If you’ve watched television lately, you may have seen some advertisements promoting online auction websites that claim to offer consumers a chance at some amazing bargains. “Deals, deals, deals,” they say, with some utilizing retired sports stars and washed up celebrities to promote their products. But are these online auction sites legitimate? According to a noted technology expert, more often than not, they are really online scams.
“Unless you like losing money, I’d avoid the vast majority of these sites,” says Sarah McDaniels, who reviews potential scam websites for KingofHowTo.com.
McDaniels blames penny auction websites, such as Skoreit and Beezid, for polluting the Internet with deceptive programs that detract from more reputable ones, such as eBay.
“The Better Business Bureau has listed these types of penny auction sites in their annual list of top ten online scams,” she said. “Penny auction sites prey on unwitting consumers who are sucked into the excitement of the auction platform.”
According to McDaniels, sites like MadBid and QuiBids aren’t like eBay. In fact, she says they’re really less like auctions and more like online scams or, at best, the games you find in a casino.
“To participate in these types of auctions, members have to purchase bids from the website,” she said. “Each time they place a bid on an item, they lose the bid whether they win the auction or not. Each time a bid is placed, time is added to the auction and the price of the item ascends by a few cents. Ultimately, to win, you have to keep bidding and this raises the stakes and tempts members to keep participating even though they only have a small chance of winning. In the end, it’s much more like a casino game than an actual auction.”
McDaniels says there are numerous online complaints against penny auction sites, which she says are able to rake in hundreds to thousands of dollars on items that sell for just a few dollars. According to her, reputable auction sites don’t usually have to push their products down consumers’ throats; and when they do, savvy web surfers should raise an eyebrow.
“Anytime you hear, ‘deals, deals, deals,’ you should run, because this is the catch phrase of many online scams,” she said. “Penny auctions are devised to profit off of failed bidders, not from sold goods.”
If consumers are looking for real auctions, McDaniels says they can try websites, such as Bid or Buy and Bidz. Still, ultimately, she says it’s buyer beware.
“I’ve reviewed a lot of reputable online auction sites, like eBid, for instance,” she said. “Here’s a site that looks alright; however, it doesn’t even have a phone number listed on its contact page. So my recommendation is this: if it looks questionable, it probably is.”
- Ryan Lawrence is the blog writer for HighClassBlogs. He is a feature writer, freelance copywriter and interview expert.