[downandout]

Exactly right. Most of these sites have automated scripts that keep the bidding going until the item has received enough paid bids to be profitable before they allow the auction to end. Many others don't actually deliver anything at all - the script ensures that all items eventually go to shill accounts, and all revenue from bids goes straight to the bottom line. I know of one such site that sold for more than $35K on Flippa.

[bkmartin]

Proof? This is the kind of stuff that should be turned over to authorities if it is true.

[bitJericho]

Authorities wouldn't do anything about it until it became a big problem. On top of that this stuff is all hosted overseas.

[downandout]

I wouldn't mention the site publicly, and it wouldn't do much good anyway because there are literally hundreds of them that do this. There was a template floating around several blackhat marketing forums for a while with this functionality built in (the Flippa site I mentioned was based on this template).

I'll give you a whitelist instead of a blacklist. Unless you're seeing expensive, national ad campaigns from a given penny auction site and they are based in the US, more likely than not, there are no actual goods to be won. Even then, many use shill accounts to keep the bidding going until the item has reached the desired profitability from real, paid bids.