Don, the gnome and myangel have all given you good explanations about what may have actually happened and solution to avoid to what you suspect has happened.
Since a seller who might consider using a shill knows they may be kicked off ebay or worse. They are careful about how they would go about doing it. One of the dumbest things they could do would be to use a (0) feedback username to be the shill. Those of us who have been board members long enough to remember when full usernames were visible to every one bidding on an auction, can tell you that 99% of the suspected shill bidding on ebay was a misinterpretation of the information available or inexperience on the part of a bidder. Many new or inexperienced members do not know the bidding rules on ebay and just as new sellers end up doing things that mimic what a scammer might do, those are inadvertent mistakes, not intentional policy violations.
Did you look at the bid history to see if the person bid up to your maximum bid 1 increment at a time? That is usually what new bidders do, and many of them end up thinking a seller is using a shill (you) and that is why they retract.
As @donsdetour wrote, some new members will bid against an early maximum until the uncover its price, to see if the price is more that they are willing to pay. They may do that because they have or want to bid on other auctions. In some categories there are "sport bidders" who bid just to interfere with auctions. They bid with no intention of paying if the win. Experienced auction sellers do not want to have bid retractions on their auctions. They know it often results in not getting the best price for the item.
You replied to @myangelandmyprincess:
"the reason I suspect this happening is I see an Outbid e-mail (from a buyer that has not won anything in the past), then in the same minute I get sent yet another email saying the same bidder just retracted that bid. and I will bet money that the last person to Jack up that bid will have a zero next to their ID. And this isn't the first time this has happened from this seller".
If it is not the first time this has happened with the seller, why do you continue bidding on their items? The only seller I see on your profile that you have won several items from, starts their auctions at a very low price, and that attracts bargain hunters and resellers who hope to make a good profit on the items.
As others have written you can avoid suspected shill bidding, by placing one bid, for the most you are willing to pay, very late in an auction. Doing that does not give a shill much time to react and/or retract a bid.
"THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS FOOLPROOF, BECAUSE FOOLS ARE SO DARNED INGENIOUS!" (unknown)
