Because bidding fee scheme websites exist in a legal gray area, there is little to no verifiable enforcement of rules.

Much like any auction site, there is no protection from the practice of bid shilling, in which the auctioneer uses a puppet to place bids in his own auction. This practice is illegal in legitimate auctions, but is particularly nefarious in bidding fee scheme auctions. Due to the risk of shilling, even after the players have spent large quantities of money purchasing "bids" in the auction, the auctioneer can still deprive any of the players of a winning bid by placing an additional bid of his own. To protect oneself against the risk of such shill bidding, the best practice would be to use only reputable long-standing websites that disclose their management, investors or other details of the company. Those sites that do not readily divulge who is running the site, complete with contact information, should be avoided.

Penny Auction Watch is a consumer watchdog site which apparently helps bidders distinguish between legitimate and fraudulent auctions. There have been allegations that Penny Auction Watch is actually owned by several of the penny auction sites (which would result in a conflict of interest) but these are denied by Penny Auction Watch.

Certain companies that run bidding fee scheme websites show the same auctions on multiple websites .