The ebay scam 99p listings.
Discussion
Breadvan72 said:
A Laverda Jota would be MEGA popular with me if I (a) had 10K to blow, and (b) was not a bit of a shortarse. Jotas be taaaaaall.
A 99p Jota would be less popular, even with thickie me.
What you need is a Guzzi LeMans. So low that a garden gnome could ride one.A 99p Jota would be less popular, even with thickie me.
I too would take the Jota. Quite fancy a nice smooth 120 for that noise.
But to be honest, I won't be buying any more old cars or bikes until/unless the market collapses.
boyse7en said:
Faust66 said:
I’ve got bored with reporting them to be honest… over a dozen in the last 2 days alone. Seems to be a never ending and thankless task. Never get any feedback from Ebay, the same 5 cars appear over and over again and they never seem to actually do anything about it (guess those listing fees add up, eh?).
Without even looking I can guarantee there will be blue Consul Classic Capri, a MK3 Capri 'Cosworth', a silver 2.8 Capri, maybe a green Volvo Amazon 123gt with horrible 18 inch rims.
I’m now of the mind-set that if a potential purchasers is dumb enough to fall for a blatant and transparent scam, then they deserve to lose their money.
There's also some classic motorbikes too. A Laverda keeps cropping up (not exactly a popular bike, not sure how many people will be searching for them)Without even looking I can guarantee there will be blue Consul Classic Capri, a MK3 Capri 'Cosworth', a silver 2.8 Capri, maybe a green Volvo Amazon 123gt with horrible 18 inch rims.
I’m now of the mind-set that if a potential purchasers is dumb enough to fall for a blatant and transparent scam, then they deserve to lose their money.
Password access is obtained through official looking emails that look like they're from ebay sent to existing legit sellers with an ebay link within.
Link then asks you to log in, and they have your password. Often you'll see an account with one normal looking car ad, and 400+ scams. Account access will have been obtained via a dodgy enquiry to that legit advert.
If you ever get an email enquiry or ebay message, click and it asks you to log into ebay - don't. Go via your norrmal method of accessing ebay instead.
The scammers have many many accounts waiting to be used. They also advertise on facebook etc wanting ebay accounts to 'rent' from people.
They ship 'mules' in from eastern europe to open UK bank accounts with false IDs. £5000 sale price seems to be the sweet spot, presumably because they can move that much quickly and easily electronically, or can withdraw cash totalling 5k over just a few days - all before the vehicle 'delivery' date.
Bargain hunter is lured in with promises of 2 week approval, free delivery (usually from the arse end of scotland) and all under full ebay protection - but there is no ebay motors protection, and no protection anywhere on ebay if you're daft enough to send a bank transfer for a lathe, digger or campervan that doesn't exist. See it in person or don't bother would be my advice.
Many people have lost thousands of pounds because of this. Google Jack Buster - he can sometimes help get some or all of the money back, but it's never guaranteed.
If you see any dodgy ads do please report them as soon as you spot them - it could stop somebody losing their life savings - don't assume somebody else has spotted them.
Report item > Listing practices > Fraudulent listing > Suspicion of fraud.
Just takes a few seconds
Until ebay do something about this - request reg number before ad is placed, restrict listings numbers and values etc for an account - it will continue.
Norfolkandchance said:
I thought you were covered of you do the whole transaction through eBay. Is this not the case?
The ones I've seen this weekend have had email addresses in the text of the advert, like this for a pre-war car:BUY IT NOW PRICE : 5250 GBP
THE ITEM IS BASED IN UNITED KINGDOM .Please direct all your enquiries to Cara directly at : crvh***@gmail.com
She will provide further information , photo and viewing location .
Do not ask me via eBay please. To arrange a viewing and collection please contact the seller at : crvh***@gmail.com
Thank you for understanding.
It's clearly a scam, the correct price for the car is nearer £20,000.
What I don't get is, with so many of these scams, the vehicles are priced at such stupidly low prices that alarm bells have to go off with genuine buyers.
I mean, you get £10K cars with a "buy it now" price of something like £999, or a £20K priced at £3K, £40K cars priced at £4K etc., etc., etc. - That should raise alarm bells immediately for any buyer.
Then, as noted already, you get adverts asking prospective buyers not to contact the seller through ebay, but instead, to use an anonymous, generic email address instead - Again, that should raise alarm bells straight away.
Surely these scams are so obvious that no one falls for them?
I mean, you get £10K cars with a "buy it now" price of something like £999, or a £20K priced at £3K, £40K cars priced at £4K etc., etc., etc. - That should raise alarm bells immediately for any buyer.
Then, as noted already, you get adverts asking prospective buyers not to contact the seller through ebay, but instead, to use an anonymous, generic email address instead - Again, that should raise alarm bells straight away.
Surely these scams are so obvious that no one falls for them?
It's deliberate.
It makes sure that only people who are more easily fooled, and actually likely to paypal / Western Union them sums of money bother replying.
They don't want to waste their time playing email tennis with someone who will see through a fraud, when it's finally attempted.
Quite canny, really.
It makes sure that only people who are more easily fooled, and actually likely to paypal / Western Union them sums of money bother replying.
They don't want to waste their time playing email tennis with someone who will see through a fraud, when it's finally attempted.
Quite canny, really.
Huntsman said:
Hopeless today. Endless listings at £3,000.
yup - in round numbers this evening the first 1300 Classic Car listings are scams - usual MO - all one price, all in non-specific country location (currently Italy) etc etc - genuine punters must be deserting Ebay in numbers I imagine. Why would you wade your way through that lot to find the bonafide listings!Surely eBay must have the ability to recognise the same multiple listings and photos and block them automatically just as certain key words flag up an alert. I can't believe they are powerless in being able to stop it or at least keep it under control.
I've seen a particular listing for an Avon Sunbeam Lotus crop up maybe 50 or 60 times over the last six months all exactly the same that seems to reappear as fast as it gets taken down. Last time I looked tonight it had four identical listings for the same car all from the same seller.
I've seen a particular listing for an Avon Sunbeam Lotus crop up maybe 50 or 60 times over the last six months all exactly the same that seems to reappear as fast as it gets taken down. Last time I looked tonight it had four identical listings for the same car all from the same seller.
I suppose it's an industrial size operation carried out mainly from somewhere poor. $1.00 a day pay.
Lots of far eastern minimum wage tech savy or aware employees sat for hours in front of pc's that are also background mining crypto.
Kids messaging genuine e-bay accounts with fake enquiries about genuine auctions to try and get logins.
Once logins acquired kids post preformatted copy and paste scam ads..
Rinse and repeat. I wonder how many "Questions to seller" a single person on a pc can do in say 12 hours?
Several hundred i should think.
Is there a limit on the number of questions you can e-mail to sellers from a single account?
If not there should be, say 5 a day for those with < 100 feedback..
Only needs a couple of people a day to fall into the £5000 trap to make it worthwhile somewhere poor.
Lots of far eastern minimum wage tech savy or aware employees sat for hours in front of pc's that are also background mining crypto.
Kids messaging genuine e-bay accounts with fake enquiries about genuine auctions to try and get logins.
Once logins acquired kids post preformatted copy and paste scam ads..
Rinse and repeat. I wonder how many "Questions to seller" a single person on a pc can do in say 12 hours?
Several hundred i should think.
Is there a limit on the number of questions you can e-mail to sellers from a single account?
If not there should be, say 5 a day for those with < 100 feedback..
Only needs a couple of people a day to fall into the £5000 trap to make it worthwhile somewhere poor.
AMGSee55 said:
yup - in round numbers this evening the first 1300 Classic Car listings are scams - usual MO - all one price, all in non-specific country location (currently Italy) etc etc - genuine punters must be deserting Ebay in numbers I imagine. Why would you wade your way through that lot to find the bonafide listings!
I think your spot on about eBay losing huge amounts of business because of this. One of my favourite pastimes is idly searching through the classic car listings with no intention of buying anything. I've bought at least 5 cars over the last few years doing that. With all these scam listings I just don't bother looking. I think eBay have to start vetting each car listing before it goes live, like the Carandclassic site does. They'll have to employ a lot of people to do it but if they don't the current model will die as it's just looking like a scam website.
Dinoboy said:
....I think eBay have to start vetting each car listing before it goes live, like the Carandclassic site does. They'll have to employ a lot of people to do it but if they don't the current model will die as it's just looking like a scam website.
Only problem with CarandClassics is, the adverts seem to stay on the site for @ 6 months after the cars have been sold - It's riddled with cars that are no longer available.I got fed up calling about a car only to be told it sold months ago!
If only CarandClassics employed a system where you had to confirm weekly that the car was still up for sale, instead of trusting sellers to remove the advert, or mark the vehicle as sold.
Riley Blue said:
cahami said:
Ebay seem to have finally got there s
t together and are removing these adds as soon as they appear. About time! .
A short lived reprieve unfortunately, they're back this morning.t together and are removing these adds as soon as they appear. About time! .With the number of adverts (of all types), that Ebay have to deal with on a hourly/daily basis, it's not really feasible for them to have staff examine every single advert in depth before they get put up on the site, hence why they rely on members reporting such adverts ASAP.
It's also not really fair for people to blame Ebay for scam artists/tw
ts putting these adverts on the site, in the same way that it wouldn't be fair to blame your telephone company for you receiving a call from a scam artist trying to con you out of money (Apparently, according to a call I received yesterday, HMRC have a warrant out for my immediate arrest for failing to pay taxes, but if I contact the caller immediately, I can make a payment to make it all go away. I've decided not to bother calling, but to wait for the Police to come round and take me away instead. As mentioned, I can't really see this call as being the fault of the telephone company I use )
As I've posted before, the weird thing is, these adverts are so obvious, you'd have to be a complete moron to fall for them. At least that makes it easier for Ebay members to spot them and report them, and for Ebay to then deal with them.
Surely the art of a good, successful scam is - Plausibility? A £30K car for £3K?, a £250K for £25K - Who the Hell would fall for that?
Now a £30K car being advertised for £27K, or a £250K car being advertised for £240K, would raise far fewer red flags. I guess we should be grateful that these clowns aren't that smart!
(Really don't get why they bother!
)Dinoboy said:
I think your spot on about eBay losing huge amounts of business because of this. One of my favourite pastimes is idly searching through the classic car listings with no intention of buying anything. I've bought at least 5 cars over the last few years doing that. With all these scam listings I just don't bother looking.
Same here, generally one a year, a daft old car purchase to mess about with. Not worth the effort to look any more. Same in the boat section.Reporting them one by one is pointless, it needs a systematic fix.
I'm on the look out for a down at heel Jaguar 240, but its pointless at the moment.
Gassing Station | Classic Cars and Yesterday's Heroes | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff