A Whitianga woman has lifted the lid on what may be an international online auction scam.
The site, bidfun.co.nz, promises bidders the chance to win electronic goods and other items at heavily discounted prices.
But Lee Austen says it's a hoax.
She spent hundreds of dollars, wasted hours of her time, and ended up with nothing - and she's warning others not to fall into the same trap.
Ms Austen was looking for a bargain on an iPod Touch, and came across the site. Using her trusty Mastercard, she snapped up $200 worth of credits.
A new iPod touch has a retail price of $450.
Ms Austen got amongst the bidding - that's when lee realised something wasn't right.
For every dollar spent, the price of the online auction increased by just two cents, and the timer bounced up again.
Annoyed with herself, she stayed at work and played all day, into the evening and late into the night.
At 12:45am in the morning she finally gave up and went home. By the next morning she'd wasted $200 dollars and had nothing to show for it.
We asked Consumer to have a look into the bidfun site - they had a number of concerns.
There is no New Zealand email address, physical address or contact phone number.
The same site is being operated in the UK and Australia.
For the site to be shut down, a complaint would need to be taken to the Commerce Commission.
Ms Austen is convinced it's a scam, and says whoever runs the site is making a small fortune.