Swipebids are SCAM artists.
Swipebids is an auction company that you are supposed to be able to buy things at a reduced price for very little money. You are supposed to be able to buy bids for 10 cents each and when the bidding ends,( after a preset time) if you were the last bidder you win the product.
I thought I would purchase maybe a hundred bids and see if I could win something that I wanted.When I hit the "Purchase Bids" button, I found out they had preset what they call a "Large Bid Pack" of 300 bids for $150.00, which they almost immediately charged my Debit card. When I called them about it, they said the second order for bids would be 10 cents a bid, not the first. I asked them where that was stated on their website and he admitted it was not on there. These bids cost 50 cents instead of the 10 cents that was advertised on their website.
I asked for a refund and they refused.I checked their auction and it starts out at a preset time, but when it get down to where the bidding time is almost over, (usually about 12 seconds) about 10 seconds is added after each bid so the time will not run out.I also noticed some bidders will have the high bid but will bid again anyway to keep the time from expiring.The only reason I can see they would want to do this is because they are company employees whose job is to run the price up and not allow the time to expire until they get the money they want for the item. I noticed that some of the winners are these same people. Also if the bidding is slow, they will add as much as 2 minutes to the time for it to end.
I also noticed they are selling the same items over and over again. I don't know if they have a large inventory of these items or if they are the same ones.When you bid, the price increases by 1 cent. If the last bid is $35.00 which is what most of the higher priced items stop at, it means they have had 3500 bids on that item at 50 cents a bid or $1750.00 for a $600 item. You also have to pay the bid price plus shipping to get the item you won.This is the biggest rip-off scam I have encountered so far on the internet. I have filed a complaint with the FCC and BBB of Utah, but have heard nothing from them as yet. If you receive an Email from them asking you to join the auction, DELETE it immediately. You will lose your money and have nothing to show for it.
I thought I would purchase maybe a hundred bids and see if I could win something that I wanted.When I hit the "Purchase Bids" button, I found out they had preset what they call a "Large Bid Pack" of 300 bids for $150.00, which they almost immediately charged my Debit card. When I called them about it, they said the second order for bids would be 10 cents a bid, not the first. I asked them where that was stated on their website and he admitted it was not on there. These bids cost 50 cents instead of the 10 cents that was advertised on their website.
I asked for a refund and they refused.I checked their auction and it starts out at a preset time, but when it get down to where the bidding time is almost over, (usually about 12 seconds) about 10 seconds is added after each bid so the time will not run out.I also noticed some bidders will have the high bid but will bid again anyway to keep the time from expiring.The only reason I can see they would want to do this is because they are company employees whose job is to run the price up and not allow the time to expire until they get the money they want for the item. I noticed that some of the winners are these same people. Also if the bidding is slow, they will add as much as 2 minutes to the time for it to end.
I also noticed they are selling the same items over and over again. I don't know if they have a large inventory of these items or if they are the same ones.When you bid, the price increases by 1 cent. If the last bid is $35.00 which is what most of the higher priced items stop at, it means they have had 3500 bids on that item at 50 cents a bid or $1750.00 for a $600 item. You also have to pay the bid price plus shipping to get the item you won.This is the biggest rip-off scam I have encountered so far on the internet. I have filed a complaint with the FCC and BBB of Utah, but have heard nothing from them as yet. If you receive an Email from them asking you to join the auction, DELETE it immediately. You will lose your money and have nothing to show for it.
Tags: Auctions
Views: 2603
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Craig S. Files on -
Thanks fot the knowledge. I will hang on for my one year(if they last that long) and get my moneys worth! Other scams. Rem"BRIGHT", job sites that charge your cell phone.
-
Permalink Reply by Justin Asking on -
Good luck Craig, I hope things work out for you.
Justin
-
Permalink Reply by Jaryd on
-
You are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!! The SCAM is SIMPLE! They get a whole bunch of people to sign up and pay for Bids. If you bid anything on an auction, you IMMEDIATELY lose your money if you don't win!
Since there is supposedly ONLY ONE winner, all of the other hundreds of people who Bid and LOST, just lost their money. That could be thousands of dollars on ONE Auction!!!
So Basically, you are BIDDING all of your money away on NOTHING! There is no guarantee that you will ever win!
This is like a LOTTERY not an AUCTION. The definition of an auction is the Bidders do NOT lose their money if they do NOT win the Auction. You do NOT pay any money unless you have won.
WARNING: STAY AWAY FROM THESE SCAMMERS and other sites like them. Another one is "SWOOPO"! I think they are the same company. Their websites are practically identical!!
-
Permalink Reply by James Jacobs on
-
Patti,
You are so right about this bunch of crooks. I can't log into their web site anymore even though I have bids I didn't use. Please check the web sites for the FCC, FTC, FBI, and Utah BBB and file a complaint. That's the only way they will ever be stopped. I hope everyone who reads these will do the same about any Internet scam they get involved with. These are the people that can put a stop to some of these scams, but only if you file a complaint. J.B.
-
Permalink Reply by John Hooper on
-
Dude - Swoopo and Swipebids are not the same company!! Swoopo is a German company backed by venture capital and has been around a while. I am not recommending them - in fact I would never use them but they are not linked to Swipebids.
Swipebids is part of Just Think Media - the site is on their servers as proven by the excellent investigation at PAW:
http://www.pennyauctionwatch.com/2010/05/swipebids-jesse-willms/
You cannot say that "no one knows location" - they are in Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada [Swipebids.com
Just Think Media / Terra Marketing Group
Corporate Head Office
Suite 204, 85 Cranford Way
Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA T8H 0H9
Phone: 780.416.0211] - they may try to hide their location, but lots of people know where it is including the BBB, ABC 20/20 and other news channels and the lawyers for Oprah/Harpo.
ABC news, CBC and others have visited this address when investigating the Just Think Media scams (the company would not let them in the door) and one of them confronted Jesse Willms in the car park (he refused to speak!) - so the address exists and has been confirmed as the address of Just Think Media (who run Swipebids).
But what all these penny auctions websites do have in common is that they are not auctions. It's gambling - the house always wins and these sites are very profitable for the owners but not for the 'customers/biddders'.
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2009/05/penny-auctions-theyre-gamb...
As for bidpigs, they give their address as: Rabideagle Enterprises, LLC
110 Docs Road
Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania 16648
United States so unlike Swipebids they are not trying to hide:
http://whois.domaintools.com/bidpigs.com
My only concern is the Bidknights.com web domain hosted on the same server as bidpigs and which (like Swipbids) has it's ownership details hidden using a domain privacy service. I would like to hear an explanation of this from bidpigs. That concern aside they seem to have good reviews unlike Swipebids which seems to be specifically set up to scam people! The domain Swipebids.com even expires in less than 6 months time which suggests they plan to swipe as much money from people as they can before disappearing - just like all the other previous Jesse Willms Just Think Media websites which are no longer around:
http://www.webcops.net/just_think_media_spam_scams_8001.html
-
Permalink Reply by paulcoppa on
-
John, I just tried to call this number in Alberta and it has been disconnected.
-
Permalink Reply by Jeremy Hetrick on
-
Hi John and everyone else,
Sorry I took so long to get in here and respond. I am the president of Rabideagle Enterprises which owns BidPigs.com
I was directed to this article a while back but have been real busy. I will respond to the bidknights thing with a very easy- We own it. By we I mean Rabideagle Enterprises. It is listed with privacy because when we started out we bought a bunch of domains and GoDaddy talked us into privacy. I havent gotten around to opening that domain for review because there is essentially nothing there. If or when we actually have a working site on that domain we will open it for review as we did with BidPigs.
I was also told that some were questioning the listed address for our business because it is not googled in a business district. LOL, I hope that we get big enough that our from home internet business requires us to move into a warehouse! As it is, we have no trouble keeping up with our inventory and shipping needs. You can verify by checking reviews for our site (BidPigs) on numerous forums...pennyauctionhelp, pennyauctionwatch, pennyauctionlist, pennyburners, just to name a few. We are required by state law to have products on hand BEFORE we list them for auction so we always have the product available for quick shipping.
As stated I am very pressed for time, so I hope I answered any questions that would be directed at BidPigs. If not please feel free to contact me throught the support email of our site.
Thanks,
Jeremy
-
Permalink Reply by Teresa Bierman on
-
I am just saying that I am a regular bidder on these 3 sites, and they are not scam artists. They don't use shill bidders or bots to drive up the prices, and when you win, you get your items within days. I don't buy big bid packs, so I don't worry about if they fold, losing any bids. I was just answering Patti's question. It appears that she is interested in finding auction sites that aren't scams like swipebids. I have always received all of my won items from these three sites, and have never had any kind of issues with them. As far as folding and not getting items won, that is a risk that you take buying anything online, actually, if you think about it. I did have this happen to me before, and took care of it through PayPal. The site folded, and I filed a dispute, and my money was returned.
-
Permalink Reply by James Jacobs on
-
Jaryd,
Please file a complaint with the FBI, FCC, FTC, and Utah BBB about this company. If they receive enough complaints, Maybe something will be done to stop some of the scams on the Internet. J.B.
-
Permalink Reply by Sandy Smaill on
-
I think the principle behind the legitimate companies is they make money auctioning things that everyone pays toward the cost of but if you notice, the winner gets it for cheap. At quibids their policy is if you win a large item you have to wait like 28 days before you can win another large item. That way everyone gets a chance at winning a large ticket item. It really seems more to me that they spread the cost around on everyone, it sort of reminds me of the days of pyramid schemes. I don't know if any of you are old enough to remember those, haha. The thing is, it's all chance, luck and spending cash. A gamble.
Like I wrote on a string at the end, there comes a time when you add up what you've put on something and figure out, it's cheaper to just buy the item from a retail outlet. If you like a bit of gamey chance, have a few dollars to spend, then at least go to a legitimate transparent site that spells it all out for you without hiding behind the internet. I think we all like bargains, it's just this is not ebay bidding.
-
Permalink Reply by Justin Asking on
-
Jaryd I believe you are absolutely correct when you say that swipebids and swoopo: "they are the same company. Their websites are practically identical!!" You are not the only one to notice the similarities between those two as well as many other so called penny auctions. I have examined many of the popular sites and found them all to be the same in respect to being deceptive in disclosing their actual land based business locations. If anyone in this community can actually verify any such locations of any of the web based penny auctions please post them here and I will make a full retraction of this statement. And sorry Sandy I couldn't verify your favorite auction.
-
Permalink Reply by Penny Auction Watch on
-
If you have tried SwipeBids.com please e-mail me at help [at] pennyauctionwatch [dot] com please and leave a comment on one of our blog posts about swipebids.com
See this article http://www.pennyauctionwatch.com/2010/05/swipebids-jesse-willms/
© 2012 Created by Scamraider.
