Over the past few months we’ve been hearing about users finding penny auction sites from phony ads by affiliate marketers flooding Craigslist, but haven’t been able to actually find one to e-mail and see for ourselves.

Here’s one of the ads that this particular affiliate marketer in Washington State has up on Craigslist, the ad claims that they have brand new iPad -32GB with 3G, opened for 2 minutes so they’re selling it for $220, but when you e-mail them and inquire you find out about a penny auction site with their affiliate link in the e-mail…http://cnj.craigslist.org/vgm/2351153230.html

“Hey,

Sorry it took me a while to respond, but I sold it already, you might want to check out This Site (link broken – it’s an affiliate link that forwards to a landing page – this time it was Bidrack – http://landing.bidrack.com/landing3.html (affiliate link omitted)- the other day the link converted to BidSell) I picked up 2 brand new ones for under $70.



Since the site is new no one is online, no one is bidding, it’s like xmas all over again.

The trick is to bid only when the counter hits 4 seconds.



If I can do it anyone can.



Good luck

Vanessa”

Here’s another one:

“Hey,

Sorry it took me a while to respond, but I sold it already, you might want to check out This Site http://svbauc.org/BfbhswHmazDUwyd2 (affiliate link for bidsell.com) I picked up 2 brand new ones for under $70. Since the site is new no one is online, no one is bidding, it’s like xmas all over again.

The trick is to bid only when the counter hits 4 seconds. If I can do it anyone can. Good luck”

So what’s the big deal?

You’ll be charged $90 if you enter your credit card info (not sure if you’ll be charged more – they don’t have anything in their T&C about the charges as far as we can tell.

“This site is maintained by Accerated Performance, Channel Management (APCM), Llc., a Nevada Limited Liability Company. By using this Web site, you are agreeing to comply with and be bound by the following terms of use. Please review the following terms carefully. If you do not agree to these terms, you have no right from APCM to obtain information from or otherwise use this Web site. Failure to use this Web site in accordance with the following terms of use may subject you to severe civil and criminal penalties.”

Bottom of the page:

Bidsell.com does not operate or accept business from the residents of Illinois or Kentucky, and this offer is not valid in those states. We make all efforts to prevent any residents of those states from signing up on this site. BidsellPromotions.com © 2011 | APCM, LLC. All Rights Reserved | Terms | Privacy

What happens is once you click on the link sent to you in the e-mail by the liar on Craigslist you’ll be a member of a penny auction site and if the landing page requests your credit card information you’ll more than likely be charged for bids and maybe you didn’t even realize it (but be careful when revealing personal & financial information online), on the second landing page, the one for Bidsell you’ll find that they do indeed ask for your credit card information – up on top it states that you’ll get bids, 150 for $90 – then on the left, in a more prominent location says to enter BONUS BIDS in the coupon code field to receive 15 bonus bids, NOW and since today is May 23rd, there’s even an expiration date of May 24th but I have a feeling that you if we check this landing page tomorrow or the 24th, the code will be valid until the next day as well.

The bottom states that BidSell is a BBB Accredited business, they are, and they have a NR rating so far.. 14 complaints have been received and refunds have been given.

“Company Profile Nexus Media Ventures LLC Address: 27068 La Paz Road, Suite 491

Aliso Viejo, CA 92656

Tel: (877) 424-3735

Fax: (949) 266-9368

» See more photos on TrustLink Web Site: http://www.bidsell.com Contact: Customer Support Dept – Business Start Date: 6/1/2004 Company ID: 100100124 Nature of Business: This company’s business is providing online auctions.”

http://www.la.bbb.org/Business-Report/Nexus-Media-Ventures-LLC-100100124

Notice how even on BidSell.com they compare their auctions to eBay (as others have in the past) and illustrate this with a cracked iPad, seriously? I see this as trying to give eBay a bad reputation.

Another Bidsell landing page makes it look like Bidsell has been recognized by both TechCrunch & the NY Times..The quoted NY Times article is talking about another penny auction site and not BidSell.

Then there’s this affiliate marketer’s Bidrack landing page, notice on the left-hand side it says “Premium Account $0.60 per bid” then in small print, “$99 total” – bordered in white this is obviously less prominent to the consumer than the right side area where users will enter their personal information + credit card info, Note that the terms of service link on the bottom says nothing about the $99 fee as it just forwards to BidRack.com’s T&S http://www.bidrack.com/terms.html.

Did you find penny auctions thanks to these phony ads on Craigslist? Let us know, we’d love to hear about it! Also -feel free to join our free penny auction forum, we’ll never charge you a cent.

iPad image Credits: Creative Commons Some rights reserved by Kominyetska