Why people are buying and selling 1p rubbish on eBay… the reason will shock you
These sellers have been accused of trying to con the public with faked five-star reviews
MILLIONS of people shop on eBay because unlike other online retailers, the individual shops within the auction site can not fake reviews, so shoppers know if who they are buying from are trustworthy sellers.
But, the Sun Online has found that this is not necessarily the case, with sellers using a loophole to fake five star reviews to con the general public.
Usually, when a shopper buys something from a seller via the auction site - they will rate each other after the transaction using stars. The more stars a seller gets, the more trustworthy and value for money they are deemed.
Getting those stars are important for eBay businesses, because if a seller is choosing an item that is available in two different shops, they are more likely to pick the store with 10,000 five star reviews, than the one with 800.
But, the Sun Online has uncovered a loophole where eBay stores are selling literal rubbish to each other for a penny, in exchange for a five star review.
Listings include: "Penny auction for not working used pen", "Penny auction for used white plastic fork" and "Penny auction for used pizza box."
There are also lots of 1p auctions that are selling 1p desktop wallpapers too on the site.
These listings are usually sold by a shop, that sells something else - such as furniture or rugs, which makes shoppers believe that the 5 star reviews are for the items sold from the shop, rather than the 1p items.
RELATED STORIES
We asked eBay if this kind of selling is allowed on the site, and it said: "This is against the rules. We will remove listings where reviews are mentioned in this way."
Shoppers should be rightly concerned about whether they can trust store ratings within eBay. Guy Anker, Managing Editor of told us: "Firms that create or encourage fake reviews are a scourge and are trying to con the public.
"The people power created by reviews and ratings is a great tool for millions to work out if the item or service they're considering is really as good as it seems.
"But if something seems too good to be true, tread very carefully. Companies and services are never perfect so a stream of reviews that seem perfect could be fake."
When deciding to purchase from an eBay seller and to avoid being duped, check its feedback - not just the star rating and number, but what was actually sold and for how much.
If there are a lot of items going for a few pennies that do not fit with the rest of the items in the eBay shop stay clear as the seller is intentionally trying to trick you.
1p auctions are not the only way to get conned on eBay, with one terminally ill pensioner getting scammed out of £4,000 after fraudsters tricked him into handing over cash for a motor.