I had a good look at the bid rivals site. I had serious concerns about robots doing the bidding, so I had a conversation with their online agent. Transcript is below: ---------------------------------- Please wait for a site operator to respond. You are now chatting with 'Mandy' Mandy: Hi! Welcome to Bidrivals, how can I help you today? Mandy: Hi Jonathan Jonathan McCausland: I am thinking of joining but have read some very alarming comments about you on the web - particularily in Yahoo questions. Why should I not believe them? Mandy: First please read our legal statement in our website Jonathan McCausland: yes, but do computers bid in your auctions? Mandy: Yes they are called bidagents Mandy: BidAgent monitors your bid when you cannot be on line, or when you would like to have bids placed automatically for you. You simply decide how many bids you want to place and the maximum price you are willing to pay. BidAgent automatically bids for you each time someone else places a higher bid. Jonathan McCausland: so legitimate bidders are bidding against a machine - that you control? Mandy: No we do not control the bidagents Jonathan McCausland: who does? Mandy: the bidder will set it up placing a maximum number of bids the bidagent will place and the maximum price the bidder is willing to apy Jonathan McCausland: i don't understand. If i bid in an auction, some of the other bidders are computer robots. is that correct? Mandy: Yes but they are not robots Jonathan McCausland: it sounds very dodgy to me! Jonathan McCausland: has your computers been independently audited to make sure bidders are not being defrauded? Mandy: No Mandy: We do not allow any fake agents, nor any other abuses by even a customers. But each BidAgent is of a real customers and never fake. We gurantee a very fair play at Bidrivals. Mandy: Is there anything else I may help you with today? Jonathan McCausland: so for all unsuspecting bidders know the computer programs could be bidding against them and no one has anyway of being sure this isn't the case because no one independently audits your systems? Mandy: all our bidders have agreed on our terms and conditions Mandy: When they registered with Bidrivals Mandy: And most of them would set up a bidagent because they cannot stay on line all the time to place their bids Mandy: Please use this promo code LSM71 for 10 FREE bids on your next purchase of bidpackage. Enter the code into the coupon box before checking out. Jonathan McCausland: no, that doesn't answer the question. To clarify: Can you confirm that no independent body has audited your computer source code to prove that it is fair and does not contain any mechanism to allow bid rivals to bid in their own auctions? Mandy: With our Fair Auction Guarantee you can be sure that we do not use any systems that automatically bid on our auctions (Autobids). We also guarantee that no employees of Bidrivals or their family members are allowed to bid on the auctions. Mandy: The Fair Auction Guarantee is our way of showing our users what we stand for, and is an important part of our core values. Bidrivalsauctions are for the benefit of our members, and only members can bid on our products.