but it has happened before, just not to you and me although having said that, i think i've had my moments and can't complain.
I would enjoy a "spot the eBay scam" game! This one, I can't see the scam. What is it that is so obvious?
Zero feedback Loads of vehicles for sale at silly prices None for sale at the same location - a dealer usually photographs his stock in the same location I've reported 5 of his cars - I'll leave it there as it usually does the trick if they're not genuine
Thanks. So, zero feedback, lots of vehicles photographed in unspecified places with no obvious dealer premises. Dunno about prices as I can't be bothered to research and everything is supposed to be in Chelmsford. Is the main thing that you would expect a dealer to have premises with every vehicle photographed at the premises? Surely a serious buyer would know the right price? If I'm in the market for a second-hand car (which I will be soon), I start with the dealers around me who I know and are well-established. I research prices for the car that I'm interested in to make sure it is about right. I thought that everyone would do this. Am I wrong?
How do you "steal" someone's account? I have an eBay account and I don't deal that much but if somebody stole the account then they would need to know my password. If somebody was to get eBay to help reset the password then, I would expect (in my sorrowful ignorance) that eBay would some kind of proof that it is you who really owns the account?
The point is that ultimately you need to use your own judgement. If one thing doesn't add up, you might be able to reason why that might be, but if several things feel odd, then you need to rely on what your common sense tells you. You will find that the ad in question has now been removed from ebay, along with the seller's scores of other ads. A dealer may well have a legitimate reason for selling vehicles that are squittered all over the British Isles, but for the life of me, I can't imagine what that reason might be, unless he is a sales agent for scores of private sellers.. with zero track record based on zero feedback. However, there are many scammers with 'loads of feedback'. As @Exige explained, scammers have found a way to clone other honest accounts, together with that account's feedback. If your antenna twitches, check what the feedback has been left for; if it consists of a few hundred items of childrens clothes, assorted household and gardening items and such like, a car, or motorcycle dealer, with no feedback for selling vehicles is odd to say the least. Many far eastern scammers can have loads of feedback for lots of 10/20/30p items they may have legitimately bought, but are then trying to sell something that is way outside their feedback = trading history - another reason to be wary.. If it feels slightly wrong, you're probably right!
Plus you always ask the eBay seller to see the car first before paying ANY money. Scammers won't agree to that.
You can always ask for a WhatsApp (or similar) video walk round live after establishing the car is with them so they can't wriggle out.
A pal of mine was interested in a BMW GS he saw on eBay that was a little lower than market value (not suspiciously so) and it was in Oswestry, Shropshire - not too far from him. He asked for more details and helpfully received several more photographs, one of which included @Ducbird 's fave photo background - a wheelie bin. The bin got the antennae twitching, it was in Tyne & Wear.. He asked where he could see the bike, the seller gave him an address in Oswestry and said it could be seen there on condition a deposit was paid as there were other interested parties. However my pal's sister happens to live in the same town the seller claimed to be in, so my pal said she could whizz round that very day, the seller immediately claimed he was away on holiday and wouldn't be home for a fortnight. She shot round to the address anyway - no one known by the seller's name there, nor had they ever heard of him, nor did they have any truck with motorcycles. In the dealings up to that point, the seller had done the scammer's favourite and insisted communications were done off eBay to his email address - foolishly, he gave a hotmail address in his real and quite unusual name which made Googling him quite easy, the toerag was a lorry driver, with his own Ltd company. This then provided further useful info, such as a home address, but Google also turned up that he'd tried to scam People's Bank, a community bank that lends money to its members. On their site is a forum section where his name popped up because he was getting short shrift from them about turning up to one of their meetings - reading between the lines they were telling him they could smell a con man a mile off and he wasn't going to be getting any money from them or their members.... We compiled a short dossier and forwarded the whole thing to Swindon Police, based on his home address. Hopefully he's received a quiet word about devoting so much time and energy to trying to rob people, but being pretty shit at it.... The bay of dreams, as it once was, has become a shitty playground for the unwary... trust your antennae!
I have no idea, but you can check the account activity, if nothing been sold in a long while it can mean the account is no longer in use and it's hijacked. I have no idea how they find these dormant accounts, it was said on another forum I frequent that it's an 'insider selling the accounts' but who knows how true that is.
