minus the amount they have spent on bidding so far. But most don't do this, and Quibids is able to make thousands of dollars from one relatively low value item just from all the losing bids.

"Although the successful bidder will often gain an otherwise expensive item for a fraction of its retail value, potentially thousands of bidders will gain nothing while the auction site retains their spent bid credits," Consumer Affairs Victoria said.

Some of the penny auction sites are more upfront about the terms and conditions than others. Consumers have complained that they were enticed with "free" registration, only to have their credit cards immediately debited with the cost of a bid pack.

"They say we can join for free. I had to pay to get in one bid. I had my credit card maxed out in less than two minutes, plus I had to pay an extra service fee just so I could join," one Quibids user reported...

Anyone had a go on one of these websites? How was it?

 

[lemon chicken]

Never heard of it but anyone who gives up their credit card details as part of a free registration to an auction site without reading the T&C's does not get my sympathy.

 

[Messenger]

I've seen the ads and they set the bullshit detectors off immediately.

Avoid like the plague.

 

[Face_Plain]

Ads are lulworthy.

"I got a macbook pro for $67!!!!!!!!!!"

Hired Actor in tiny text underneath.

Then the "Go online to claim your free bids now!"

Tiny text underneath.... Must buy $60 bid pack to claim free bids.

 

[NitroFan]

i got a ps3 off one of them for about $150 (all up, including the bids i payed for) a couple of years ago.

short of unknowingly taking money from peoples cards, i dont really see where the scam is. the potenital is there to lose money, but anyone should be able to see that.

 

[alfy!]

saw this on whirlpool a month or so ago

insane, the guys running the sites would be making a killing

 

[Geelong_Sicko]

Never heard of it but anyone who gives up their credit card details as part of a free registration to an auction site without reading the T&C's does not get my sympathy.

In a way I agree with you - just like those 'You've wone 30 million euros in Euro Lotto - please forward your bank details so we can deposit the cash!' you'd have to be pretty dumb to fall for it.

Most of these sites DEPEND on people not being bothered to look through the terms and conditions.

On the other hand, if we all adapted the 'If you're dumb enough to fall for it, suck shit' mindset we may as well decriminalise every scam and con job known to man. After all, only stupid people lose out, eh?

ishort of unknowingly taking money from peoples cards, i dont really see where the scam is. the potenital is there to lose money, but anyone should be able to see that.

Yeah, scam probably isn't the right word for it in this case. Glad I put a question mark after it - last thing I need is a lawsuit for libel, slander or some other thing.

 

[cammania]

Mate of mine won an Xbox for 15 bucks or o plus 30 postage. High but fair.

That said. I wouldn't go anywhere near it.

 

[ioppolo]

Ads are lulworthy.

"I got a macbook pro for $67!!!!!!!!!!"

Hired Actor in tiny text underneath.

Then the "Go online to claim your free bids now!"

Tiny text underneath.... Must buy $60 bid pack to claim free bids.

I choked on my water from laughing so hard at that ad.

 

[Smoooothy]

the old man purchased about $100 in bids on one of these sites and chewed through them pretty quick without winning anything. not that it surprised me or anything considering he has a bit of a gambling addiction..

 

[Illinois Nazi]

Whoever thought this up deserves to make a lot of money off idiots.

 

[King Elvis]

Yea, bastard.

I'm jelly.

 

[Ron]

Never heard of this site before i read this thread, so i popped over and had a look. I understand how it works, but it is very strange.
It seems every auction gets to one second and stops at one second for ages and then someone bids and it is back to 15 seconds.

Do they ever end?

 

[Geelong_Sicko]

That's the clincher, Ron. Everyone sees it's down to the last few seconds and they pump the bids in hoping to win the thing. Clock keeps resetting and more suckers try their hand.

 

[Poseidon]

Not really a scam but still kinda sneaky, I guess.
I'm also jealous that I never thought of it.

 

[Geelong_Sicko]

It's really not that much removed from online pokies... pumping in the credits hoping to get a win. They get to sidestep gambling laws and gambling taxes though by declaring themselves an 'auction site'.

 

[grizzlym]

Penny auctions have been running in the states for years. They make huge amounts of money off the losing bids. The 'buy me now' function is disgusting. Yes, you can buy a cheap item, but you can also blow heaps on pursuing it. What's that old adage? 'if it sounds to good to be true...'

 

[Cohzee]

Quite a while ago I saw an ad for a similar site and went to check it out. The homepage was immediately covered by a registration form which I could not close, blocking me from doing anything other than register.

Never trust a site that forces you to register before allowing you to look around the place. Or, if you really want to look, use fake info. Best to stay away from that shit though.

 

[The Big Sticks]

There are ads for these at the top of bigfooty pages.

 

[NitroFan]

one on this very page for me

 

[maryh43jkh]

not a scam but read this: http://www.doesitreallyworkorscam.com/quibids-scam

at 200 suckers there is a winner. so if you want to lose your money on quibids better donate to charity and you will feel better

 

[Ed_Gein]

It's not a scam really. Because they do actually send out the items to the winning bidders.

It's just a different form of gambling in a way really, it's a legitimate business model and good luck to the people that are having a crack. You could get lucky and win a 42" LCD after purchasing a bid pack for the first time or you might end up winning nothing after spending up to a $1,000 or even more.

I wish i came up with something like that. Haha. Because they probably get back double what the item they've sold is worth.

 

[lewigie]

Is this like the auction sites where you bid a low number and if someone else bids that number it gets cancelled? So the lowest individual number wins?

 

[PP34]

Seen the ads and thought it's too good to be true. The odds of winning an item seem small.

 

[Macca_]

Risk outweighs the reward