Merchants on eBay pumped rating
After completing each transaction in the auction, the buyer and the seller can rate each other. The rating can be neutral, positive or negative, with a brief text comment. The assessment is two-sided, that is, it allows the buyer and the seller to simultaneously increase their ratings.
It is not difficult to guess that such a system of reputations allows for the possibility of manipulation, because the seller and the buyer can pump their ratings by making bogus deals.
An academic study of the eBay reputation system was conducted by scientists from Berkeley ( press release ). Their work “Reputation in Online Auctions: The Market for Trust” is published in the latest issue of the magazine “California Management Review” (Autumn 2006).
During the study in June-December 2005, 6526 cheap or almost meaningless lots from 526 sellers were found on the auction site. All these lots were clearly intended to generate fictitious transactions. As a result, 76% of lots (5127 pieces) were successfully purchased, and positive feedback was received for them. Additional research in 2006 showed that the reputation market still exists on eBay. From April 25 to May 30, 398 dummy lots were registered on the site.
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Fake lots are easily recognized. More than 80% of such lots in 2005 and 88% in 2006 were sold with the possibility of early termination of the auction (“Buy-It-Now” function) at a price of one cent, besides, they had corresponding names, for example, “Positive Feedback Ebook. For each transaction, the seller pays eBay a single fee of 25 cents plus 5 cents for using the Buy-It-Now feature. That is, he sells the goods at a loss. He actually pays the money to eBay owners for buying reputations .
Bleeding ratings is obviously harmful for the entire reputation system. A side effect is that the threshold for entering eBay rises, and the “popular” auction site becomes more like a supermarket with expensive boutiques. In addition, the risk of fraud increases.
At first glance, eBay developers could easily solve the problem if they added a variable to the reputation calculation algorithm, which depends on the size of the transaction. Thus, one-cent deals would have almost no effect on the seller’s rating. However, for some reason, the developers do not make changes to the algorithm.
It is not difficult to guess that such a system of reputations allows for the possibility of manipulation, because the seller and the buyer can pump their ratings by making bogus deals.
An academic study of the eBay reputation system was conducted by scientists from Berkeley ( press release ). Their work “Reputation in Online Auctions: The Market for Trust” is published in the latest issue of the magazine “California Management Review” (Autumn 2006).
During the study in June-December 2005, 6526 cheap or almost meaningless lots from 526 sellers were found on the auction site. All these lots were clearly intended to generate fictitious transactions. As a result, 76% of lots (5127 pieces) were successfully purchased, and positive feedback was received for them. Additional research in 2006 showed that the reputation market still exists on eBay. From April 25 to May 30, 398 dummy lots were registered on the site.
')
Fake lots are easily recognized. More than 80% of such lots in 2005 and 88% in 2006 were sold with the possibility of early termination of the auction (“Buy-It-Now” function) at a price of one cent, besides, they had corresponding names, for example, “Positive Feedback Ebook. For each transaction, the seller pays eBay a single fee of 25 cents plus 5 cents for using the Buy-It-Now feature. That is, he sells the goods at a loss. He actually pays the money to eBay owners for buying reputations .
Bleeding ratings is obviously harmful for the entire reputation system. A side effect is that the threshold for entering eBay rises, and the “popular” auction site becomes more like a supermarket with expensive boutiques. In addition, the risk of fraud increases.
At first glance, eBay developers could easily solve the problem if they added a variable to the reputation calculation algorithm, which depends on the size of the transaction. Thus, one-cent deals would have almost no effect on the seller’s rating. However, for some reason, the developers do not make changes to the algorithm.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/4936/
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