Ebay Scam!

[XFS 70]

I never really buy and sell cars on eBay so this may well be common.

So, I decided to have a look on eBay as I'm struggling to find what I am looking for.

Saw one of my own cars with my pictures and text listed at about 5k less than I was asking! Reports it to Ebay obviously.

A couple of weeks later I am looking again.

There is front of me, absolutely what I want. Cheap, but not suspiciously cheap. FSH, Low miles, 2 owners. £21500. Retail value around £25000 so its in the negotiable range.

So, I contact the seller. In the Isle of Man. Ok, not perfect. So, I emailed and said, ok I can come to collect the vehicle if you let me have it for £20500. By this time I have got the reg, chassis no etc of the car and it checks out on HPi

Seller emails me back, I have a better idea, due to this, that and the next thing... we will do it all via PayPal, pay after delivery and Uship, you can have it for £20500 and I will also pay the shipping and if its not as described you have 5 days to send the car back and the money is returned. 

Nobody caves in like that and offers that sort of deal. A couple of other things had already made me think already it wasn't right, I am now pretty sure its a scam. But I thought I will play along.

It went right down the line.

Authentic PayPal invoice with the absolutely correct text, logos and a live help button which took you through to a live person who was pretty good. The thing that really threw me was that they had my correct PayPal address. God knows how they got that.

The main give away, apart from the fact I already knew it was fake, was they were actually to quick and efficient and when you phoned the help number they pronounced the word live as live as in living.

Anyway, I also found the car on Autotrader. I would not have noticed it previously as it was way overpriced. A private punter has it up for sale at £29500 (good luck with that!!) so I phoned him and sure enough he is genuine and the car is in Cornwall.

 

[Casper 272]

Thanks for posting and making everyone aware 

always new scams coming up one way or another 

hopefully this will save someone falling for it .. 

[tradegirl 112]

Seen plenty of these on gumtree in the past. Always some remote location, like the most northern part of Scotland. Always willing to ship the car free of charge.

[David Ayers 171]

Quite a common scam saying it's on the Isle Of Man.

Just tell them you happen to be in Douglas and can be there in 5 minutes.

Another one is they are on an gas rig but can get it delivered to you.

 

 

[CRW 73]

These individuals are the lowest of the low.  Just feel really sorry for the poor private punter who gets blinded by the whole situation and loses their shirt.

[BHM 994]

5 hours ago, CRW said:

These individuals are the lowest of the low.  Just feel really sorry for the poor private punter who gets blinded by the whole situation and loses their shirt.

It’s wrong but see below.

2 hours ago, tradex said:

They work on greed, usually, something for nothing scenario. 

One greedy c*** conning another greedy c***.

[sellect2 19]

I had someone trying to buy one off me this week. 

He's on the oil rigs no access to internet banking, but willing to pay the full price and sort his own shipping. But can only pay via pay pal. In the email he asks for my PayPal account several times. 

I replied can only do bank transfer, or debit on collection due to scammers on PayPal. 

Never heard from him again. 

Hate these tosses. 

[XFS 70]

Mind you, the con man...or woman was asking a realistic price. The real owner was in fantasy land.