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Proxibid Marketguard

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This article describes what MarketGuard™ is and how it works.

This article contains the following sections:

 

What Is MarketGuard™?

MarketGuard™ is Proxibid's proprietary risk-assessment software that works behind the scenes to reduce the threat of fraud and non-paying buyers in our system. MarketGuard™ utilizes information provided by the buyer along with information obtained from third-party partners to assist in determining a Buyer's “eligibility” to participate in an event.

MarketGuard™ has allowed Proxibid to remove registration barriers to events, making it easier than ever to bid online. Once a buyer has created an account on Proxibid, they can participate in any event in the marketplace, though a small number of specialized auctions may have additional requirements. MarketGuard™ offers enhanced fraud prevention and industry-leading information security systems to ensure the safest and most secure online buying experience in the industry.

 

What Are the Benefits of MarketGuard™?

  • Significantly higher participation is expected due to the ease in which bidders will be able to enter an auction.
  • Every bidder that enters an auction has been qualified.
  • Bidders will be able to enter an auction at the lot level or auction level.
  • Significantly higher pre-bids realized as bidders are easily able to browse an auction and leave bids on multiple items.
  • Improved quality of bidder data collected at registration- reducing risk to Proxibid and Auction Companies.
  • Because of MarketGuard™, the identify of each of bidder able to bid in an auction is verified.

 

How Does MarketGuard™ Reduce Risk?

  • MarketGuard™ is Proxibid's trademarked risk management system designed to reduce risk to seller partners while simplifying bidder account creation and verification.
  • MarketGuard™ allows Proxibid to remove registration as a barrier to bidders participating in an auction while giving auction companies unprecedented protection from problem bidders.
  • MarketGuard™ uses the data obtained from years of experience in the auction industry to help weed out bidders that don’t pay.
  • MarketGuard™ uses proprietary technology to help defend auction companies from identity theft and fraudulent activity.
  • MarketGuard™ gives auction companies more control by verifying automatically that a bidder is qualified to bid in an auction.
  • MarketGuard™ tiers are stringent on approval criteria. MarketGuard™ checks hundreds of bidder variables to determine the risk level of each and every participant in an auction. This ensures that every bidder is qualified to enter an auction.

 

How It Works

MarketGuard™ verifies and uses bidder information in our proprietary algorithms to identify a potential risk of fraud and non-paying buyers. Proxibid is the only online provider to offer this level of prevention help ensure only qualified bidders can participate.  

Our technology uses powerful logic to compare information from thousands of data sources, making the Proxibid Marketplace the safest and most trusted online destination for selling!

 

Tier Summaries

MarketGuard™ allows Proxibid the ability to default event approval tiers that require bidders to meet certain requirements before they can participate in a Seller’s event. Below are the approval tiers MarketGuard™ offers:  

Tier 1   

By default, most auctions fall under this tier. Tier 1 verifies bidder contact information and ensures the bidder is not bidding from an odd location (i.e. U.S. bidder has their account confiscated and is submitting bids from Nigeria). Tier 1 requires a valid credit card. It is the primary approval tier for Art, Antiques & Collectibles, Fine Art & Rare Memorabilia, Coins & Currency, Vehicles, Collector Cars & Marine, Estate & Personal Property, Firearms & Military Artifacts, Commercial & Industrial, Benefit & Charity, Computers & Electronics, and Jewelry, Gemstones & Watches event categories. We estimate that approximately 2-5 out of every 100 bidders in this tier will not pay for an item.

Tier 2

A more in depth MarketGuard™ check and assigns a risk score to the bidder. Tier 2 attempts to verify a bidder's name, address, birth date, valid credit card, obscure address information, background, fraudulent activity, and prior bidding history. Sellers can choose to add a deposit option to this tier for auto-approval if a bidder fails on other automated tier approval requirements. This is the primary approval tier for Heavy Construction Equipment, Farm Machinery & Implements, and Commercial Trucks. We estimate that approximately 1-3 out of every 100 bidders in this tier will not pay for an item.

Tier 3  

Offers the same checks as previous tiers, but requires higher MarketGuard™ verification than Tier 2. Typically auctions with high dollar items will use Tier 3 for more stringent approval criteria. Sellers can choose to add a deposit option to this tier for auto-approval if a bidder fails on other automated tier approval requirements. This is not a default approval tier for any primary event category. We estimate that approximately 1 out of every 100 bidders in this tier will not pay for an item.

Tier 4 

In this tier, a bidder is reviewed for fraudulent activity, but does not provide in-depth MarketGuard™ validations. Sellers do not have the ability to auto-approve buyers for an event. All bidders are placed in a pending status and must be manually approved to participate in an event. This tier should be used when an automated means of approval is not available: such as deposit by wire transfer, approval upon receipt of documentation/licensing requirements, etc. This is the primary approval tier for Real Estate. Due to the variable nature of this tier, we are unable to estimate the probability of a bidder not paying for an item.

 

Any good bidders may be passed into an auction company's events by using the Auction White-list functionality (Bidder Automation). This will allows auction companies to setup certain bidders to always be automatically approved for each of their auctions.

Bidder participation is displayed on the AuctionBuilder Dashboard. Auction Participation tracks any bidder that has expressed interest in an auction through the "watch this lot" feature or has placed a pre-bid.  

If a deposit is required for an auction, all bidders that are interested in the auction will see a notice that a deposit is required and to "Click to Apply". If the bidder is still interested in the auction, they will be placed into the event's pending queue and instructed to call the auction company to be manually approved after deposit criteria has been arranged. 

 

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