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I know bounties on questions help in getting answers. But it is also possible that some people award bounties to get perfect answers but after getting the answer they do not accept it. Has this happened before? Can we do this? Legal or not?

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    Like accepting answers, awarding a bounty is not required. Bounties can be awarded automatically under certain circumstances, see How does the bounty system work? Commented Jun 19, 2013 at 14:29
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    This is why the bounty is lost regardless. So that their is no incentive to "cheat" people of the bounty Commented Jun 19, 2013 at 14:30

2 Answers 2

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If someone doesn't award a bounty manually, half the value is awarded automatically to a deserving answer.

In any case, the reputation is not refunded (you can't award the bounty to your own answer either, for instance).

Makes it difficult to "game" the bounty system.

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    * if the deserving (read: highest upvoted) answer has at least two votes (@Oded: I know you knew this, just clarifying for Mohammad) Commented Jun 19, 2013 at 15:15
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Whether they accept or not, they won't get rep they offered in the bounty (unless a moderator ends the bounty and return the rep to the OP with is only when a moderator found the question should be closed).

And if the OP doesn't award bounty. Half of the bounty will be awarded to the most upvoted answer.

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