ebay scams

[bernardfeay]

Just a warning.

We were looking for a new (2nd hand) camper van and kept a close watch on ebay. In general the sellers wanted top dollar for their vans but that's an aside.

Of course we watched vans that looked good value fail to meet the reserve. We watched high priced vans expire unsold.

But we got enticed by a wonderful bargain and this is what you should watch out for.

We spotted a van that was for sale at about £6000. We know our price list well enough to know that it should have been £20000.

The ebay listing said it was only available to "pre approved bidders due to time wasters".

Of course at such a discount we wanted to be a pre approved bidders.

The advert showed an email address. We did not consider it unusual at the time but if you think about it you never see an email address listed on ebay.

The bottom line is that the van does not exist. There is a nice story about an upset wife getting "this bloody van" in the divorce settlement and not knowing what it is worth. Also it is right hand drive and she lives in Spain so it's only suitable for scrap. The whole story is very convincing.

The scammer has 2 plans. He wants you to hand over £6000 against lots of assurances that ebay is looking after you. Alternatively he wants £1000 deposit. Either way your money is on its way out of your pocket never to be seen again.

I studied this situation and eventually figured it out to some extent.

I noticed that as I clicked on the item the page would load for about half a second. then the page would go blank and reappear. That little flicker inbetween the first page loading and the second page loading is the clever bit. Somehow or other, I'm not an expert, the scammer manages to take away the page that ebay thinks it is showing and you are redirected to a page that looks just like it complete with email address for direct contact.

I reported it to ebay, their reaction was trivial, the same scammer still appears.

So, remember, if it looks too good to be true, it is too good to be true. Don't for one minute think that ebay is standing behind you and looking after you. They are not. Only hand over your cash when you have done the right checks, you can see the van, you know the vendor owns it and you can drive away in it.

 

[Firefox]

This is very similar to the Nigerian "advance payment scam" aka 419 scam you often see in email spam.

Someone offers some share in a large sum of cash, or other unbelievable offer. If you follow it through, you'll be asked to send through small but ever increasing sums of money forever chasing something that never existed.

The main point is not the bait, but the up front sums they can extort for deposits, legal fees, transfer tax, local tax, and whatever else they can think of. It's the first time I've ever seen a motorhome offered as bait before though; well spotted!

 

[maingate]

I cannot understand why anyone would want to make a major purchase on Ebay when there are so many other places.

There are lots of M/homes for sale in magazines and dedicated online sites. I had my last van for sale online and had no interest at all. Everything could be checked and it was parked on my drive. Easy to see it was no con.

If somebody gets done on Ebay then I have no sympathy for them as they are asking for trouble. Scams on Ebay have been well documented. Small purchases can be shrugged off when it goes wrong but major ones cause major problems.

 

[Bernard Jones]

Thanks for the warning.

(I looked at that one, it seems its not the same scam I thought it was.
I thought it half belonged to his ex and he was trying to get all the money for it. So you would probably receive the van but then only own half of it.)

 

[Channa]

Sorry, but the baited are equally as greedy and avaricious.as the scammers.And my sympathy is limited.

What goes around comes around as they say.

What next ? Father Christmas is real ?

Anyone that believes they can buy something for £6000 that is worth £20000
is either seriously in need of counselling, or living in a world where fairies still put a sixpence under the pillow at night.

There is an old saying, if it looks too good to be true ..it probably is !!

Never have been a user of fleabay!!, But I have seen no evidence that leads me to conclude it doesn,t have the odd charleton like other advertising venues.

A fool is easily parted with their money . no mention of how the fool has money extracted.


Channa

 

[Higgy]

All cons work on the pretext that people cannot resist a bargain, but as
mentioned genuine bargains are hard to find. You don't get 'owt for nowt'
comes to mind.

We bought our MH using Ebay but our search criteria was to keep it local so
we could view in situ and not meet up at somewhere other than the sellers
home address.

These fraudsters work on the gullable but sending money to Nigeria takes
the biscuit.

Anyone who wishes to invest wisely please send me a open ended cheque. lol

 

[Deleted member 967]

Our experience of buying on ebaY

After doing much research I knew the van I wanted. I saw one example in the UK that matched my expectations but lost it as the sale of the house was delayed. Every other example I saw in dealers was well below the standard of this first vehicle but the prices were the same or higher.

Then I saw one on ebaY in Dortmund. It looked the business. I contacted the seller and got more info and pictures. It was a buy it now price so we agreed to a deal subject to inspection.

We flew to Dusseldorf and he picked us up at the airport and we went to look at the van. It was dark but it looked good. He had booked us into a hotel for the night and took us to a restaurant first and then dropped us at the hotel. He came in to make sure that all was well as neither of us speak German. Arrangements were made for him to pick us up next morning and we had a thorough examination of the van and agreed to do the deal. He had said that if we were not satisfied there was no pressure and all we had done was have a trip to Germany.

He took us through all the processes required to arrange change of ownership and export. By 11:00am we were in the bank. I had arranged to take travellers cheques to pay as I didn’t want to part with my money before I was certain the deal was a good one.

Just after noon I was driving the vehicle away escorted by a friend of his to a dealers to get essentials such as crockery cutlery and pans. We were then escorted onto the Autobahn down the Ruhr. This was the first time I had driven on the continent and only the second LHD vehicle I had driven. Our first night was spent wild camping in Aachen as we couldn’t find the municipal site. Next day we continued into Belgium and had a few days at Ypres before driving to Ijmuden and back home on the ferry.

I have found the van to be excellent and have had very few problems in the 3 years I have had it. So some deals on ebaY can work out OK.

Incidentaly the price was £6000 lower that that being asked by UK dealers. We have spent this difference by adding extras for our own comfort.

 

[rickboy]

Farther Christmas

Sorry, but the baited are equally as greedy and avaricious.as the scammers.And my sympathy is limited.

What goes around comes around as they say.

What next ? Father Christmas is real ?

Anyone that believes they can buy something for £6000 that is worth £20000
is either seriously in need of counselling, or living in a world where fairies still put a sixpence under the pillow at night.

There is an old saying, if it looks too good to be true ..it probably is !!

Never have been a user of fleabay!!, But I have seen no evidence that leads me to conclude it doesn,t have the odd charleton like other advertising venues.

A fool is easily parted with their money . no mention of how the fool has money extracted.


Channa

Channa. What is this about Farther Christmas?

Rick

 

[kenjones]

eBay

I bought a Smart Car on eBay well below dealer price.
I paid cash on collection after inspecting the vehicle.
After two years trouble free use I traded it in for almost as much as it cost.
Be careful and there are bargains to be found.

 

[guerdeval]

I'm a keen Ebayer, 1 motorhome (30k) 2 Gwagens to mention a couple, I've spotted many fraud attempts and found that if you report them through the correct channel they will act and I've always had an acknowledgement Email.

 

[gunerdoo]

After doing much research I knew the van I wanted. I saw one example in the UK that matched my expectations but lost it as the sale of the house was delayed. Every other example I saw in dealers was well below the standard of this first vehicle but the prices were the same or higher.

Then I saw one on ebaY in Dortmund. It looked the business. I contacted the seller and got more info and pictures. It was a buy it now price so we agreed to a deal subject to inspection.

We flew to Dusseldorf and he picked us up at the airport and we went to look at the van. It was dark but it looked good. He had booked us into a hotel for the night and took us to a restaurant first and then dropped us at the hotel. He came in to make sure that all was well as neither of us speak German. Arrangements were made for him to pick us up next morning and we had a thorough examination of the van and agreed to do the deal. He had said that if we were not satisfied there was no pressure and all we had done was have a trip to Germany.

He took us through all the processes required to arrange change of ownership and export. By 11:00am we were in the bank. I had arranged to take travellers cheques to pay as I didn’t want to part with my money before I was certain the deal was a good one.

Just after noon I was driving the vehicle away escorted by a friend of his to a dealers to get essentials such as crockery cutlery and pans. We were then escorted onto the Autobahn down the Ruhr. This was the first time I had driven on the continent and only the second LHD vehicle I had driven. Our first night was spent wild camping in Aachen as we couldn’t find the municipal site. Next day we continued into Belgium and had a few days at Ypres before driving to Ijmuden and back home on the ferry.

I have found the van to be excellent and have had very few problems in the 3 years I have had it. So some deals on ebaY can work out OK.

Incidentaly the price was £6000 lower that that being asked by UK dealers. We have spent this difference by adding extras for our own comfort.

I wonder would a Uk seller have done the same for You , Ebay or not.

 

[John H]

The greedy will always get scammed. The people who reply to those Nigerian e-mails - or buy shares over the phone from someone they have never met in those so-called boiler room scams - get no sympathy from me. If you want a bargain, then the best way to get it is on recommendation from someone you trust who has traded with that person/organisation before. Too-good-to-be-true deals from strangers are just that.

 

[miller]

and then on the flip side try selling a Motorhome on eBay.

One weekend over the course of a Saturday night/Sunday morning I replied to 85 emails, 50 I suspect were dealers with stupid offers. 30 i suspect were trying to value their own motorhome and 5 serious bidders of which only 2 came to view. Second viewer bought then and there on the spot!


It was a nightmare, i felt so peeed off with all the 'cheeky' bids 3k under the asking price. Bear in mind the asking price was 3k less than those of dealers so it was a bargain anyways. Sob story's such as oh £3k is all i have in my budget. Well i took great pleasure in directing them to £3k vans!!!!!!


Mike

 

[watchthis]

Hi All
I trade on ebay and have done so for quite a few years--And before anyone says anything yes I am registered with the tax man and registered as a business and pay an accountant I use Norton software to help sort this problem out (it is not just on ebay) it has a 'phishing program' so when you go on to 'made up' sellers/sites the screen goes red and warn's you that it is a suspect site. I would say that any seller who states it's for pe-approved bidders is a scammer...Even in the area that I trade in (watches)there are loads of fakes. The thing to look out for are blurred images with only one or two pictures and a very short discription and of course the old adage that Ebay used to show all over their site was buyer beware both in English and Latin. I also have been looking at motorhomes on ebay and on other sites and you will be surprised at the amount of dealers who pretend to be private vendors. Another good way is to look at the completed listing's to see how many HAVE actually been sold and keep tabs on them you will be surprised just how many of the 'SOLD' one's come up again within a short space of time. I have to say I have bought quite a lot on ebay (sat nav, tv, books, and watches) and providing you do your research you can get the product's a lot cheaper than the High St shop's ...So now I'm off to do a donation to the site
Bye for now
Freddie

 

[guerdeval]

I did manage to sell my S820 to someone who kept the Ebay Ad some Months later,during those 2 Months I put it on 3 other internet sites without a sniff, I took a 10 grand drop because I didn;t want to keep it another year, one buyer is worth a hundred lookers but I agree,Ebay has attracted some real crooks over the past few years.

 

[frostybow]

Sorry, but the baited are equally as greedy and avaricious.as the scammers.And my sympathy is limited.

What goes around comes around as they say.

What next ? Father Christmas is real ?

Anyone that believes they can buy something for £6000 that is worth £20000
is either seriously in need of counselling, or living in a world where fairies still put a sixpence under the pillow at night.

There is an old saying, if it looks too good to be true ..it probably is !!

Never have been a user of fleabay!!, But I have seen no evidence that leads me to conclude it doesn,t have the odd charleton like other advertising venues.

A fool is easily parted with their money . no mention of how the fool has money extracted.


Channa

i dont believe it are you telling me there are no fairies you have crushed my dreams.

 

[bigboack]

There not all scams.

We bought our kontiki 17 years old,from E-bay , One owner from new 47000 miles on the clock, all paperwork to prove and still had all the books and things that came with it, Built in generator, solar panel on roof, its ace and we love it. Although we did go to see it first, and payed cash so we could drive it away same day. Had it two years now and still love it. So dont be put off E-bay but be sensible about it.

 

[defitzi]

defitzi


Never really trust e bay-I been registered to it for years but have not used it for more than a few small value items and then....
But there IS a very good site, much smaller and reasonably easy to check out the sellers...it's Preloved and covers a good range of things.
Not necessarily the best for descriptions but that's down to the sellers-advertisers and it is easy to contact them and get for info/ check out but ads also give location too