Swoopo and RockyBid are websites where you purchase the right to bid by buying blocks of bids at a cost of $0.50 to 0.75 a bid. You then bid on hugely discounted items such as laptops, Tvs, cell phones, etc.
Every bid you make subtracts from your account so there is a fee assessed that is not refundable if you don't win. Win or lose it costs you to bid.
The first deception is that as the timer counts down to the auction close Swoopo arbitrarily resets the auction clock to as much as 15 minutes so they can force more bidding. What they fail to disclose is that they will reset this clock as many times as they see fit so the auction may never end but yet you keep getting dinged for every bid.
The second deception is that they purportedly have shill bidders that are paid to sit and run bids up and perpetuate the auction and coincidently these bidders seem to win the auction more often than not.
By definition this is internet gambling because you have to buy bids and place them and win or lose your bid is paid. So it is a pay to play to win a prize which is by definition gambling.
Both Swoopo and RockyBid deny this of course since internet gaming is illegal in the U.S. And both are located in the U.S. Since the government has failed to do anything then let everyone beware that you will only lose your bid money on these sites. Both sites refuse to divulge that they use paid shills to run up bidding and they do not divulge that they can run an auction as long as they want by resetting the clock as many times and for as long as they want. This is not an auction - it is a fraud and a ripoff.
0 comments