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Comment by tyingq | Hacker News Reader

"FAILURE TO PAY FOR ITEMS WILL RESULT IN ACCOUNT DEACTIVATION AND DENIAL FROM PARTICIPATION IN ANY FUTURE GASTON & SHEEHAN AUCTIONS, LIVE OR ONLINE."

The consequences seem pretty light.

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That doesn't preclude other punishments, no? Fraudulent auction bids are presumably fairly illegal, so criminal persecution is presumably also a possibility.

> Fraudulent auction bids are presumably fairly illegal

Someone's never been on Ebay

It’s like ebay, but where every seller has a gun, federal backing, and literally gets paid to arrest people.

It's an auction house. They aren't giving the Marshal's service item level updates. They just give the sale to the number 2 bidder and move on.

So what you're saying is, I need 2 accounts, bid $15 with one and then up myself with the fraudulent account to $500 and get the item for 15?

People actually do this on eBay sometimes

The sale goes to the number 1 bidder at some bid increment higher than the number 2 bidder's maximum bid. The current price shown is that amount, not the number 1 bidder's maximum bid. It implements a modified Vickrey auction using an autobidder.

Sounds like the solution is to be not American.

If you goal is to defraud the U.S. Marshals Service I mean.

Like what is the U.S. Marshals Service going to do to a Romanian trickster?

>> Like what is the U.S. Marshals Service going to do to a Romanian trickster?

Get him extradited in the US after possibly serving some time in Romania as well?

> <insert the DVD Jon story here>

Ah, that's a story I havent't seen cited in a long time.

Wife screamed at me threatening to divorce...blah blah. So illegal prob not but ban yes.

You're under no legal obligation to pay if you make a bid.

Using a stolen credit card, on the other hand...

I've been (not bidded) in cattle auctions in Brazil and they always announce that auction bids are irreversible.

There's quite a leap from "you can't change or revoke your bid" to "it's illegal to make a bid you have no intention of fulfilling."

On a bidding site nobody bans like Gaston! "I'm especially good at deaaaaactivations!"

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