Beware....eBay Fraud & Armed Robbery

[Paulg390]

Yep sadly becoming more and more commonplace. The parents of a friend of mine just got scammed on eBay. The scam was an auction for which they were highest bidder (seller with zero feedback - alarm bell 1), then the seller said he wanted only cash (alarm 2), he gave his address as a block of flats but gave no flat number “just call when you get here and I’ll come down” (alarm 3), when they arrived they called and seller said “sorry just popped out, will be back in 5 mins (alarm 4), he arrives with his mate... V5 doesn’t match address (alarm 5)... HPI check paperwork not provided as promised (alarm 6)... and so it goes on. 3 weeks later his parents were stopped by police and car impounded as it was reported stolen by finance company. Be careful out there.... says the man about to go and pay cash for an XK8.

 

[allandwf]

Yep sadly becoming more and more commonplace. The parents of a friend of mine just got scammed on eBay. The scam was an auction for which they were highest bidder (seller with zero feedback - alarm bell 1), then the seller said he wanted only cash (alarm 2), he gave his address as a block of flats but gave no flat number “just call when you get here and I’ll come down” (alarm 3), when they arrived they called and seller said “sorry just popped out, will be back in 5 mins (alarm 4), he arrives with his mate... V5 doesn’t match address (alarm 5)... HPI check paperwork not provided as promised (alarm 6)... and so it goes on. 3 weeks later his parents were stopped by police and car impounded as it was reported stolen by finance company. Be careful out there.... says the man about to go and pay cash for an XK8.

At least they didn't get done over. I'm amazed at the amount of "classic" type cars that usually sell for 10k + that start at , normally, £5300 with contact details, there are usually about a dozen or so. Fishing, but buyer beware and do your homework.

 

[Wack61]

I feel for these people, yes, stupid but its easily done.

Last week, we had the armed police at our offices as the girl downstairs had bought a cheap BMW for cash online and it turned out to be nicked and used in a robbery.

She lost the car and her money...not so cheap now is it but felt very sorry for the young lass.

I take it she saved £30 on the hpi check , they do come with insurance if she hpi'd it and nothing came up.

 

[conaero]

I take it she saved £30 on the hpi check , they do come with insurance if she hpi'd it and nothing came up.

Easy to point out after the event.

just young and nieve

 

[Wack61]

We've all been there , in my 40 years of driving I've bought a few lemons but thankfully never anything stolen

 

[Silvercat]

When sellling my QP, I had one person wanting to buy it using only hard cash (wouldn't do an electronic transfer) which I and 'Shiltech' declined due to a number of concerns. I also had one guy call me a '****' for saying on my advert "Last Chance to buy" to encourage a sale, 2 weeks before I sold the QP. He seemed to be really wound up by the statement.
So when selling any car on Autotrader to a private buyer, just be careful.

 

[alfatwo]

Yea, I got stitched a few years ago too, long before eBay when selling an original factory BMW CSL race car. It was about 30k which was a lot of money back in the 90's

The bank transfer went though perfectly but somehow they got it back..

Do your homework, but not everyone's a skanker!

Dave

 

[outrun]

I talked a friend out of buying a Bentley Continental Cabrio today which is advertised on eBay for 15k. That’s at least 10k below trade. Feedback 3, joined eBay in 2020. Anybody real that is that desperate for cash would call webuyanycar

 

[Wack61]

They keep advertising them , it only takes one victim , one guy has found his 60s mustang for sale on 4 different sites for half it's value but getting them to remove it is almost impossible.