Abbreviated facts of the case

Forged Signatures, Suggestive E-mail Accounts, and a Fictitious Art Expert

The Fake Richard Diebenkorn Auction in May 2000

WALTON admitted that he forged the initials "RD 52" in the bottom right corner of an unsigned painting that FETTERMAN and WALTON had bought for resale from an antique store located in Little Rock, California. WALTON chose those initials to defraud eBay users into believing the painting had been created by renowned artist Richard Diebenkorn.

WALTON and BEACH admitted that the three defendants shielded their true identities from eBay by providing bogus names, postal addresses, and telephone information, and by providing e-mail addresses obtained from free e-mail providers known to collect little or no verifiable information on their account holders. By creating multiple User IDs, the defendants intended to trick other eBay users into believing that the "shill" bids they placed on each other’s items were legitimate. BEACH admitted that he shared his on-line aliases with FETTERMAN to advance their scheme.

It appears to me that this shill bid case goes way beyond just shill bidding.