Every time you bid on a house, the estate agent will make the assumption that you can go higher so they can always try this game if they want. That's the nature of it. The question is do you want to pay more for it? If the asking price for a house is €350k and I have AIP for €400k, I have the choice to decide if that house means so much to me that I would be willing to pay more than 50k over the asking price.
I am sorry but for someone who works in a sector that has not covered itself in glory over the years, your desire to paint an entire industry as unprofessional is extremely odd. There are bad estate agents. There are bad solicitors. There are bad builders. There are bad financial advisors. It doesn't mean that every single person is out to get you.
Working for commission doesn't make you a bad estate agent. It doesn't mean that you are unprofessional or that you are looking to take advantage of buyers. Your job is to get the maximum price for the vendor but it is also to make the sale as easy as possible for the vendor. Allowing people make bids and go sale agreed without confirmation that the funds are in place can be a massive waste of time. I know people who went sale agreed on a house for more than 20k than they could afford because the bank 'told them' they could get a central bank exemption that hadn't even been applied for. The sale fell through weeks later and the house had to go on the market again.
With the introduction of the Price Register, I don't understand why we are not seeing stories every day from people saying the EA told them that there was a bid in for more than what it actually sold for and they lost out.....If so many people believe false bids are inflating the price, then stop bidding.. If they are fake bids, you have nothing to worry about. You can't lose a house to a fake bidder.