Xome.com auction site a scam?

[Richard Mollel]

I recently was aiding my client in bidding for a property on xome.com auction site. The bidding was set at $5K increments. Our maximum offer was $194K, and "another bidder" took it to $199K (5K increments) and "yet another" to $204K in the final minutes. It closed at 204K. The next day, the site reflected a "final bid" of $195K! This should be impossible since the bid increment amounts were $5K, and we have a system confirmed bid amount of $194K.

I sent a complaint email to xome.com, questioning how could there be a final bid of $195K, whilst my client's bid was $194K, and the final bid on the website on the day of the bid was $204K? Their answer was that the final bidder ($204K) walked away. Even if that were true, the next highest bidder should have been $199K, and not $195K. Further challenges to xome.com went unanswered. 

It appears to me that these auction sites could be bidding against real bidders to get the price up, then if real bidders walk away, and the site operators end up as "highest bidder", they "walk-away" from their own bids and arbitrarily select "a winner" as it happened in this case. 

How can consumers seek transparency against these auction sites? How can we ensure the bidders are actual, and not the site operators themselves? Has anyone else encountered similar challenges with an auction site and can share their experience? Any suggestions for steps to take?