Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Anyone heard of "Swoopo"?

I will stick with ebay, amazon, macmall, etc for stuff. You can end up spending $100 & not having won a single item in swoopo, it preys on peoples vulnerability....lets say you already spent $20 bidding on a macbook....you want to protect the investment....so you spend $20 more...still getting outbid....now you are desperate...you bid $40 more...still no macbook.

Hmm....its not a scam....but sure is very shady.
 
I wouldnt be surprised if many of the auctions are won by the site itself and pretending to be another customer. That way the site collects on bid credit money and then just re-auctions the items over and over. Has to be some kind of scam...
 
That just has to be illegal gambling. I wonder if the server is offshore or if it just has not yet gotten the attention of a State Attorney General.
 
Holy keep a thread on life support, Batman. To anyone with ANY common sense, Google "Swoopo review" and read away. IF, after doing your homework, you choose to play, B bidder emptor (and say hello to P.T> Barnum).
 
If you're smart, and lucky, you can win.

Usually the smartest plan is to use your free bids on bids, and if you can win that, you pretty much got it.
 
When the swoopo ad came up to my site the first time, I researched it, and banned it right away.

As other have mentioned, it's pretty much gambling.
You are paying the the chance that no one else bids again.
Outbidding thousands of people? Your chances are slim.

It is unethical. It should be illegal, but currently they are operating under legal loopholes.
 
Swoopo is not a scam more like entertainment

I have been playing around with Swoopo for a couple of months. I actually won a Wii/Sport and am now on the hunt for a MAC laptop. I caution anyone who uses Swoop to understand it is just like gambling. You are bidding hoping you outbid everyone else. You must add the bid amount into your total to make sure you are getting a "good" deal.

My Deal? with bids/cost of item/shipping I paid less than $25 for a brand new Wii.
 
They are legit, and yes it is gambling and time consuming.

You must be incredibly brilliant and for the love of god don't expect expect you'll get a 45 dollar imac, you'll actually burn throught at least 650 dollars or more of bid credits. Plus watch what price they will actually close the bid, just because it looks like the clock runs out that doesn't actually end the auction. For instance they will not close the auction until say the biding gets to 35 Dollars or what ever is predetermined.



The people are brilliant getting like 10,000+ dollars for a 1500 imac or more. I wish i was the smart as hell entrepreneur of swoopo
 
A friend of mine was telling me about this site the other day. She said she knows someone who has won some really good deals on things like a Nintendo Wii. But having read this thread, I guess it is a bit more like gambling than an actual auction. It sounds like you can win some good deals if you are smart and/or lucky. But, of course, in gambling, the house always wins...

I realize that "a friend of a friend of a forum poster" is not much for you guys to go on, but it does sound like the site is legitimate.
 
notjustjay said:
A friend of mine was telling me about this site the other day. She said she knows someone who has won some really good deals on things like a Nintendo Wii. But having read this thread, I guess it is a bit more like gambling than an actual auction. It sounds like you can win some good deals if you are smart and/or lucky. But, of course, in gambling, the house always wins...

I realize that "a friend of a friend of a forum poster" is not much for you guys to go on, but it does sound like the site is legitimate.
Click to expand...

You can't win if you're smart, because if your'e smart, you don't touch that site. And your chances to win are ten times higher in the lottery or playing roulette. The site is just a totally legitimate rip-off relying on the fact that 99% of the population is bad at maths.
 
Note that the only "favorable" postings are from users that signed up AFTER the creation of this thread, aka from swoopo shill a lot.
 
Watching Swoopo auctions is kinda like watching people play money games at Carnivals lol
 
Signed up to this site a few days and hear are my obersvations.

1. Pretty sure it IS legit, as it was started by a german company who used to do it soley via phone calls (a bit more popular in Europe)

2. You can loose a tonne of cash if you keep bidding...

3. Really have to get a feel for the people who are bidding..

4. I'd say its 95% luck, and 5% "skill" in that you can't be a moran and bid when there is 10 minutes left.

I only put in the minimum, one more bids for a quarter so I have about 40 to play with... we'll see if I can get anything. Seems like you should focus on one product so you can get an idea what they normallly go for...
 
SnowLeopard2008 said:
Sounds fishy... Anyone have experience buying/bidding/winning an auction on Swoopo.com?
Click to expand...

Great way to lose money.

Avoid, avoid, avoid.

I'll stop short of calling it a "total scam" since apparently a few lucky people actually do win. But you won't.
 
Swoopo is a clever site, they sell bids in packs of i think 50, so you pay for bids

If you bid on an item, all you do is increase the price by 5p or 5 cents or whatever,

so imagine a macbook, ($900 retail) going for $100

$100 is 2000 bids,

each bid costs about 50 cents or so

so they actually end up selling a $900 product, for $2100 dollars

then you get the problem of not winning

for every 3 accounts or so, swoopo will have 2 "dead" accounts, owned by them, that bids automatically on products to increase the price, and to make people bid again, so 2 in every 5 products will actually be bought by swoopo and then most likely sold again. and they still keep the cost of the bids that people have paid for, they make thousands of $500 products and things
 
karatefem said:
I have been playing around with Swoopo for a couple of months. I actually won a Wii/Sport and am now on the hunt for a MAC laptop. I caution anyone who uses Swoop to understand it is just like gambling. You are bidding hoping you outbid everyone else. You must add the bid amount into your total to make sure you are getting a "good" deal.

My Deal? with bids/cost of item/shipping I paid less than $25 for a brand new Wii.
Click to expand...

These Posts are made by Swoopo itself. Do not rely on these!


Swoopo is scam at its best, it should be illegal AND it is clever - because offering free bits will make the "free bidders" encourage the idiots (swoopo user) to buy more and more bids to get the damn item of interest.
 
swoopo can be improved

I think sites like swoopo or anyother site where buyers pay for bids before they purchase, can be improved if they allow the buyer the freedom to buy the product at a price that is seen after he has bid. Although they can keep a time limit for the same.

This way the buyer gets to buy the product at a discount at the same time the luck factor is no more involved.
This will also make it a combination of ebay (where people buy at will) and swoopo (where people bid for lower price). so the buyer decides if that reduced price is right for him.

Of course then swoopo will not make profits, but the situation discussed would be an ideal / dream situation for a buyer. Wouldn't it?
 
admin1 said:
I think sites like swoopo or anyother site where buyers pay for bids before they purchase, can be improved if they allow the buyer the freedom to buy the product at a price that is seen after he has bid. Although they can keep a time limit for the same.

This way the buyer gets to buy the product at a discount at the same time the luck factor is no more involved.
This will also make it a combination of ebay (where people buy at will) and swoopo (where people bid for lower price). so the buyer decides if that reduced price is right for him.

Of course then swoopo will not make profits, but the situation discussed would be an ideal / dream situation for a buyer. Wouldn't it?
Click to expand...

1) You work for Swoopo
2) If not, you live in an alternative universe. It would be nice, while playing Texas hold-em, if I could stop the play on the first community card and pay what I think I want to to get the pot. The lottery advertises big payouts, but more people lose money on the lottery than win.

Swoopo is a scam designed to make more money than it pays for in product. Every "auction" pays them many times the price of the item up for bid. There is too much potential rigging that can go on in this online scheme. Anyone defending it should have his/her head examined.
 
admin1 said:
I think sites like swoopo or anyother site where buyers pay for bids before they purchase, can be improved if they allow the buyer the freedom to buy the product at a price that is seen after he has bid. Although they can keep a time limit for the same.

This way the buyer gets to buy the product at a discount at the same time the luck factor is no more involved.
This will also make it a combination of ebay (where people buy at will) and swoopo (where people bid for lower price). so the buyer decides if that reduced price is right for him.

Of course then swoopo will not make profits, but the situation discussed would be an ideal / dream situation for a buyer. Wouldn't it?
Click to expand...

This is your first post ever,

And you only go onto the swoopo thread,

For some reason this makes me think you are in some way part of swoopo,

Think about the idea you have just mentioned,

Swoopo would still make a massive amount of money, just off the massive number of people who bid
 
applemike said:
This is your first post ever,

And you only go onto the swoopo thread,

For some reason this makes me think you are in some way part of swoopo,

Think about the idea you have just mentioned,

Swoopo would still make a massive amount of money, just off the massive number of people who bid
Click to expand...

Absolutely right. Any first poster who praises a near scam has to be an agent for the scam.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back