Published June 23, 2010 | 
Update: Recently Swipe Bids re-branded their website as Swipe Auctions. I have started a new website dedicated to scams where you can review my report of Swipe Auctions Scam.
If you would like to see in depth how penny auction websites function in general, I wrote a very thorough article here at (How Penny Auctions Work)
I am going to divulge a lot of information about the inner workings of Swipe Bids through out this entire article. Buyer Beware. Armed with this knowledge you will be able to make an informed decision regarding Swipe Bids as well as any other Penny Auction website.
At the bottom of this article, you will find many user comments about their experiences with Swipe Bids which you will probably find useful. Also feel free to add your own opinion and knowledge of Swipe Bids and Penny Auctions.
Swipe Bids is a penny auction website that promises savings of up to 90% and unbelievable deals on EVERYTHING! And their registration page and home page makes everything look great… You might even say, too good to be true? You might even considering googling “Swipe Bids Scam” or “Swipe Bids Reviews” to see what other people have to say about such fishy (perhaps fraudulent) claims. Also be careful, this same company operates several websites with different names, and there are many other “clone” websites out there that are all the same.
YOU HAVE TO PAY EACH TIME YOU BID!!!!
Well Here’s How Swipe Bids Really Works
And each time you bid, the auction’s timer increases just a little bit, by about 10 seconds. So you’ve gotten your camera bid in, you’re about to win a $1000 camera for $124 and there’s 3 seconds left on the clock, right? Wrong, someone else just bid extending the action another 10 seconds and increasing the price by another PENNY …. and this can go on for HOURS.
Gee, how much do these bids cost? Well this is the thing overlooked by most people when they sign up for Swipe Bids penny auction website. They instantly charge you $150 to your credit card to buy 300 bids. This is only shown on the second registration page, after you have already typed in a bunch of personal information… And they make this a little sketchy because the second page looks almost identical except for where they slip in this wording telling you about the $150 charges to your credit card, Its not like a shopping cart with a checkout. A LOT of people don’t notice this part, nor do they notice where it says “no refunds”.
OK so this far it isn’t technically a scam, its just misleading and a little slimy. However, this is where we expose the SCAM part of the process. Swipe Bids has the power to shill their own auction’s bids. In other words, behind the scenes Swipe Bids may at the last second bid on their own auctions to extend them a little longer to keep things from selling at either
- Too low of a price
- Before enough people have spent enough money on bids for them to make a profit on the auction
You see, that’s how they make money selling things so cheap, the bids cost money therefore subsidizing the cost of the actual item, and with each bid, its like a SWIPE of your credit card… Get It LOL. Any one auction may have hundreds or even thousands of bids by the time the auction is finally won, and those bids are what pay for the auctions item and put money into Swipe Bids fraudulent pockets (OK, so this isn’t technically fraud yet but read on). Take this example… What if an auction is ending too early without enough bids? Swipe Bids can step in and bid themselves to up the anti and force you to spend more bids and extend the auction a little longer… And who is going to be able to stop them or monitor this process? Swipe Bids wont even give away their location if you ask!
Sure there are some winners, some people do in fact win very cheap items… however for every one winner, there are SEVERAL losers. Everyone has to pay for their bids, regardless of whether they win the item or not. And in order for swipe bids to actually turn a profit, the odds need to be stacked highly against you – the bidder; so that you will actually, in the end, not save any money at all… If everyone actually saved money, If EVERYONE actually won things for 90% off, the website would be bankrupt. This is the same way casino’s work, the odds are stacked against the gambler. OK OK, casinos are not a scam, people know how casinos work and the house NEEDS to win a majority of the time, however Swipe Bids has the ability to hide behind the internet and can pull all sorts of nasty tricks on you if they want to.
You see, all auctions on Swipe Bids are started by Swipe Bids themselves. They control everything, and if they plug an auction into a mathematical formula and see that their product’s auction is about to end without turning a profit, their software can easily place it’s own bids to extend the duration and force people to buy more bids for the item. HOW ELSE would they be able to operate with such a low volume of customers? I mean this website is NEW and its not well enough known to have an enormous volume of bidders across their pages of listed items, I mean its got nowhere close to the traffic of Ebay, comparing Swipe Bids to Ebay would be like comparing a SkyScraper to a grain of sand in traffic size…. On top of this, they are unlikely to get a lot of return visitors because each auction needs to have several losers, each of whom can waste in excess of $100 in bids on just one auction.
- By the time the auction ended (5 hours later than the first image at the top), the camera in the Swipe Bids auction pictured had had another 13,105 BIDS!!
- At even 10 cents a bid (you can bid on bids and usually win them around this price), people still spent $1,305 on bids alone, and the guy who one had to buy the camera for $256 on top of whatever he spend on bidding.
- Only 1 person won that camera auction, and only after spending several hundreds in bids
- Several people lost this auction and threw their money down the drain and wasted several hours of their lives
- There is no way to know if Swipe Bids extended the auction superficially on their side in order to make more money (is it a coincidence that it ended so abruptly so early (11:00pm), but right after they cleared over $100 in bids (AT LEAST) over the MSRP of the camera?)
So do you still want to try Swipe Bids? What are your thoughts?
117 Responses to Swipe Bids Scam – How Swipe Bids Actually Works – The Secret is OUT!
I Confidently host all of my websites with Hostgator
Rackspace is the Swipe Bids webhost. You might send an email to the abuse contact. I contacted rackspace via chat and they suggested abuse@rackspace.com
Moniker.com is the domain registrar. They don’t have an ‘abuse’ addy, so I sent to sales@moniker, comments@moniker.com and admin@moniker.com
Here is an interactive chat I had with swipebids
You are now chatting with ‘Justin’
Justin: Thank you for visiting SwipeBids. We are here to help you win auctions, save money and have a great time. Who am I speaking with?
you: A question, if I buy the 300 bid pack for $150 and do not win I lose the $
Justin: The Premium Membership have a guarantee that you will win an auction or the bids purchased will be replenished.
you: Ok and if I don’t want the premium membership what happens to the $ bid?
Justin: If you do not win the auction the bids that you purchased upfront and used during the auction will not be credited back to your account.
thank u so much todh; I hope u come back and see this message becuz I want to know what U found out, or what occured when u emailed the above.
I will see what I can do. I at least want to shout from the rooftops that SWIPEBIDS IS SUCH A RIP OFF AND A SCAM, SCAM, SCAM, no doubt about it. If you are still not sure after reading all the above.
I have had so many go arounds with the “friendly” live chat people. They are artists at making u feel really stupid for “them” not understanding what U are trying to understand.
Gail
Bravo!! First let me applaud you for exposing Swipebids for the scam artist they truly are. The more of us that do this the quicker we can shut them down and prevent these bottom dwellers from using fraudulent practices to steal money from innocent unsuspecting people. As far as the $150.00 registration that they charge to your account without any real AUTHORIZATION and CONFIRMATION I think that it could be proven that it is my design misleading, and deceptive and in accordance with the definition of fraud: (the broadest sense, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent.)is not just sneaky and slimy but truly fraudulent. I’m not an attorney but my bank put the $150.00 back into my account after they reviewed the research that I did on this on going practice which has produced hundreds of complains from people complaining about the $150.00 unauthorized charge put on their credit/debit card and “NO” attempt by swipebids to change the process in any way. One might make the argument that “ANY” legitimate company after receiving hundreds of complaints over several months period resulting in a “F” rating by the BBB, and complaints to the FBI,FCC, and FTC would make an effort to correct this. Swipebids chose rather than this to try to convince those that they have prayed upon that it is their fault for not knowing that swipebids was going to try to deceive them.
WARNING: Since so many people have been doing google and yahoo searches on Swipebids Scam a new website has surfaced named swipebidsscams.com that praises Swipebids and talks about how GREAT IT IS, HOW MUCH MONEY YOU CAN SAVE, AND HOW STRAIGHT FORWARD THE REGISTRATION PROCESS IS(WOW!!!!! THAT LAUGHABLE). It is design to look like it is a professional review by an impartial reviewing website not associated with Swipebids. If you do a little research and digging with WHOIS IP I think you find as I did that this site is associated with SWIPEBIDS. I can only imagine the sites purpose is to try and control the search engines and prevent people from finding all the complaints about Swipebids scam practices. An attempt to put lipstick and a pretty dress on a PIG.
how did you get your money back from Swipe Bids?
I am compiling names of SwipeBids victims. Also already talking to a lawyer about a class action lawsuit. Please contact me at olufasugbe@hotmail.com if you are interested to join. I have people already putting their names down. My number is 916-873-4331. This for sure, we can win!
I like you got robbed of $150.00 by SwipeBids,I have filed complaints with FTC BBB and Consumer affairs. SwipeBids needs to FALL and PAY! A class action suit seems to be a good option.
I agree. I just got scammed! I hope to get my money back.
Thank you for posting the $150 SwipeBids scam. I just got charged last night for $159 by falling into their trap. I am trying to get my credit card company to get it back but unsure if it will be succesfull.
I’m in….this is ridiculous and they need to be stopped.
Great comments everyone. I think everyone can agree that Swipe Bids is a pretty shady website. The more informed people are about Swipe Bids and other Penny Auction websites, the better.
What a great service you have provided for everyone. Like most people, I definitely take a wait-and-see approach to things that seem too good to be true, and this Swipe Bids thing definitely seemed like one of those things- but it was only after you spent time breaking down the minutiae that I fully understood just how devious of a scam this is. There is no question that there are major shenanigan scams going on here, and what’s even funnier is that the site “swipebidscam.com” which purports to be some third party enthusiastically suggesting that it’s NOT a scam contains absolutely no links of any kind in order to ascertain just who it is who is making this wholehearted recommendation… which leads us to conclude that it’s a shill for swipe bids itself. In due time I imagine this site will be shut down and its officers will be indicted. Still then, everyone should just stay away.
You folks really don’t know how much better you have made me feel from reading all this. Thank God for good people who take the time! I hope he blesses each and everyone of you 10 fold. I was or am a new victim of Swipe Bids as of today. I literally have $10.76 in my account til tuesday. I am sincerely disabled, not one of these teenagers that couldn’t cope with life LOL. Anyways, they got me, all I was doing was registering for a screen name and I too thought they debit card info was for my METHOD of payment if I were to win an auction. Then I read the SwipeBids guarantee form and they actually think I am stupid enough to let them burn me again by using ALL of my bids and waiting 30 days to send in the form for my refund. Give me a break, I was literally sick to my stomach, sweating, having a nervous breakdown basically wondering how i am going to pay the bank back for my over draft protection. I did call and cancel my card and I reported it STOLEN. These folks at Swipe Bids really have no idea how bad they can hurt someone, yet you people somehow realize this and are doing something about it , SO thanks again to all of you. Yoour words definetly calmed me down and gave me some releif to all this anxiety there registration. “suction of my funds” Swipe Bids caused today.
That is exactly what I thought….what a rip off.
I just got scammed by Swipe Bids last night. Things were a little off about it.
It said you needed to wait 4 minutes to make a Swipe Bids account… just to try to wave that this is a growing site. it was misleading, obviously.
I joined and didn’t wait.
Then i looked at all the pictures. I saw pictures of people smiling. Who the hell are these people?
I bid anyways. It was TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE. No one bid on anything until I did. So i assumed it was automated or it was the people who worked for the company.
I stopped because something seemed off.
I logged off and didn’t think anything of it until I happened to go on my bank account today. I was charged. I immediately looked for Contact Us and they had nothing. I tried the LIVE thing but I knew that was gonna be fake.
I googled it and the first thing i came across was ClaimsBoard.com and everyone spoke about how much of a scam Swipe Bids was. So we were all robbed. and I’m friggin upset. How can we go about this? I live in the Bronx, New York and I am too poor to deal with scams!
AND IF YOU TRY TO CALL THEM, THEY CHARGE YOU $25 JUST FOR A QUICK CHAT ABOUT HOW THEY CANT REFUN YOUR MONEY!
THEY’LL ALSO TELL YOU THEY’L ADD 500 BID POINTS. DON’T BELIEVE THEM!
I like all of you have just been scamed, thought I was smarter than that. I placed no bids, but was
immediately charged $150.00. I contacted my bank immediately, have not received a refund yet, changed my card and would like to
get in line to see that these people are put out of business. Does anyone know where they are located?
Thanks for the help.
AGS
Scam Scam Scam be afraid, be very afraid of this 24/7 ripp-off. The only real clue anyone needs is in the front of their name. They will steal your grandmother’s gold teeth even if they are firmly attached. Beware!!!!
I was scammed numerous times by swipesbids-to the tune of almost $10,000. What a fool I was! Some of the items i supposedly “won” at auction back in april have not been sent yet! I also purchased bids which were never recorded to my account for use but naturally were charged to my credit card. Needless to say so far i’ve been waiting weeks for about 2000 bids to be credited or to refund the money, plus
i haven’t seen the thirteen $10.00 Wal Mart cards that I am still owed. We had to take out a loan and destroy that credit card because i was getting charged to death for bids I never recieved. Anyone who is involved in the class action suit that i keep hearing about, please post the info on how to get involved in the claim ,as I am seriously interested in becoming a major part of it.
I cant believe this company is actually getting advertisers to work with them. Have you seen the site swipebidsscams.com its just a feeble attempt to counteract the truth about that company . they even give you an example of something “they” bid on and won. But wait their math seems to be off , they say they ended up paying $195 for a $300 computer . Ok lets add this up: $175.84 for the winning bid
$150.00 in bids (purchased at signup)
$20.00 in bids (purchased after the first 300 bids were used up)
ok lets see here that comes to $345.84 for a $300.00 computer
not to mention the company makes .50 on each penny that is spent on the item so this company made over $8,000.00 (that is if they are not shilling there own products) on this transaction Paid for by unknowing “customers”.
Im confused… the rules on the signup look really clear to me… between the rules and this post, cant people make an educated decision to join? the idea of the site seems very creative to me and a good start for a business model. maybe personal responsibilty is too much to expect these days. if this site chooses not to display my post, is that a scam? geeze. whatever happened to awarding people for innovation. just put your bid in at the right time or pool people together to bid in groups. meet innovation with your own innovative thinking.
Wyatt, the point is that penny auction software is SUPER easy to come buy. Anyone can buy a domain, setup hosting and launch their own penny auction website in DAYS!. In addition, many penny auction websites have the ability to use “Bots” or “Robots” which shill bid, or make fake bids to drive up auction prices, or in this case, extend auction times. There may be some legitimate penny auction websites out there, however Swipe Bids does not appear to be one of them. Every single thing they do is shady and sketchy. They are always manipulating words and playing games to “trick” people… Sure people should be smarter, but a legitimate website shouldn’t need to trick people. It’s just easier in the short term to trick people… but their long term business plan will fail.
Thing is I don’t think they are interested in a long term business plan or in earning honest money – only in smash and grab scams. Con as many people as they can with one thing as fast as possible and then bam they move on to the next scam! Look at the whois info for Swipebids – the domain expires in less than 6 months! They only registered it for the absolute minimum of 1 year, back in December 09. It costs just $8 bucks a year to register a domain name and yet this multi-millionaire only registered it for 1 year!?
Take a look at their many previous scams (acai burn, dazzlewhite/dazzlesmile, wuyi tea and so on):
http://www.webcops.net/just_think_media_spam_scams_8001.html
Now take a look at the websites from those scams – almost ALL of them are no longer active – smash and grab.
@Wyatt, the sign-up pages change on an almost daily basis – so what is clear one day may not be the next!
Seriously people…. It’s an auction over the internet!! If your that stupid to enroll before doing research on an auction website, that’s your own damn fault for being a dumb ass in the first place!! As A. Einstein would say, “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe”. This webpage is the perfect example of what we should know about biding over the internet!
Here is the address of Swipebids:
Swipebids
Just Think Media / Terra Marketing Group
Suite 204, 85 Cranford Way
Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA T8H 0H9
Company owner: Jesse Willms
There is a petition and a Facebook group to try and stop this Swipebids scam, you can find details at: http://www.scamraiders.com/forum/topics/swipebids-are-scam-artists?commentId=3175695:Comment:15428
I’ve just been scamed by swipe bids. I’m very upset i should stupid across my forehead. I did put a dispute with my bank lets see if they can help me out.
Lots of luck there Paola. I tried that. I’m in for this class action suit.
i to got scam by swipe bids .com Greed thats the answer to this godforsaken website
You’ve all saved me money I don’t have! Thank you! Thank you! I was just about to register on Swipebids because I need a laptop (my current one is old, maxed out and held together with duct tape – literally!) I will not get scammed, thanks to those of you who were kind enough to warn me! How much will these guys rake in before they get shut down?
Glad I could help Chuck. Hopefully when they DO get shut down they will have to hand over all the money in lawsuits.
Hello all,
Somebody just sent me an email with a link at the bottom for an Ipad for $13!! That is super awesome!!! ‘;p Right. I mean it’s on channel 8 news, it must be legit cause the news always has facts right?!?! lol. I read all of your replies. This first things I thought when I saw this website was 1. “This might be worth looking into, better do some extensive research (smartguy)” 2. “wait a minute, what’s to stop them from shilling their listed items?” 3.”What kind of guarantee do they have for my money?” 4.”I wonder if you stuck with it long enough, would you eventually start accumulating your money back and actually REALLY getting these items for an extremely low price?” And in that way… how is not like a really backwards, screwed up, dangerous Ebay? By what I’m reading, no customer service, no protection for your money, your giving your personal info and credit card info to the illusive man in the sky, and so on and so on… Lets shut these Canadian shuckers down people. Blame Canada haha
I’m glad that you have taken the time to write this blog. Too many people are scamming the common struggling working people out of the little that they have with fraud ideas such as this penny auction idea. They need to be exposed for what they are so that the consumer is not cheated by the little hidden text and charges that easily can be deeply embedded within the context of big suggested ideas. I was looking into this scam and by chance came upon your blog which brought the fox out of his hiding hole!
Thanks for working for the honest side. Our country needs more people like you who will make the clouded truth transparent so that the little good left is not washed away by black waters of deception.
grr. I read yoru info and i start feeling that i got scam. I checked my CC bills and found that they charged me for $150 . ugh. I wish I could save this money to buy my own Wii instead of bidding on this stuff on Swipbids.
However, who have been the winner. Do they really receive the items from the Swipebids? I won so far only $10 walmart card and it damn expensive shipping for $4 each. i feel I don’t save it at all. (I will try to use thsi card this weekend and see if it really works).
I got scammed by swipebids for not just one charge of $150.00 hidden membership but three on my first visit 9 weeks ago now. my credit card Visa was absolutely no help and were quite rude to me for the first 6 weeks of my fight to get them to act resonably. I stuck to my guns kicking, biting and screaming untill I got my money back for memberships ($450) they swiped from me without my permission. It took almost 8 weeks but it was worth it to rake it back from that scammer. People are banding together now to help each other to get their money refunded. Two great scam (swipebids) fighting sites to gain further information to get your money refunded are found at
http://www.scamraiders.com http://www.scamraiders.com/forum/categories/internet-1/listForCategory
and SwipeBids.com is a Bloody SCAM(facebook)
http://www.facebook.com/pages/SwipeBidscom-is-a-Bloody-SCAM/129080260459443
you will friends there
They just scamed me out of $150. They have a good thing going ripping people off. Will try to fight charge to credit card once it is posted. Called within 10 minutes of error and all they did was cancel my membership and charge my card. Never again.
I don’t think the Penny Auction model as a whole is a scam like some of you *as long as it’s clearly pointed out. However, I think Swipebids is egregiously deceptive with their “membership fee” and bad for everyone. I would not be surprised if they do have “auto-bidders” as well, but that’s just conjecture based on Just Think Media’s past practices.
As an aside, it’s really not possible to have one of these sites up in days, despite the fact that there is software for it. Server and database complexities are way higher than the software providers would have you believe! (I’ve done a lot of research into this)
Actually John, it is quite easy. With my web experience I could set one up in 72 hours. Buy a domain, get a hosting package designed to handle the traffic. Setup database (which takes minutes), install the software (which is really sets up itself these days if you get a good script, they are expensive); Design a few logos… Customize theme colors and outsource the “instant chat help” feature to a Philippino call center which has prepared responses is simple. The hard part would be getting a merchant account to agree to the sites business model for accepting credit card payments, but there are equally shady merchants available for these types of transactions. Then the next part is buying ads on facebook or google and starting up the auctions.
I am an experienced web programmer, and there are people who live and breathe web programming have business degrees that could get this running in less than a week if they wanted to (and they do). If you think the major roadblock to this is installing the software and setting up databases it kind of shows limited knowledge of the entire situation, and inexperience in web programming as well.
I too was scammed by Swipe Bids. I had absolutely no idea that I was going to be charged the $150. I’m also really surprised to read about the possibility of shill bidding with robots. That had never occurred to me. I’m really pissed off. I’ll be filing complaints on Scam Raiders and with the Better Business Bureau.
Put me down as another one, but i went to their website & had a “live chat” as it stands that person told me that They would be crediting my acc’t for the $150. & should be off my credit report in 3 or 4 days. We’ll see, but at least I copied our conversation so I have it in writing to present with a credit card dispute should I have to go that way !!
I’ve learned a lesson to hit a search site like this before ever giving out my info again.
I clearly got scammed! The only thing you can win on this sight is more bids, to use to buy more bids, to use to buy more bids….Too bad our credit card companies can’t, or won’t, help with these con artists. I like the class action suit plan that is circulating.
Purely scam, donot every try to signup..you get ripped off.. charge you $150 just like that.. now they reduced the price to $49 or so..
I fell for this too.
But one thing. I did not really think it through before I fell for their sales talk. Its kinda my fault; because I believed I could get something for nothing; which most everyone above seems to have forgotten. We all thought we were going to get a really good deal.
Anyhow, according to what they print here, some people walk away with some products at a bit of savings.
I agree its not worth it. I agree the company is exploiting things. But all the comments sorta forget that we all were trying to score something for nothing; so shame on us too; just a little.
Ok; now everyone is going to throw cabbage at me… lol… but what I am saying; isn’t it a little true?
Thanks for the interesting info on swipebids. I participate on several other penny sites and will probably stay away from swipebids. Most reputable sites allow free sign up so you can browse around and check things out. Also, some even offer free bids for signing up. I’ve gotten some items very cheap (Samsung surround sound system valued at $850 I got for $116.74 including bids, tax and shipping). But on other items, I’ve gotten too caught up in the frenzy and either not won something I spent a lot of bids on, or ended up bidding more than the price just so I’d win and not take the loss of bids. The bottom line is to investigate and BE CAREFUL. There are great bargains to be had, but you need to be smart about how you bid.
Do you think that across all of your auctions where you didn’t win, the wasted money might add up to a level where it would be more expensive than buying it on sale at somewhere like ebay, newegg or overstock.com? Sure you got 1 or two auctions cheap but you must have spent a lot of money elsewhere without winning anything and in the end you don’t really save money. If you did the auction website wouldn’t be making any money. If you are truly saving money, you are very very lucky and there are people on the other end losing a lot of money.
They got me too!! I used the free bids and stupidly gave my info with the understanding it was to be used if I bought a package. They double charged me and pretty much said “too bad for you”. I am pretty mad. I hope my credit card company can help me but I don’t hold out much hope for that.
I have been told they will refund my $150.00 when I have not won anything and participated in the auction for 30 days AND HAVE NO BIDS LEFT. It is impossible because you can not bid without signing in and you get 60 free bids each time you sign in and the only one bids you will get purchased bids. Hurry and get these people. SCAM
OMG!!! I want to sincerely THANK YOU for you article. I was about to punch in my credit card information, but I thought it was too good to be true. I showed it to my husband and he said it looked shady, and that’s even before he knew what it was about. It’s a very well written article and anyone can understand it. Once again THANK YOU for explaining everything to me and everyone who doesn’t know how they operate. Thanks to you I still have my money.
I wasn’t fooled by swipebids, all though I have looked at it, and thought it’s too good to be true. I have been fooled once before through another website that I guess they did before swipebids called dazzlewhite/dazzlesmile. I was robbed of at least $ 200 if not more, and they just kept charging me. I want to know where to go about this and who to speak to or how to go about this. Please let me know where to get started first.
I think you need ti take a little closer look at SwipeBids. True, you have to pay for bids…but you can get bids dirt cheap, in the auctions. Most of the 40 and 75 bid packs they auction off, only get 1-4 bids, and as they start at only U$1, wow…how many times have I won 75 bids for a meer U$1.01 (quite a few)
And I would like to know how you get the impression their system is falsely raising the bid price. There is a little service called an Auto Bidder (Swoopo, TeleBid, BidCactus and many others call them “Bid Butlers”), that allow people to have the system place bids on their behalf. IF YOU READ THROUGH THE DOCs, YOU WOULD NOW THIS.
Each bid labeled as Single,was placed by a live person. Each bid labeled as Auto Bid, was placed by someones Auto Bidder.
There are times they DO suffer losses, I have seen expensive items go for anywhere between 1 and a small handful of bids. This is not fraud, it isn’t even really gambling (Gambling implies some random chance being involved), what it IS, on the other hand, is a sort of game of skill and persistence. The game is How Cheap Can You Get The Bids, the persistence entails “How many bids are you willing, no matter how much they cost you, are you willing to blow trying to come out on top?
I am an average user, and in no way affiliated with them, but before you make claims, you need to be able to back them up (otherwise, it is a little thing called SLANDER, which can get YOU in trouble).
Jeslar, this is my website, this is the internet, I can say what ever the hell I want and I have done all of my readers GREAT service by informing them of the perils and risks associated with penny auctions, ESPECIALLY SWIPE BIDS. You are a complete moron , read my post again, especially the part at the bottom where I mention how much people spend on bids before an item is even sold and you might start to understand their process. I’m watching a macbook auction right now where the bid price is up to $114.51.. That is 11451 Individual BIDS… Even at conservative prices with bids at 10 cents each people have speny collectively over $1140 bids and only 1 person is going to win (and its not going to end anytime soon). Every one else will have completely wasted their money.
If that sounds like a fun game to you, then by all means, go on right ahead.
And it isn’t just my “impression” that leads me to believe that they may shill bid their own auction, its my degree is business management, as well as my experience in eCommerce and web design that suggests it is VERY simple for them to do this and its almost completely necessary if they want to turn a profit! Auto bidding was not part of my argument.. Auto bidding is just a way for people to throw away their bids even faster. They may shill bid if there is NO auto bidding going on to keep the auction running… they cant let it end too early.
And as far as “backing things up”… Maybe you can try doing some of that yourself if they are so honest, trustworthy, and noble people for selling these items to us at such discounted prices.
*Shakes head in amazement at your stupidity*
YOu are oBVIOUSLY not an average user, your writing format is IDENTICAL to an explanatory Business letter. YOU are very much affiliated with Swipe Bids, just for backing them up and ADmin rocks for helping people not lose money on these stupid Penny Auctions, go play games somewhere else!!!
SLANDER is spoken. LIBEL is written. I just read a pop up ad from these scumbags, good thing when I googled “swipebids” myself, “swipebids scam” is the number two response!
I’m just glad I read this first. I hope all of those who were scammed get their money back, and shut this scam down!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you were scammed you owe it to yourself to report them here:
The Internet Crime Department of the FBI.
Website: http://www.ic3.gov
Complaints can be filed online
You can get their contact info (swipebids) at http://www.bbb.org
Good luck
hey folks, my name is bryan , i too just like all of the rest of you have fallen a victim of swipebids. its sad that the world we live in has come to these petty thieves and crooks and scam artists. but shame on me because of my background in sales and knowing the psychology behind what makes a sale i still found myself falling for the same trap that you all have found yourselves in. the art of making a sale goes like this want, need, help, hurry, basically it means that in order to make a sale to someone regardless of what the item may be the customer has to have a want or a need for that item. if they dont want it you as a sales person have to give the customer a reason as to why they need your product. then once you have shown them that they need your services or your product then you can help them out by selling them what they need. only at that time is when they nail you with the “urgency” or the hurry part of the sales process thus the only 4 minutes to register time limit . so needless to say they got us all in their own little sales pitch which just so happens to be a scam. hopefully these people get whats coming to them i did a little research on the whole idea of penny auctions myself and came up with the total cost of buying an item on one of these sites is atleast $100 more than going and buying it retail once you figure in your start up cost of $150 plus buying all your other bids just to win that item and how many times you lost trying to win such an item you would have saved alot more money just going to best buy to get it yourself. another thing that is ridiculous is the gift- cards you win a walmart gift card that has a value of $10 and you pay $3 for it then you have to pay$ 4.50 shipping to get it in the mail. thats all the fine print. also they have a nice little prize promotion going on if you are one of the daily contest or monthly or hourly contest winners you still have to purchase the prize that you won just for winning the contest no bidding in the contest involved but if you want to claim your prize you have to purchase it and pay shipping for that item and one more thing and ill let you go they have this appealing rewards challenge on the site that if you get to level 20 then you will win a 27″ IMAC and 10000 bids or $1000 cash well folks let me tell you that if you try to win that in order to get to level 20 you have to spend 200,000 bids to get it and if you do it with the bid pack of 5000 bids for $249 that is the cheapest way to do it and it will still end up costing you $9960 for all the bid packs and then you have shipping on the imac as well. when you can order the same computer online starting at $1199 so save yourselves the money and all the headaches and stay away from all the penny auction sites
And what really angers me is that their ads are on popular news sites, making them seem legitimate.
My question is this, “WHY do websites, such as WHAS News, in Louisville, Kentucky ALLOW such advertising from unethical, rip off companies such as Swipe Bids???”
ABC news has had companies also which skirt the laws and basically commit fraud with false claims on their sites.
They may investigate the news, but they sure don’t investigate their advertisers.
It’s a problem in this country.
There is rarely “truth in advertising” in this anymore.
Yes, buyer beware…but it would be a good thing if buyers got downright fed up and started demanding some truth in advertising in the USA.
We are tired of it.
We want some action.
yay i totally agree. Finally! Someone said something about Swipe Bids damn video, its what draws you in!!!
Swipebids refunded my 150.00 and the 14.95. The problem is I clicked on the 995 for the big bid package. When I looked at my account and seen the 995.00, I talked to an agent right then and she said I can’t help you with that. Our policy is clearly marked NO REFUNDS. My bank called swipebids and they said they would refund all the money. I received the two emails from swipe bids. They told my bank and my self they were only aloud to refund up to 500.00. They would send a check. That was two months ago. Now I am out the 995 and I thought it was 9.95. There were no decimal points in the list to click on. Now how do I get my money back? I am no longer in there system.
I feel like I’m one of the few who hasn’t been scammed.
It’s pretty obvious isn’t? It takes about 2 seconds to figure out. Yah, I’m gonna get a $200 Wii for $10, right… ooh, and look there’s a website selling bridges!
And Bill Gates is funding it to test his new beta e-mail program. He got the money from a Nigerian diplomat who died leaving him $27 gazillion US dollars. He also won the Irish lottery over email, twice.
Here’s a tip folks. Whenever you get the urge to type your credit card number into the Internet, STOP, open a new browser, go to google, and type “whatever it is you want to buy” SCAM, and see what comes up…
If there are some websites, kinda like this one, listing all kinds of people, dumb enough to NOT do this basic, BASIC, BASIC research then you have an opportunity to save yourself some grief.
However if you ignore these warning signs, then its a pretty good bet you will be on the phone shortly with your bank telling them how you didnt see the fine print and you’re on a limited income and have a heart condition and your worried that you’ll lose the money forever, and these scammers should be shut down, etc, etc, etc….
If we want them shut down, then we need to stop funding them with our own stupidity. Grow up, take some responsibility for your actions, and for Pete’s sake, THINK before you act.
I’m like you. I didn’t get scammed either. I didn’t even click on the sign up page. What got me is that you have to buy bids to bid on their site. Now that didn’t really make sense to me. Why should I have to pay to bid on an auction? I could understand a membership fee since the items apparently go for so low, but to have to pay for each bid I make, and then pay the item’s price if I win. And if I don’t win I still paid money just to bid! Sorry but I can get things pretty cheap on ebay without having to pay each time I bid.
Hey everybody, thanks for comments, I was looking for inexpensive digital camera and found your posts. Really glad I did. Be blessed!
Ben
I almost fell for it, but didn’t because I tried to use an old pre-paid, unactivated debit card for this website just to be able to see what kind of products would be offered to bidding, and it didn’t let me get past that point. I’m not easily suckered, but whew, this was a close one. I almost entered my REAL card info but thought first! I’m truly sorry for all of you who got scammed and truly thankful for the creator of this site because when I couldn’t get any further, I decided to google this so call auction and couldn’t believe what I was reading. I usually never post a comment but I couldn’t sit back and take this! Good luck everyone!
I got hooked before reading this blog. Wished I had read it first. It is a deceptive way of doing business. They
don’t tell you there is a membership charge until they have your info at first, which you think is for the cost of the 1st set of bids. They charged $159.00 and it included 300 bids. After looking over the site and figuring out there aren’t that many articles to bid on, other than more bids. Sure you can get 40 bids for a buck but you need more bids to single bid/auto bid something you are interested in. Sometimes when auto bidding the price goes up more than you are interested in paying but they tell you to put in auto bids to scare away others that are putting in single bids. Also, if you are not up late hours or early in the a.m. hours, there are many more people bidding so you have to stay up all hours of the morning to increase your odds of winning.
I also think the way they put in bids on 825 or 2000 bids at a set price (lots more per bid price than the 40 you can win for about $1) are placed in between the 40 bids so it’s easy to click on the higher set priced bids when you are playing 3 bids at the same time.
I am licking my wounds and cancelled my credit card to get away from these people. Shady is a nice word.
7:21am 8/10/10…I just got scammed by swipe Bids! My Visa card, the only one they accept, is my debit card and when I found out that, without any prior disclosure, they charged me $159 for registration i got the “chat agent” on the phone and demanded an immediate cancellation of my membership and a refund of my money. All she could say was that I might get a refund within 5-10 business days. Not acceptable!!! I have emailed the company, called the bank, and done everything else I could think of. All I can do is wait until tomorrow until the $159 posts and then file a fraudulent claim against the company. Until then, I have $86 to my name. I am disabled and on a fixed income and my budget does not include crazy charges like the one SwipeBids charged.
Why did you think you were being asked for your credit card number? I know its upsetting to lose your initial registration fee but when you are disabled and on a fixed income you should not bid at all. We always think if we spend just a little more, we have a good chance to win. Its better not to visit these sites when you can’t control your spending. I love to bid too but I also have been bitten. I blame myself because I didn’t have the willpower to just let it go. This is a valuable lesson learned through loss.
I fell into this SCAM and I should have known better, i teach this to my children, and friends all the time about this stuff. However, I felt it was reputable because it was promoted through a local news station and it gave it thumbs up!! What a sucker and i feel like an idiot. But one thing i won’t deny, as i was “inquiring” and quick to fill in the info, none of the disclaimers, or the fact that they will charge you $159.00 for membership was CLEAR!!!!! Not even a “clue”, did not even tell you how much they were going to put on your card when you put your information (totally decieved). I was clueless when i fell into their TRAP!!! Please folks if your thinking about it DON’T DO IT!!! I am in the process of working with my bank, and have inquired with Swipe bids refund policy (RIDICULOUS!!!) I feel like a numero uno idiot for allowing myself to fall for this! I AM FILING WITH FBI, AND BBB AND WILL INCLUDE WITH CLASS ACTION SUIT, AND ALSO I WILL BE CALLING THE LOCAL NEWS STATION AND TELL THEM TO PULL THEIR ENDORSEMENTS!!!
I felt like an idiot too. Now that I’ve been taken, I want the world to know what this company is about.
some more info:
BBB ratings: F
Please help in filing with BBB: http://www.bbb.org
Name and address used: 1524948 Alberta Ltd. Phone: 866-336-6735 – 204 85 Cranford Way, Sherwood Park, AB T8H 0H9. Website: http://www.swipebids.com, also http://www.swipebidscs.com
Owner: Jesse Williams
Again, i’m encouraging you to file.
also see Robert’s reply for Internet Crime Dept of the FBI, and Olu’s post for more info on class action suit.
Where is Robert’s reply and how can I get information
Peggy:
See August 3rd comment @ 5:35 p.m where the links are listed. Also, most of the links listed here on this site are very informative. Read them and like me it opened up my understanding to how some of these scammers operate! Take Care and again buyer beware!! It could happen to anyone, don’t let those negative comments make you feel bad! Push hard, file the complaints with everyone and anyone that will listen- regardless of the outcome, (i received a full refund by my bank) however the issue is that we want to stop this from continually happening- so i am pushing and writing and filing to get these scammers out of business! Once you see the owners history, (by reading the links provided) you’ll be sick to find out how filthy rich he is and it’s at the cost of money from folks who have been scammed! Google this name: Jesse Willms/Just think media. Enough said!
LAST WEEK, SWIPEBIDS GOT ME FOR $159. I tried almost immediately after making the transaction to get a refund. To make matters worse, no one would speak to me directly via the toll free “customer service” line. I was instructed to print out the refund request form, mail it back in, & then contact them via live chat. So I did that. Once I reached someone via live chat, I was told that I had to use up all my bids. If I didn’t win any bids, then I would be refunded the initial fee of $159. I realized then it’s a never ending cycle with them. You get 300 bids when you sign up initially but they give you 60 additional bids every time you log on to their site. They make it virtually impossible to get your money back. But the good new is that THE BANK IS GOING TO REFUND MY MONEY.
SINCE I NEVER RECEIVED ANY OF THEIR PRODUCTS OR SERVICES. I also filed a complaint with the BBB.
Every auction site charges to bid on their products. Even live auctions we attend in person charge a fee to sell at their site. It’s a little funny to listen to people saying they have been scammed, when they knew what they were doing. We take a chance when we purchase lottery tickets but many continue to play the lottery. I have lost and won on penny auctions, but I knew I was taking a chance when I did it. When you bid its better to accept that you are going to lose but may get lucky. I am amazed at the people that think they know the inside scoop when in fact they are probably upset because they lost their initial investment.
Legitimate sites like Ebay only charge you when you win, and even then its a VERY small fee. They do not charge you based on how many times you click the “bid” button. Of course people should know better but Swipe Bids has a way of dancing around the details and leaving things ambiguous, obviously, to a lot of people based on the amount of responses I have had.
Mark me down as another sucker. I never get sucked into these things, but I too was fooled and down right floored when I saw this applied to my c. card. I couldn’t even finish my registration, it kept telling me registration wasn’t complete and wouldn’t even let me register. So I shut down the website and thought nothing of it until 4 days later when I was balancing out my checkbook online and saw two debits of $159 and $1.27. I don’t think my bank will credit me back. I am so angry and frustrated that nothing has been done about this site.
here is another address that i found
SwipeBids.com
3140 S Peoria Street, #K271
Aurora, CO
80014
not sure if it is what you guys are looking for…hope it helps
Thank you so much for this blog, it has helped me tremendously! You are doing a great service to folks who need to be informed of companies like these. I have taken most of the advice and followed up with reporting to most of the agencies on this blog. I have read all of your posts over and over and I have learned so much about the cyber crimes and the criminal behind the scenes. I am spreading this information to many of my friends and co-workers. Awareness is the key! Good news for me in this terrible nightmare my bank just informed me today (3 days after Swipe bids scammed me) that my bank reversed the $159.00 charge. I give Chase Bank their props they called me right away and informed me of the suspicious activity on my account the day it was posted by those thugs! They also mentioned that they are fully aware of that company and their malicous practices. Don’t give up people and this experience has taught me much! Again thanks Blogger Boon!
Thank you for exposing these creeps! Wished we would’ve found this site a long time ago! Suckered is so right! It’s presented so well and deceptive! We are still in the middle of fighting with them and are bank to get our money back. It’s been crazy!! I reported them to BBB Utah today. Can’t wait to see them SHUT DOWN!! Get this, after multiple conversations with them both on the phone and online via chat for the past 2 months, they have shut down my IP address today so that I can no longer generate a conversation via chat online. Isn’t that interesting? It won’t even load the chat. My bank is handling the dispute now. They are just as frustrated as we are!