Banning a Bidder – Locking and Suspending Bidders

Following on from Suspending a Bidder’s Auction Registration, you have the ability to completely ban them from logging into their account on your Portal, we call this Locking an Account.

Tutorial Video – Locking and Suspending Bidders

Step 1 – Opening your Bidder List

First thing you’ll need to do is open the Webtron Dashboard and click the Users & Groups dropdown, then click Users to open your Bidder list.

Next, click Modify Filter at the top-left of the Bidder list menu, click the red X next to the Account Created Between filter, then type out or copy paste either the First Name and Last Name, Email Address or Username of the Bidder in question, then hit Enter on your keyboard or click the blue Apply button at the bottom of the Modify Filter panel.

You will now see an updated Bidder list table containing any of your Bidders’ whose details match what you put into the Modify Filter options, click on the Username of the Bidder in question to open their Bidder profile.

Step 2 – Locking a Bidding

Now that you’ve opened your Bidder’s profile, you’ll see a series of tab across the top of their profile details:

• Summary
• Edit
• Roles and Privileges
• Auctions
• Vendor Association
• Invoices
• Deposit
• Audit Trail

Open the Edit tab.

Here you will find their Email Address, Forename, Surname and External Ref., but the checkbox we’ll need to use is the last checkbox at the bottom of the Edit menu, labelled ‘Account Locked?’. If unticked, this Bidder is freely able to log into their account and bid on your Portal. Tick this checkbox, then click the green Save button below that.

This will open the Edit User panel, as you are making an edit to a Bidder’s profile, you need to record a reason why. Tick the “Locking the account because” checkbox and then fill in the reason why you are locking this Bidder’s profile in the text box above that.

The OK button to confirm your changes will not appear until you type out a reason, once done, click the blue OK button at the bottom of the Edit User panel.

The Dashboard will now reload and land you back on the Bidder list, look to the right-hand side of the Bidder list table, under the Locked column you should now see red “Yes” text confirming that Bidder’s account is now locked.

Step 3 (Optional) – Viewing why someone is Locked/Banned

If you need to see the reason why a Bidder’s account is locked, you can do so by opening the Audit Trail inside the Bidder’s profile. Click here to open our Viewing a Bidder’s Account History guide for the steps on how to do that.

FAQ – Locking a Bidder

Q: If lock someone’s account, what’s to stop them from making a new email address and a new bidder account?
A: We advise keeping an eye out for Bidder’s who try to evade their ban by creating a new account. Thankfully, creating a new email address is quite time consuming, but if you’d like add an extra layer of Verification, get in touch with us at support@webtronoa.com to discuss our Bidder Verification module.

Q: Can we ban someone’s IP Address?
A: No, locking an account will only prevent that Bidder from logging back in with that email address. With the rise of free and easily-accessible VPN Services, IP Bans have become less and less effective, as changing IP Address is now a far simpler process.

Q: Why not prevent a Bidder using a VPN from connecting to the Portal?
A: There are thousands of VPN services available and an almost incalculable number of available IPv6 addresses for an individual to use. Blacklisting every IP Addresses used by VPN services would be virtually impossible, and may unintentionally block legitimate Bidders who use a VPN for privacy reasons.

Q: Can I see a Bidder’s IP Address?
A: No, IP Addresses are logged at the server level for bot and spam monitoring and prevention, but for Bidder security and privacy, IP Address are not displayed inside the Webtron Dashboard.

Q: Can I manually verify Bidders before they can bid?
A: Yes, we have three options regarding Bidder Verification:

1. Manual Account Activation (Not Recommended) – By default, Bidders are required to verify their Email Address after filling out the Create Account form. Enabling Manual Account Activation will instead place that responsibility on your Dashboard Admins. Bidders will be unable to log in until one of your Admins has reviewed and manually activated their account. This can be a slow process, so we instead recommend options 2 and 3.
2. Manual Registrant Approval – By default, Bidders who register for an Auction (Accept the Ts and Cs) will be auto-approved to Bid. Disabling Auto-Approval will instead place each Bidder’s registration in Pending status, with Admins on your Pending Registrant notification list receiving an email confirming a Bidder is awaiting review and approval or suspension. For more details, click here to open our Bidder Registration Management Explained guide.
3. Bidder CC Verification – Like Manual Registrant Approval, Bidder Verification is our new Credit Card Verification module powered by Stripe. When registering for an auction, new Bidders are required to fill in valid credit card details, with the module then checking if the details they have entered match a valid credit card. For more information, get in touch with us at support@webtronoa.com.