Ebay motors scams

[DavidB]

There's loads of these currently on ebay, I've reported a few but they just keep coming! Every model has several, assume they're the same person as they all have a single image of a car that doesn't belong to them, and have the same image attached.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144307370628

 

https://forum.retro-rides.org/thread/202103/fake-ebay-listings-list-report?page=9&scrollTo=2663133

 

[fatharris]

Who the fuck falls for these?

Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk

[D.E]

Annoying shit, sometimes you'll have to scroll through several pages filled entirely with these listings.

[Barry Cade]

Ive reported them too. I feel sorry for the genuine advertisers whos listings get lost in the middle. Seems to be mostly classic cars and campervans.. my most visited categories! Surely Ebay are losing money through this?

[grogee]

I've reported a few as well. I'm beginning to think this is bot-driven as they seem to arrive in a big batch, all with a weird start price like £2020.

The strangest bit (and surely the easiest for eBay to counter) is the location, which comes up as something like "Wo N, England".

eBay seems pretty slow cracking down on it

[Bren]

14 minutes ago, grogee said:

I've reported a few as well. I'm beginning to think this is bot-driven as they seem to arrive in a big batch, all with a weird start price like £2020.

The strangest bit (and surely the easiest for eBay to counter) is the location, which comes up as something like "Wo N, England".

eBay seems pretty slow cracking down on it

But they aren't slow when it comes to fees.

[sierraman]

I mean honestly if you thought you were getting something like a Capri 2.8 advertised with one picture, no description, for about 50% of the going rate, with an e-mail link to do a bank transfer to a location nobody has heard of... seriously. 

[Rocket88]

Bidding eleventy million sheets is quite therapeutic……

[Ghosty]

Mail bomb them. 

[Dave_Q]

I think ebay are OK at taking these down, if you go back to the same search a couple of hours later they will probably be all gone.

[MisterH]

My Friend's Yellow Triumph 2500S (pictured here) was actually for sale on one of these scams, AFTER he had bought and received the car. He contacted them and told them about it and the ad was taken down and never seen again, however all the other ones are still up🙄

[MisterH]

I've long since wondered if this is a front for Drug runners. Maybe suppliers will send out a list of 'classic cars' with each car representing a different product, and dealers place their orders using the link. 

However while I've never met a drug dealer, or known one, I imagine they are smarter than to put obviously dodgy car ads up to advertise their shite 

[TheOtherStu]

From what I gather, they persuade people to put a deposit down - say £500. Preferably by bank transfer. They then quickly transfer the money out - abroad, whatever.

A lot of the accounts (including Paypal and so on), are stolen due to users either following a phishing link or having poor passwords. You know all those "What was your first car" or "What town were you born in" or "What's the name of your first born" quizzes that come up on Facebook? They're phishing too! Not only are they your security questions, but people regularly use them as their passwords. "Coventry1973" isn't too difficult to guess as a password.

 

You might notice that I previously worked in this field 🤣

[sierraman]

The usual vector for these is a Moneygram payment or Western Union. Difficult to trace, obviously if you went through the normal channels of transferring the funds it would prompt you to check you aren’t being scammed and very possibly the name wouldn’t match. If you went and ignored that you would in effect be indemnifying your own actions so there would be no comeback. 

[lesapandre]

Another scam I have experienced is multiple-account bidding by the same person on their own car to make it look like there is hot demand. The bidding ends at just below the reserve price to get a genuine  bidder who has been bidding to go over. All others were fictional bids - I spotted it.

When item is relisted - none of those bidders bid again until you do - then the whole cycle starts again. All sham.

Difficult  to spot - look at the bidding pattern and bidder names - fakers are remarkably clumsy.

I was shilled like this on a car until I spotted the ruse. Partly triggered I think by me mailing the vendor for more details - I think they thought I was a catch they could reel in.

Of course  both times the car never went over the reserve - as actually in reality  nobody else was interested and as a buyer you would not be out of pocket unless you were prepared to bid over the reserve.

But...it's  a way of making ropey cars look more attractive and is a psychological game. The equivalent of the auctioneer taking bids off the wall at a live auction.

The other thing I have seen is some dealer's advertisements putting a car up at a price - but it is not actually for sale at that price - because it is in an auction elsewhere. So the Ebay ad is not real - it's an ad for an auction.

There are also some dealers it appears running their own auction schemes involving escrow accounts and ludicrous auction conditions around viewing, descriptions and payment. Not a scam as such but a circus I would not want to join.

Somebody always has a new idea about flogging tat. I love the current crop of TV car ads where you order a 2nd hand car without even seeing it - they give you your money back if you don't like it...bet that's fun...and ringed with conditions and faff to put people off.

Caveat emptor old bean as they say... mines a double brandy snifter if you're asking.

Cheers!🍷

[Motown]

20 hours ago, DavidB said:

There's loads of these currently on ebay, I've reported a few but they just keep coming! Every model has several, assume they're the same person as they all have a single image of a car that doesn't belong to them, and have the same image attached.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144307370628

 

https://forum.retro-rides.org/thread/202103/fake-ebay-listings-list-report?page=9&scrollTo=2663133

 

One of my car was listed and a silver SD1 belonging to a fellow club member is constantly being listed.... The car is currently under going a full restoration so hes doing all he can to make people aware thats its his and not to fall for it.

Heres what we know so far.....

The scammer is only listing cars previously advertised or sold through Ebay... In some cases genuine ebay accounts have been hacked and then used to make listings. Ebay are investigating but are having a hard time finding and removing them due to this and the sheer quantity of listings the scammer is making. (make of that what you will)

Several people have been purposely bidding up in order to get them flagged and removed... With some ebay users even speaking to the scammer/seller via ebay on one listing he claimed the car in question was located in the outer hebrides... convenient for viewings then....

[TheOtherStu]

35 minutes ago, lesapandre said:

Another scam I have experienced is multiple-account bidding by the same person on their own article to make it look like there is hot demand. The bidding ends at just below the reserve price to get a genuine  bidder who has been bidding to go over. All others were fictional bids - I spotted it.

When item is relisted - none of those bidders bid again until you do - then the whole cycle starts again. All sham.

Difficult  to spot - look at the bidding pattern and bidder names - fakers are remarkably clumsy.

I was shilled like this on a car until I spotted the ruse. Partly triggered I think by me mailing the vendor for more details - I think they thought I was a catch they could reel in.

Of course  both times the car never went over the reserve - as actually in reality  nobody else was interested and as a buyer you would not be out of pocket unless you were prepared to bid over the reserve.

But...it's  a way of making ropey cars look more attractive and is a psychological game. The equivalent of the auctioneer taking bids off the wall at a live auction.

The other thing I have seen is some dealers advertisements putting a car up at a price - but it is not actually for sale at that price - because it is in an elsewhere.

There are also some dealers it appears running their own auction schemes involving escrow accounts and ludicrous auction conditions around viewing, descriptions and payment. Not a scam as such but a circus I would not want to join.

Somebody always has a new idea about flogging tat. I love the current crop of TV car ads where you order a 2nd hand car without even seeing it - they give you your money back if you don't like it...bet that's fun...

Caveat emptor old bean as they say.

I always call out people who say things like "10% to be paid within 24 hours and car to be collected within 7 days blah blah full payment"

They clearly didn't read the Ts and Cs.

I quote

Quote

Bidding on motor vehicles is non-binding and is slightly different from bidding on other items. When you place a bid in this category, you're consenting to sharing your contact details with the seller, who can get in touch with you directly to discuss the sale.

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/motors-policy/motors-policy?id=4215

[Bren]

56 minutes ago, sierraman said:

The usual vector for these is a Moneygram payment or Western Union. Difficult to trace, obviously if you went through the normal channels of transferring the funds it would prompt you to check you aren’t being scammed and very possibly the name wouldn’t match. If you went and ignored that you would in effect be indemnifying your own actions so there would be no comeback. 

[Motown]

39 minutes ago, Bren said:

Pretty sure this guy rang me last year to inform me there was a pigeon stuck in my bank account and needed my account details so they could release it... 🤣

[Motown]

2 hours ago, MisterH said:

I've long since wondered if this is a front for Drug runners. Maybe suppliers will send out a list of 'classic cars' with each car representing a different product, and dealers place their orders using the link. 

However while I've never met a drug dealer, or known one, I imagine they are smarter than to put obviously dodgy car ads up to advertise their shite 

Sounds like a plot from an 80s film  

Hell id watch it! 

[MisterH]

2 hours ago, Motown said:

Sounds like a plot from an 80s film  

Hell id watch it! 

Miami Shite

[Pieman]

2 hours ago, Motown said:

Pretty sure this guy rang me last year to inform me there was a pigeon stuck in my bank account and needed my account details so they could release it... 🤣

Goooooooooooooooooooooooood afternoon madam!

I'd forgotten how funny Fonejacker was until I read this thread!

[sdkrc]

Gumtree scam I'm seeing quite regularly now in the £1k range.

Guy takes a deposit on a fictitious car and disappears. The car looks cheap but not implausibly cheap.

https://www.gumtree.com/p/cars-vans-motorbikes/vauxhall-cavalier-sri/1420635359

 

The real eBay listing it was stolen from

 

Slightly less obvious to the absolute prize nuggets who normally fall for the eBay ones

[sierraman]

But who would send money to someone they’d never met on a car they’d never seen? 

[sdkrc]

to a brand new account on gumtree, under a generic name, on a popular car at under a third of its market value?

Could be anyone...

 

[lesapandre]

31 minutes ago, sierraman said:

But who would send money to someone they’d never met on a car they’d never seen? 

 Someone from here- I would. I have bought a few cars blind. But not £995 - just a couple of 100. Little risk and you just sus people by their attitude. Never had a real problem. But you have to be rightly wary and never stake more than you can lose. 

That one is a clear scam.

Better odds than the GG's - and a more vicarious thrill than South American go-go dancers. 

[TheOtherStu]

15 hours ago, lesapandre said:

 Someone from here- I would. I have bought a few cars blind. But not £995 - just a couple of 100. Little risk and you just sus people by their attitude. Never had a real problem. But you have to be rightly wary and never stake more than you can lose. 

That one is a clear scam.

Better odds than the GG's - and a more vicarious thrill than South American go-go dancers. 

So much this.

I  bought my last MR2 from a lovely lady on Facebook. I spoke to her about the car, she sent me a video, I transferred her a hundred quid as a deposit. Yes, it could have been a scam, but a hugely elaborate one, considering she had pictures on her facebook wall of the car from over 10 years ago.

[juular]

I bought my Amazon sight unseen from around 300 miles away, it was more than a few hundred quid.

I think you get a feeling. Buyer was happy to chat about the car, detailed photos of specific areas came easily enough, plus I was able to trace its history back to this forum which always helps.

Seeing how they respond to arranging a viewing always helps, even if you intend to cancel it. If it's in the outer Hebrides say you're going to be on the next ferry ..

Those scam ads have been doing the rounds for years, I'm surprised there isn't some kind of auto filter. I noticed that Facebook screen the ad photos you put up and will often reject them if it senses there's text such as an email address in the image. When I sold my van it was a pain as it kept rejecting any photos of the dash for that reason. eBay could easily do the same.

[TheOtherStu]

1 hour ago, juular said:

I bought my Amazon sight unseen from around 300 miles away, it was more than a few hundred quid.

I think you get a feeling. Buyer was happy to chat about the car, detailed photos of specific areas came easily enough, plus I was able to trace its history back to this forum which always helps.

Seeing how they respond to arranging a viewing always helps, even if you intend to cancel it. If it's in the outer Hebrides say you're going to be on the next ferry ..

Those scam ads have been doing the rounds for years, I'm surprised there isn't some kind of auto filter. I noticed that Facebook screen the ad photos you put up and will often reject them if it senses there's text such as an email address in the image. When I sold my van it was a pain as it kept rejecting any photos of the dash for that reason. eBay could easily do the same.

It's a fair point with Facebook.
I had an advert up for something (can't remember what) and it wasn't even getting interest. So I let the advert expire and put up a new one.

Used better photos, completely changed the text, titles, price and so on and even then, when I went to publish it Facebook said "You should reuse your old advert rather than creating a new one". It's some clever schizzle.

[DavidB]

I've been reporting them whenever I see them, it's a pain, but they (and the ebay account) have been taken down.

There were a lot of Datsun Fairlady/240Z's last year going for about £4000, same MO.