Chris Scott and his fiance, Hayley Jacobs, listed their business and all its assets on TradeMe with a $1 reserve.

A complaint has been made to Trade Me over the $1 reserve auction of a business, because the winning bid came from the owner's own account.

Chris Scott and his fiance Hayley Jacobs listed their business iClean along with its assets in a 10 day auction on the classifieds website.

It was listed with a $1 reserve, to let the market decide its price.

But some of those with an interest in the auction were concerned that the final sale was not legitimate and that there had been some false bidding to drive up the price.

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One bidder increased their bid from $36,600 to more than $40,000 when they were already in the lead, shortly before the auction ended. The auction closed with a final bid of $40,600 from Jacobs' account.

Jacobs owns 100 per cent of the business' shares.

Trade Me spokesman Jeff Hunkin said he was not able to get into the details of the auction because of privacy reasons.

But he said one complaint had been received and it was "on our radar".

"We take any manipulation of auctions very seriously, and in a general sense if there is suspected shill bidding activity, our team may restrict a membership from operation and refer the case to the Commerce Commission," he said.

"As a seller it pays to think carefully about where you set your reserve price, and to be willing to accept the risks - and benefits - that can result from a $1 reserve auction."

Scott said the business had not sold.

There were questions about the auction that were being cleared up with Trade Me.

"What ended up happening, which we were not aware of until roughly 24 hours after the auction had closed, is that a bid which ended up being the leading bid was made from Hayley's Trade Me account. All of the personal details had been changed on the account as well," he said.

"It wasn't until Hayley checked her emails that she stumbled across a rather large amount of emails from Trade Me, at which point she told me and I couldn't believe what i was hearing.

"I had already deemed the winner as non-genuine the previous day as no contact had been made and Hayley and I were a little annoyed. I had also contacted Trade Me to inform them I believed that the bid was not genuine and asked them to assist me to relist the auction ... then changed my mind. I had had enough and needed time to think about how to approach everything.

"Since then, Hayley and I have both attempted to tighten our security across the board by changing passwords, adding security to our phones."

He said he was trying to stay positive and focusing on the future opportunities for the business. There had been interest from people wanting to buy it, or wanting to invest, he said.