OK, this is ALL hypothetical. I'm not suggesting any of this being done, but I am curious if this strategy is viable -- not ETHICAL, but viable! Past questions on this forum popped this little strategy into my deviant little mind! Specifically, the questions regarding AS NOT being able to sign on ebay on a sniper's behalf because an additional security sign-on screen is imposed by ebay, presumably because a particular ebay ID tried & failed to sign on several times, and ebay presumed someone was trying to hack into someone else's ebay ID.
OK, SUPPOSE one regularly snipes/bids on a particular group of items. Also SUPPOSE one is regularly OUT SNIPED by 1 or 2 of the same bidders. SUPPOSE the other bidders routinely snipe/win the auctions in the last few seconds suggesting they are also using a sniping service such as AS.
NOW, WHAT IF one was to "sign on" to ebay with the competitive bidders' IDs and bogus passwords several times? Perhaps even select the "Forgot password" option and enter bogus answers to several of the security questions? Say all this ethically questionable activity was done within in the last hour of the auction ending, thereby hopefully(?) causing ebay to impose it's extra level of security which would have the effect of locking AS (& presumably any other sniping service) out of sniping on the auction of interest in behalf of the competitive bidder/sniper! Do we think such a strategy would work??? (Theoretically, of course!)
Any thoughts or opinions on such an approach? The most OBVIOUS disadvantage is, of course, the SAME strategy could be used AGAINST one who would dare use such a strategy!!
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