Penny Auction Sites

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ascroft

271 posts

Ultimate Geek
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Topic # 95483 5-Jan-2012 20:07

I am sure Geekzone members are too smart to be drawn in to these scams,(investments) but interesting article on SMH: http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/beware-24-ipad-penny-auction-deals-could-leave-you-penniless-20120105-1plxc.html

Personally I would ban them.

I am surprised the Commerce Commission permits them to advterise "overstock ipads' etc. - that is patently not true. Even seen this on Geekzone I seem to recall.

I guess its like like lots of forms of gambling - how do you stop a small proportion of people hurting themselves without being a nanny state?

My 2c......

Mark Ascroft
Wellington

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
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Reply # 564984 5-Jan-2012 20:44

Whenever I see a penny auction ad on Geekzone I block them, because in my opinion they are a scam.

The "overstock iPad" ad you saw was blocked, but it was not a penny auction ad. It was for a company that offers daily deals, with one iPad (or similar item) showing up randomly once a day, with only one available for that day. While this is not penny auction, I thought it was bad advertising because they did not disclose in the ad the limits.

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codyc1515

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Reply # 565007 5-Jan-2012 21:19

These sites take advantage of people and if you don't read the fine print (most don't) then you will lose out. I think the general perception people have is it is like Trade Me or eBay: its not. Can't believe the guy in the article managed to blow $50,000 on it though...