Shill bidder is a top ten ebayer, now suspended

Cambridgeshire UK - EFTIS Paraskevaides, a Greek Cypriot living in Godmanchester, was exposed by the Sunday Times in a shill bidding story involving £1.4m a year sales of antiquities on eBay. Shill bidding is when sellers bid up their own items, in this case using different eBay identities, or when sellers step in to win an auction of their own goods if they feel the price is not high enough. Mr. Paraskevaides has denied shill bidding but has been suspended by eBay.

Mr Paraskevaides, a former gynaecologist who was suspended from Hinchingbrooke Hospital, was one of ebay's top ten sellers - one of only ten 'titanium power sellers' - generating an estimated £180,000 a year in commission fees for eBay. He was invited to sit on the ebay table at the ill-fated BACA awards ceremony in London. We are proud and honoured to have been invited to sit at the eBay table at the British Antiques and Collectables Awards, at the Dorchester Hotel in London. The awards, saw a major eBay involvment. was stated on one of Mr Paraskevaides ebay pages here.

Ebay claims that all is now well and they have systems in place to prevent shill bidding. But the Sunday Times set up an auction and shill bid with a different identity using the same computer.

Revealed: how eBay sellers fix auctions [The Sunday Times]