printseller
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posted on October 14, 2000 12:40:05 PM new
My son has sworn me to secrecy about this, but since I am anonymous I thought everyone should know about this new fad at his High School.
My 16 year-old son told me yesterday that there is a new High School contest called "spuffing".
The idea of the contest is to regester as an eBay bidder and ring-up the highest amount of bids before getting NARU.
Each game lasts four weeks, and the user ID with the highest total bid amount wins.
Contestants must avoid complaints to delay getting NARU, and make phoney promises to the sellers to keep their ID alive.
The schools athletic teams had a large game last week with over 60 contestants. The winning bidder had over $250,000 in bids!
My son says that this is becoming very popular in High Schools all across our State.
This might explain some of the recent deadbeat bidders. . .
[ edited by printseller on Oct 14, 2000 12:44 PM ]
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Zazzie
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posted on October 14, 2000 12:45:47 PM new
You should contact EBAY on this
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abacaxi
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posted on October 14, 2000 12:49:42 PM new
Does anyone want to track down the real kids behind the IDs and take them to the woodshed?
Fun for them, but they are messing with people's livlihoods.
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Zazzie
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posted on October 14, 2000 01:08:26 PM new
What the school is doing is incouraging an illegal activity and this subject should be addressed by your son's school and other schools that are involved in this.
I wonder whose credit cards they are using to register bidding accounts???
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Valerie47
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posted on October 14, 2000 01:13:56 PM new
Zazzie:
I don't think you don't need a credit card to bid, you only need one if you are registering as a seller.
Printseller: I think you should also notify Ebay of this.
____________________________________
The only place you'll find success before work is in the dictionary.
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nowwhat
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posted on October 14, 2000 01:18:06 PM new
Sorry printseller but I find it hard to believe anything you say!
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spottydoggy
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posted on October 14, 2000 01:21:08 PM new
Printseller strikes again!
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uaru
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posted on October 14, 2000 01:22:33 PM new
" I don't think you don't need a credit card to bid, you only need one if you are registering as a seller. "
That is my understanding also, unless you are using an obvious anonymous email address like @hotmail or @yahoo you aren't required to enter a credit card #. If you are using AOL (Adolescents On Line) no such requirement is needed, even if you can create tons of screen names and delete them at your whim.
Maybe this can be a positive thing if it becomes popular, maybe eBay will require some degree of accountability from all members.
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cybercat
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posted on October 14, 2000 01:29:19 PM new
I didn't think eBay allowed minors to bid on eBay.
cybercat
--
What if the Hokey Pokey really is what it's all about?
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uaru
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posted on October 14, 2000 01:39:39 PM new
"I didn't think eBay allowed minors to bid on eBay."
How do they check for age? It isn't like the kids are buying a pack of cigarettes where they have to show some ID.
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figmente
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posted on October 14, 2000 01:40:41 PM new
Sorry printseller but I find it hard to believe such nonsense!
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pickersangel
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posted on October 14, 2000 01:42:03 PM new
You need a credit card to register as a bidder if you are registering with a Web-based email address like Yahoo or Hotmail. I tend to be a bit skeptical about any thread started by this particular poster after thread about the little old lady and her yard sale, so I see the issue of being able to register multiple ID's as a weakness in the story, unless a LOT of the families in her area are on AOL, so that new screen names/email addies can be created in order to "play" again without having a credit card, once the bogus ID's have been NARU'ed. I certainly hope this is jsut another troll thread, but maybe something like this would wake Ebay up to the fact that things need to be tightened up a bit.
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Empires
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posted on October 14, 2000 01:50:47 PM new
Great tell your kid use of computers and technology in that manner is one more reason I want the genes of all idiots on my desk Monday morning so that we can destroy that segment of the human race!
Forwarded to ebay/safeharbor for what it's worth...
[ edited by Empires on Oct 14, 2000 01:54 PM ]
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dman3
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posted on October 14, 2000 01:54:12 PM new
Granted bids are good on ebay but I dont think bidding is so good that no one even ebay would miss 15 to 20 million in bids by only 60 different IDs Not to mention the school not noticeing the incress in use of there online service and incress in email from ebay sellers.
Take note printseller is saying "The schools athletic teams had a large game last week with over 60 contestants. The winning bidder had over $250,000 in bids!"
The winner had over quarter of million dollars in bids one of 60 players in this game that lasted 4 weeks. if seller on this board gets over $100 in bids on more then one item from a new buyer with 0 feed back they get nervous .
$250,000 now was this what 250 $1000 bids from a new buyer no one questioned ????
2500 $100 or 5000 $50 bids over 4 weeks from a new buyer no one questioned ????
I dont know about other sellers out there but I do a min check of all my bids I get and there habbits if I see a new buyer with 100 or 200 bids out there at one time in a 10 to 20 day peroid of time im even gona wonder whats up .
I might even write and ask ebay about this for sure at best a new buyer is out there with at best a gold card with a 10,000 or 20,000 limit some higher but they are farther and fewer between.
and there is a better then average chance they wont be maxing out these cards buying on ebay.
then keep in mind most schools use free MSN and AOL online account they are limited mail accouts set to a 10 to 15 meg limit of email and your talking thousands of in comeing and out going emails from open closed bid wins eoas 24/7 plus the normal school email load.
WWW.dman-n-company.com
[ edited by dman3 on Oct 14, 2000 02:00 PM ]
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heygrape
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posted on October 14, 2000 02:01:47 PM new
I think the moderator should not just close this thread, she should nuke it completely.
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Empires
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posted on October 14, 2000 02:44:28 PM new
Judging from some of printsellers other posts I agree with some others (moderator) ...shut it down. It's not a thread that can be proven. And printseller may not be credible at this time with regards to this thread.
http://www.auctionwatch.com/search.html
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mzalez
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posted on October 14, 2000 02:54:22 PM new
printseller, I hope it's not true! If it is it's a disaster.
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uaru
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posted on October 14, 2000 03:07:12 PM new
"...shut it down. It's not a thread that can be proven. And printseller may not be credible at this time with regards to this thread."
If every thread that couldn't be proven was shut down, imagine all of these 'my version' posts that would be gone.
I've been questioned about labeling posts as 'hear say' but my experience with message boards demands that attitude
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HartCottageQuilts
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posted on October 14, 2000 03:17:20 PM new
Well, at least the bidding isn't being done by little old ladies recently declared incompetent after selling their households full of antiques for $300.
Anyway (better safe than sorry) I did a search on "spuffing" and came up with one reference. Read this webpage s l o w l y and carefully, and see if your eyebrows rise like mine did:
http://www.werkleitz.de/sub-fiction/text/cat/strebel.html
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rarriffle
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posted on October 14, 2000 03:22:02 PM new
I don't know, I got a winning bidder with a very low feedback (3) who has 280 bids out there right now. Finally got an answering email on the 4th day from a female. Most other bids are and have been on adult items. I will be concerned until I receive the promised money order. 
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skyscout
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posted on October 14, 2000 03:22:54 PM new
Even though this particular post may be untrue, I believe that this is happening. I never had many deabeats until I started selling some bigger items. I have had major leugue trouble ever since then. I sold one guy a new Canon Rebel G camera 2 weeks ago and he didn't pay. Now he has -2 feedback and checking those, I also found that he never paid for the BMW 525i and the photo minilab that he also bought! Ebay needs to get this under control. They also need to stress that the final bid price is what you pay. Too many people are trying to make deals afterwards, and when you don't go for it, "fine, don't send the damn thing! Deal's off!" This is unfair to the sellers who can't count on any particular amount of money after the auction is over.
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labbie1
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posted on October 14, 2000 03:32:04 PM new
HCQ--LOL I do believe that would be a Spuff!
And may I add:
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printseller
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posted on October 14, 2000 04:56:14 PM new
Why do some people assume that just because I post my auction-related "issues" here that I must be making things up?
My son says that the term "spuffing" means "imposter" in High School jargon.
It originated as a derivative of IP-spuffing. IP-spuffing is where an "imposter" pretends to be someone else and captures their IP address to gain unauthorized access to their computer.
I have not yet had a chance to investigate this, and as a eBay seller, I hope as much as you do that this is not true.
My son says he can get the eBay ID of the NARU'ed user who won the last contest.
When I get it, is it against AW guidelines to post a link to the winning copntestant?
I'm not sure it is possible to invite a NARU user to AW since their e-mail address is no longer active?
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amalgamated2000
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posted on October 14, 2000 05:23:43 PM new
It originated as a derivative of IP-spuffing
I don't know about the legitimacy of this story, but I do know that it's IP spoofing, not spuffing.
I'm not sure it is possible to invite a NARU user to AW since their e-mail address is no longer active?
Being NARU'd doesn't necessarily mean their email address is not still good. It's pretty unlikely that it's an email address that they actually use, though, if it is still active. But the guidelines don't say that the person has to respond, only that they be invited.
[ edited by amalgamated2000 on Oct 14, 2000 05:24 PM ]
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HartCottageQuilts
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posted on October 14, 2000 06:00:02 PM new
Why do some people assume that just because I post my auction-related "issues" here that I must be making things up?
First, go back and read "Chicken Little" or "The Boy That Cried Wolf." Your pick.
Then let's look at the sitch again:
1. Terrifying story of high school students run amok using computers.
2. Damages run into the tens of thousands/millions of dollars, but none of the victims noticed before it was "too late."
3 Story is second- or third-hand and teller doesn't provide substantiation (and it's related to him "secretly" .
4. Teller has a track record of starting questionable threads.
Absent firsthand evidence, and given the source's track record, it appears to many that what we have here is an Urban Legend in the making.
It bears repeating: Watch what you post on these boards. They will come back to bite you in the ass.
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avaloncourt
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posted on October 14, 2000 07:00:57 PM new
Yep, printseller doesn't know a spoof from a spuff.
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macandjan
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posted on October 14, 2000 07:44:46 PM new
Months ago I had a bidder put in multimillion dollar bids for all items I had in a dutch auction. Why is eBays software not set to catch impossible national debt size bids and reject them? It took almost 2 weeks to get them to remove the $1,875,013.00 FVF on my account. THEN they removed it twice giving me a $1,375,013.00 credit. And do you think that they would cut me a check for my credit balance when asked nicely? NO.......
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radh
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posted on October 14, 2000 08:57:49 PM new
macandjan: even two years ago, Skippy stated that there was software in place which prevents just the type of scenario your post depicts.
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bobbysoxer
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posted on October 14, 2000 10:31:14 PM new
What if there is a high school contest to see how successful their troll posts are?
50 points for the $300 yard sale purchase?
5 points for the "spuffing" troll post?
What if......
not bobbysoxer on eBay
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avaloncourt
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posted on October 14, 2000 11:31:53 PM new
[ edited by avaloncourt on Oct 14, 2000 11:32 PM ]
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