So, my question: Why is fraud not fraud? Just because it is allowed by some of those people/organizations committing the fraud?
How about all the unsuspecting/trusting for-real bidders? Me thinks they'd have a different viewpoint.
Definition of shill:
noun
An accomplice of a hawker, gambler, or swindler who acts as an enthusiastic customer to entice or encourage others.
"I used to be a shill in a Reno gambling club"
Below is from Wikipedia...source of all knowledge
: but is pretty accurate in this case, IMO.
People who drive prices in favor of the auctioneer with fake bids in an auction are called shills or potted plants and seek to provoke a bidding war among other participants.[8][9] Often they are told by the seller precisely how high to bid, as the seller does not lose money if the item does not sell, paying only the auction fees. Shilling has a substantially higher rate of occurrence in online auctions, where any user with multiple accounts can bid on their own items. One detailed example of this has been documented in online auto auctions.[8] The online auction site eBay forbids shilling; its rules do not allow friends or employees of a person selling an item to bid on the item,[10] even though eBay has no means to detect if a bidder is related to a seller or is in fact the seller.[11]
In his book Fake: Forgery, Lies, & eBay, Kenneth Walton describes how he and his cohorts placed shill bids on hundreds of eBay auctions over the course of a year.
Walton and his associates were charged and convicted of fraud by the United States Attorney for their eBay shill bidding.[12]
With the proliferation of live online auctions in recent years, shill bidding has become commonplace.[citation needed] Some websites allow shill bidding by participating auctioneers. These auctioneers are able to see bids placed in real time and can then place counter bids to increase the amount. One Proxibid auctioneers' website states, "At the request of the auction company, this auction permits bids to be placed by the seller or on the seller's behalf, even if such bids are placed solely for the purpose of increasing the bid."[13]