OHIO — An Ohio woman is facing criminal charges for allegedly running a bid-rigging scheme that used fake identities to artificially inflate prices in online auctions.
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Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced today that Lindsay Klein, 36, was indicted on one count each of price fixing, bid rigging, and telecommunications fraud and two counts of identity fraud.
Acting through her business Priceless Discoveries, Klein allegedly used “shill bidding” to place bids on 760 auction items.
This practice created a false impression of high demand and inflated auction closing prices by approximately $9,000, according to Yost.
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Klein, who also goes by the name Lindsay Leslie, formed a company called Diva Shop Limited in November 2020.
Approximately 17 months later, she began operating as Priceless Discoveries.
The business acquired inventory and sold merchandise through the online auction platform Capital City Online Auctions.
The platform alerted the Ohio Department of Agriculture, which regulates auctions, after noticing unusual bidding activity.
This notification prompted a joint investigation between the department and the Attorney General’s Office.
Investigators focused on conduct occurring between July 2022 and March 2023.
The indictment claims that Klein used a bidder profile created with the stolen personal information of a 55-year-old Columbus man to submit bids on hundreds of items.
The man was unaware that a profile had been created in his name and said he had never participated in the auctions. His profile was usually listed as the second-highest bidder.
An additional bidder profile associated with a 69-year-old woman from Reynoldsburg was also accessed and used without her permission or knowledge.
A third profile in the name of Rhonda Kelley, Klein’s mother, was allegedly used to create the appearance of competition among bidder accounts controlled from the same location.
The alleged conduct violates the Valentine Act, which prohibits price fixing and other conspiracies that restrain trade or harm consumers.
“Going once, going twice – going to court!” Yost said. “When sellers plant fake bidders to drive up prices, that’s not smart business. It’s criminal behavior.”
Klein will appear in court on March 6.
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