swoopo.com how is this legal? could do it for site passes
 

So this is a German company that now has a US (CA) operation.

Swoopo.com

Here's the scam (it operates like an online raffle)

#1. you pay $1 to bid for an item.
#2. when you bid the item price advances from .01 to .20
-so if the item is a $5 MacBook Pro and you place your BID (cost you 1$ to buy the Mac if you are the winner at $5) the price goes up to 5.01 (if its advancing at .01 per bid the auctions vary)
#3. also when you BID the timer advances 15 to 20 seconds.

So basically if they sell a $1200 Mac for $100 and each .01 BID increase cost the bidders $1 that's 100*100*1 =$10,000 in BID fees to sell a Mac at $100

Now its pure genius because you watch one auction and people spend $100 trying to win the chance to buy a camera at $50, but they also sell cash this way, too.

It looks no different than an online raffle or a gambling game to me. California Attorney General needs to toss these guys behind bars and pull the plug because I am JEALOUS!

We could do the same for porn passwords. Have like 100+ site members sold a day and surfers can BID $1 to get a month of Bangbus for $4 (4*100=$400 @ .01 increase per bid) same for webcam minutes, etc.

Does the auction end when there's no more bids to top the prior bid?

Yep, but they have the "Bid Butler" that auto bids for you at the last second (which ads 15-20 seconds onto the time) so it could take days for the auction to end. They call it "Entertainment Shopping"

Hmmmmm looks like they're playing around too much with the auction model. However, an activity only becomes 'gambling' and falls under a state's anti-lottery criminal/regulatory provisions if there's enough elements of "chance" thrown into the mix. Probably need more details to determine if this is legal.

I saw a plan for that concept a few weeks ago in a newletter from one of my groups. If I had the amount of traffic and $ - I would build a site like that

They have an affliate program which is run through commision juction

its probably rigged so they are always the winner too then they dont actually have to have a product. Its got to be. theres one auction for a 16kb data usb stick that onlly cost $30 they say 40 its going to go for close to 30 plus this one dude had already bid about 40 times , even if he wins it will have cost him 80 bucks for a 30 item

price: $30.45
All prices are in US Dollars

Winner: Hilsenstern

This auction ended on
Dec-01-2008, at 16:01 PST

Congratulations,
Hilsenstern!
Savings: 0%
Savings:
Worth up to: $39.99
Placed bids (71): $53.25
FreeBids (0): $0.00
Final price: $30.45
Savings: $0.00

well he finally did win but he paid more than if he just went to amazon plus he made like 40 bids on it

Ingenious. A perfect way to prey on impulse buying.

We played around with the consept for a clasified ads/second hand auction using that idea. Those regular auction houses and websites are common here in europe (http://lauritz.com/Default.aspx?LanguageId=2) where people drop off their itims, and them people bid on them through the website

The idea is interesting, but Dont have the time and money for it

so if he made 40 bids and then had to buy it for $30.45 = $70.45 he spent on it, but if he DID NOT WIN, he'd be out his $40 in bid fees and still have to buy it on amazon so that's why you'll see these auctions go over the value because they are already out and by winning the item at under double the cost they still win, lol...

I promise this is gambling, usury, a clever AG should shut this down asap.

Sounds absolutely ridiculous but genius at the same time.