I am sending this to all the major networks because it is becomming a multi-milliol dollar scan. Somebody needs to do a news item on the problem of some the new penny auction sites that have sprouted up. It is becomming a booming business with no restaints or regulations put on it. There are now hundreds of these sites. Sites like Quibids at least give you the option of buying an item that you are bidding on and your bids go towards the price. Each bid is for a penny as far as the auction goes, but it costs the person bidding $0.60 a bid.
At least with sites like Quibids and others like it, each $0.01 bid or $0.60 out of you pocket goes towards a price you can purchase at the end of the auction. They have $10 to 10000 item for bid. At a penny a bid, it adds up fast. Other auctions like Bidstick that you bid on more expensive items with little or no chance winning it. They have $100- $20000 items on it. After hours of bidding for a $10000 item, someone may win it at say $500. This is a great deal for the final person, but at a $0.01 a bid, Bidstick is collecting $50,000 for this item.
It is good for the 1 person who wins but the other 250 people or so are each out $250 with nothing to show for it. Some of these sites may be set to bid against real people just to drive the price up. Just Google "Penny auction sites" and you can see how many there are. I think many are on the up and up even though they are making millions with no regulations, but there are a real lot that sell things that are bidding at $. 01 a bid, but cost $. 60 in reality. This is becomming a multi-million dollar business that has no regulations or even somebody to say if the bids against you are legit or being made by the site company.
This is becomming a very major problem as people in this economy are looking for bargains. I personally have been fairly well on some sites, but others like Bidstick.com seem to me to be total rip-offs. These sites are generating millions if not billions of dollars and I believe 1/2 of them are frauds, geared to take everyones money. Please look into this or let me know if you do plan on looking into this as I am giving you first chance to report this. I can even give your reporter more detailed info. If I don't hear back from you by tomorrow, I'll contact some other stations and newspapers. This is definately a story that need to be told and you can probably get lots of others to back my story up. Please let me know if you are interested ASAP. Thank you.
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