Bidding Ring

  

A group of people working together to keep the prices artificially low (or artificially high, depending on the scenario) by agreeing not to outbid each other. It's a form of collusion that's generally considered fraud.

Say a construction contract is up for bid. You and your buddy are the main competition for the project. But instead of putting in truly competitive bids, you guys get together and decide that you're going to put in the same amount. This way, whichever one of you gets the final bid, that person is going to make more than if the bidding was fair.

In this example, you and your friend are the bidding ring, and what you've just conspired to do is called bid rigging (See: Bid Rigging). We expect you to go to your room and think about what you've hypothetically done.

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What are Phishing Scams?8 Views

00:00

Finance a la shmoop what are phishing scams? all right you know when you're out [Woman on fishing boat with Dad]

00:08

on the lake with dad just the two of you trying to haul in some trout when one of

00:13

the fish pulls a fast one on you and hangs one of these things on your line [Fishing line with boot attached]

00:18

yeah total scam we're telling you you cannot trust anything that breathes

00:24

through the side of its face anymore these days really okay so that's a not

00:28

quite a phishing scam although the general idea is similar it's someone

00:33

trying to make you believe something that isn't exactly true with a phishing

00:38

scam the venue switches from the great outdoors to cyberspace never gotten an [A wooden hut appears]

00:44

email from a Nigerian prince who's temporarily down on his luck and if

00:48

you'll just wire him three hundred bucks in cash immediately well immeasurable

00:54

riches await you it sounds like a little good to be true there right yeah and it [Man gives thumbs up in room]

00:59

is well usually that Nigerian prince is an overweight balding guy named Jerry

01:04

living in his mom's basement in a suburb just outside of Cleveland he'd love

01:09

nothing more than to hook a sucker you and take that 300 bucks [Jerry on his computer]

01:13

off your hands but many times the scam is much more intricate than that often

01:18

its identity thieves who are trying to con you into releasing private

01:23

information such as your social security number or credit card information mm-hmm

01:28

that's out there well they might try to convince you that

01:30

their Amazon support or your bank or your long-lost uncle Yusuf who just [Person flicking through e-mails]

01:36

needs a few personal details before he can FedEx you your large inheritance

01:41

don't fall for any of it anytime you're randomly asked to divulge any sensitive

01:46

information or pop a wad of cash in an envelope stop for a second and ask

01:51

yourself whatever you might be well a fish and then ask yourself whether you'd [Cash burning]

01:55

like all your hard-earned money to be sauteed or flame-broiled good stuff...

Up Next

Finance: What are Kickbacks?
1 Views

What are kickbacks? Well, they're things we don't get for working at Shmoop, that's for sure. Hit play to find out more.

Finance: What is Painting The Tape?
26 Views

Painting the tape is an illegal way to manipulate stock prices. And yes, it’s still illegal, even if you paint it super pretty.

Finance: What is the Free Rider Problem?
10 Views

What is the Free Rider Problem? The free rider problem occurs when people take more than their contributed fair share of a common resource. In the...

Find other enlightening terms in Shmoop Finance Genius Bar(f)