ebay usernames with *** between to characters...fraud? snipes? what is this?

October 26, 2008 10:57 AM

what's with ebay usernames like 7***j...I'm frequently being outbid by this type of username...is this an automated type of bidding account, like for bid sniping? is this fraud? anybody know?

I'm seeing this sort of username on practically every auction regardless of the item. It's an alphanumeric character followed by three asterisks and another alphanumeric character. I was the first bidder on an item for .99 and was instantly outbid on it by a n***i and when I looked at that users bid history, it had a number of transactions with the same seller, and ALL for similar items.

Google is giving me nothing on this topic. Anyone know what's up with this odd proliferation of formula usernames?

posted by othersomethings to computers & internet (12 answers total)

Ebay does that for any users who have bid on an item.. I would guess it's so people can't e-mail those who didn't win and offer them the item under the table.

If you look at some other auctions, they're all like that.
posted by pete0r at 11:02 AM on October 26, 2008

But it doesn't do it for your own username? just any other bidders involved?
posted by othersomethings at 11:04 AM on October 26, 2008

It hides the identity of other users. You are similarly hidden to others bidding.
posted by piratebowling at 11:07 AM on October 26, 2008

The seller can't see the real names of the bidders either until the end of the auction.
posted by kimdog at 11:08 AM on October 26, 2008

I would assume it wouldn't do it for your username when you're logged in.. there's no reason to do so.

It sounds like maybe the auction you're looking at is in fact getting snipped, but it has nothing to do with the masked username thing.
posted by pete0r at 11:08 AM on October 26, 2008

Everyone has their own user name fully displayed, and all other user names obscured in the method you described. Once the auction ends, the winning bidder's name is (usually) displayed un-obscured on the auction, but until then it is secret from all competing bidders.

I'm fairly sure this is covered in an FAQ somewhere on eBay, but it is the standard way they do it.
posted by paisley henosis at 11:08 AM on October 26, 2008

Oh, and you are "constantly being outbid by" these other people because they have set their maximum very high and eBay automatically rebids for them by x amount until their maximum bid has been outbid by another person.
posted by piratebowling at 11:08 AM on October 26, 2008

From the last paragraph of this help topic: "To protect your privacy, we limit how your bid history information is displayed by using anonymous names. Your complete user ID is shown to the seller of this item only. Bidders are assigned anonymous names, such as x***y. These anonymous names are used consistently across all listings."
posted by Houstonian at 11:09 AM on October 26, 2008

To protect your privacy, we limit how your bid history information is displayed by using anonymous names. Your complete user ID is shown to the seller of this item only. Bidders are assigned anonymous names, such as x***y. These anonymous names are used consistently across all listings.

Link.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 11:09 AM on October 26, 2008

thanks. I couldn't find any information on this on ebay so I thought it was worth asking.
posted by othersomethings at 11:12 AM on October 26, 2008

It's a pretty recent change to eBay (last year?), othersomethings, so maybe you didn't notice. Before that, all names were shown.
posted by rokusan at 12:16 PM on October 26, 2008

Yes, it's pretty new.
posted by fixedgear at 12:27 PM on October 26, 2008