Brass K.

No better site then amazon for the total online shopping experience. They are simply the best out there. I love Amazon.

For ALL OF US that have been ripped off by zbiddy or rockybid.

OK So I have done a little background sleuthing on what is going on with zbiddy and other similar penny auction sites.

This Penny Auction Site zbiddy.com is a HUGE scam.

Zbiddy owners plant positive experiences on here (reviewopedia) and on the Penny Auction Watch forums(PAW) to bait people into playing and buying bid packs or to join their site. Buying bid packs to bid on items? What a joke and scam!

And you thought being ripped off 99 bucks upfront was scandalous?
Pshaw! This is just the beginning of your woes! If you were smart enough to REPORT THIS to your credit card company and cut the losses you really haven't lost that much.

For those of you that chose to use the bids and descend further into this madness here's the scoop: It's not even an auction THEY JUST CALL IT that, it's more like a lottery THAT IS IF IT WAS RUN LIKE ONE, and IT ISN'T!

Go to Flippa[dot]com and search "penny auctions"

There you can see how these operates by the use of controlled bots on autobid to scam any real people into buying more and more bid packs until the reserve price has at least been met for that item that's bid on. They aren't in the business to LOSE money and will NEVER sell an item below value. If not enough real people are bidding on a particular item for a while, they will end the auction to a bot name. They will then list the bots name in the "Auction History" section to make it look as if REAL people actually win and auction is honest & fair.

They cheat you and make a killing from people like you that bought into it. Some will even go as far as to advertise on social networking sites such as "FACEBOOK" and write stories of winning items for $4 and so on to get people to join the site.

In fact they are so low that they will create fake accounts with stolen pictures of REAL people to simulate happy zbiddy customers who just got that new in the box PlayStation or iPod.

I call it their, "Fake Social Environment" where they ask and answer their own questions attempting to create an illusion that they are a reputable business like Ebay or Amazon. For example they will say, "I just won 12 Lap Tops for $40 and they all arrived today in factory sealed boxes! I love this site!"

They also run scripts from third world countries which do nothing but spam YouTube and reviewopedia with precanned responses to any critique, for example it will say:

"I guess you need to understand that any penny auction site requires you to buy bids upfront. You need to read the fine print. Zbiddy is legit and has been in business for a year"

Anyone can do this… so easy to make money. What these scammers also do is, they MAKE sure that the server that hosts your scam auction is located outside of the USA so you can get around Federal Gambling Regulation laws. If the heat gets to be too much, then they shut the scam auction down and re-open under a new name. There is no way to do anything about them really, because they just keep showing up under new websites and new banners. For example rockybid.com and zbiddy.com and a number of lesser known outfits are all operated by the same people. Both of these um "companies" are under investigation by the Florida Office of the Attorney General

Here's the copy from their website:

The case file cited below relates to a civil — not a criminal — investigation. The existence of an investigation does not constitute proof of any violation of law.

Case Number: L12-3-1029

Subject of investigation:
Ecom Interactice, LLC d/b/a zbiddy.com

Subject's address:
2200 S. W. 10th St., Deerfield Beach, FL *******

Subject's business:
Internet – Penny Auction

Allegation or issue being investigated:
Potential 501.204, Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices, by penny auction site. Business does not adequately disclose its terms and policies. Consumers allege that they are being charged before granting authorization for payment to zbiddy. Consumers also allege that they are attempting to cancel services and/or request refunds and that they are unable to obtain refunds of unused bids.

http://www.myfloridalegal.com/lit_ec.nsf/investigations/4816DFB0311DD*******D5004AE52C

I tried to post this information on as many business review sites as possible to warn good honest people and I urge everyone to repost to as many sources as you can.

So rememer how I said that rockybid and zbiddy are run by the same crew?

So here's the final piece of information I dug up before the leads started to go dark, this one is from the Domain Registration site that currently has this information set to private:

Whois info for rockybids.com

Domain name: rockybids.com

Registrant Contact:
G&M Capital
Benjamin Grossman
69-42 173rd
Fresh Meadows, NY *******
USA

Administrative Contact:
G&M Capital
Benjamin Grossman (*******@gmcap.net)
Phone: *******644
69-42 173rd
Fresh Meadows, NY *******
USA

Technical Contact:
G&M Capital
Benjamin Grossman (*******@gmcap.net)
*******644
69-42 173rd
Fresh Meadows, NY *******
USA

Source:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:GBazwTvyhr8J:www.whatismyip.com.np/rockybids.com

Both Rockybids and Zbiddy have now hidden this information using whois guard.

Benjamin Grossman appears to be the money behind both of the rockybid and zbiddy operations but a little company named Ecom Interactice, LLC appears to be registered by one Gilboa Merdinger also known as Gil Merdinger. This character is the one behind this ginormous RIPOFF SCAM. He also appears to own a number other lesser known websites that run essentially the same php web template to cheat you out of your hard earned money.

FBI, FTC and BBB have all been inadequate in dealing with this GIANT SCAM so far and I am not holding out my breath. District Attorney Pam Bondi who is heading the Investigation in Florida is my last hope here.

I shall continue to investigate this string of scams, however I urge everyone who has been taken in this Holiday Season to write an email to Attorney General Pam Bondi.

CONTACT HER HERE: http://myfloridalegal.com/contact.nsf/contact?Open&Section=Attorney_General

Demand that a criminal investigation be started into Gilboa "the Brains" Merdinger and Benjamin "the Funds" Grossman. The more people she hears from regarding these 2 GIANT SCAMMERS the more chances there are that something is done.

Oh and please feel to REPOST anywhere you like ;)