QuiBid's scammy site

Look at their "live auctions" counters: QuiBids, The Best Online Auction Site! - QuiBids.com

How do they get this kind of obviously untrue activity BBB approved? Here is their BBB information:
1134 complaints closed with BBB in last 3 years | 419 closed in last 12 months

I guess the big question is, are penny auctions a legal business, or are they classified the same as gambling under "entertainment," or are there just so many they haven't all been shut down, yet?

I am surprised not to find all of them listed on RS, as they all look very scammy. Thoughts on this?

Quibids has been operating in Australia for just over a year, they had a big TV advertising campaign for a while. Here at least, it is legal but 'buyer beware'.
Beware: '$24 iPad' penny auction deals could leave you penniless

The profits Quibids make must be astronical due to the 60c per bid cost. As someone explained on Whirlpool -

From the winning end-users's perspective:

iPad 3 : starting bid : $1.00
I bid 200 times @ 0.60 (20 of us bidding against each other) = $120.00
iPad 3 : Ending Price : $40.00 (going up 0.01 each bid from 20 people over 200 bids each)
Total for me to pay = $120.00 + $40.00 = $160.00
Bargain iPad 3 !

From the company's perspective

iPad 3 : purchase price : $530
Bids x 200 x 20 x 0.60 = $2400
Ending Bid = $120.00
Total income from item bidding = $2520.00
Profit = $1990

Good for the winner. Good for the bidding business. Bad for the other 19 people who lost $120 on bids. So in that case, you have a 1 in 20 chance of getting a bargain (but still paying money), and a 19 in 20 chance to lose $120.

I got an email linking to their site, yesterday. There were the typical "live" auctions that I'm sure I've seen on these other so-called gambling... er... I mean, penny auction sites, that are all counting down in the last few seconds... WOW someone is about to get a smokin' deal... then oops... the counters start counting down the last few seconds again. I wonder how many people get sucked in? To me, this is an outright scam, regardless of whether or not it is officially legal.

One of the problems with being a fraudwatcher is it's all too easy to become myopic and begin thinking the scam du jour is a bigger problem than it is.

In the grand scheme of things, QuiBids is just "another" little penny ante fraud on an internet of similar little penny ante frauds.

In the great majority of cases, the question of legality will never even be raised.

Other than for the grandaddy of the current fad of penny auctions, Zeek Rewards, it's not going to be worth even getting out of bed for investigators to even begin to look at many/most of the Zeek clones.

In any case QuiBids would be nothing be a distant memory by the time any investigation came anywhere near being ready for prosecution.

The U.S.A. has a current population of upward of 310 MILLION.

The S.E.C has approx 3,500 staff, the F.B.I. has around 37,000.

Do the math.

The reality is, the very reason forums such as REALSCAM.com exist is BECAUSE law enforcement cannot possibly be expected to stamp out 'net crime.