eBay/PayPal scam
Author
Discussion

Plus8

Original Poster:

254 posts

119 months

Monday 2nd November 2020
quotequote all
Hi, I am advertising a vehicle on Autotrader for around £22,000 and after a few days I was alerted to the fact that it was being advertised on EBay for about £15,000 Buy It Now price. Someone copied all photos etc onto eBay. Well, clearly this person hasn’t got the vehicle so I decided to emailed l him from another email address and asked if I could view the vehicle, wondering what his reply would be. Well, you’ve guessed it, he was out of the country but if I would pay via PayPal using the “Pay After Delivery” system, he would deliver the vehicle to my house and I would have 7 days to reject it, if I wasn’t happy with it! Next he invited me to provide my PayPal account and address so he could “invite” me to join the PAD scheme. Needless to say I haven’t replied to his request! I reported the scam to EBay and got usual standard acknowledgment. Looking at “other items for sale from this seller” I notice several other cars where the scammer has repeated the same thing, offering them at a few thousand pounds below market value.
The e mail addresses that the scammer uses is ++++++@enmail.co.uk. (Yes, not a typo, it’s enmail).
I googled enmail but nothing comes up. Does anyone know what these e mail adddresses are? Is this a way of hiding your identity for the benefit of scammers?
As a matter of interest I looked at PayPal’s T’s and C’s and noted they exclude motor vehicles from their “Buy Back” policy which I assume includes PAD.

paul chocks

77 posts

192 months

Monday 2nd November 2020
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I reported a seller to eBay yesterday. I messaged the seller through eBay itself and he replied directly to my personal email account. eBay have no idea how he got my email. Very odd. I haven’t replied.

Im sure this ‘seller’ was planning same thing as your example. Car was significantly cheaper than it ought to have been. Advert has since been removed.

Mikee19

710 posts

125 months

Monday 2nd November 2020
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If you browse regularly you will notice loads of these ads with cars too cheap to be true and usually an email address in the description. I report them but there are always loads of new adverts. eBay don't appear to be doing much to stop this.

dundarach

6,226 posts

257 months

Monday 2nd November 2020
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Mikee19 said:
If you browse regularly you will notice loads of these ads with cars too cheap to be true and usually an email address in the description. I report them but there are always loads of new adverts. eBay don't appear to be doing much to stop this.
Exactly this, loads of them, I browse the classics and I was forever reporting, stopped now, eBay aren't bothered, so nor am I sadly.

mmm-five

12,342 posts

313 months

Monday 2nd November 2020
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Looks like someone has just (August 2020) set up a new domain to use for a private email account.

Scams like this happen a lot, and I've had my car for sale on Gumtree, ebay, Facebook, etc. Gumtree were the quickest to remove the ad.

bobtail4x4

4,407 posts

138 months

Monday 2nd November 2020
quotequote all
Plus8 said:
Hi, I am advertising a vehicle on Autotrader for around £22,000 and after a few days I was alerted to the fact that it was being advertised on EBay for about £15,000 Buy It Now price. Someone copied all photos etc onto eBay. Well, clearly this person hasn’t got the vehicle so I decided to emailed l him from another email address and asked if I could view the vehicle, wondering what his reply would be. Well, you’ve guessed it, he was out of the country but if I would pay via PayPal using the “Pay After Delivery” system, he would deliver the vehicle to my house and I would have 7 days to reject it, if I wasn’t happy with it! Next he invited me to provide my PayPal account and address so he could “invite” me to join the PAD scheme. Needless to say I haven’t replied to his request! I reported the scam to EBay and got usual standard acknowledgment. Looking at “other items for sale from this seller” I notice several other cars where the scammer has repeated the same thing, offering them at a few thousand pounds below market value.
The e mail addresses that the scammer uses is ++++++@enmail.co.uk. (Yes, not a typo, it’s enmail).
I googled enmail but nothing comes up. Does anyone know what these e mail adddresses are? Is this a way of hiding your identity for the benefit of scammers?
As a matter of interest I looked at PayPal’s T’s and C’s and noted they exclude motor vehicles from their “Buy Back” policy which I assume includes PAD.
hit buy it now, and wait for delivery,

it stops some other mug being robbed.

salty-nlv

438 posts

288 months

Friday 29th January 2021
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Hi yes exactly same thing happened to me, just advertised car on ebay then this guy used one of my photos and is selling it for far less. Same email as above same modus operandi. I have reported the account to ebay. Despite me blanking out my reg plate this con man has got those details and is sharing it with prospective buyers of his advert.

2172cc

1,915 posts

126 months

Friday 29th January 2021
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It's been going on for years and eBay seem powerless to stop it. I've been watching how many times an Avon Sunbeam Lotus has been listed and it must be well into the several hundreds now possibly thousands. As soon as it's reported and gets taken down , it reappears under a different username. The same picture and description each time but either buy it now at a ridiculously low price or auction and multiple listings.
I can't believe eBay don't have the technology to stop this and potential buyers don't spot it a mile off.

sixor8

8,511 posts

297 months

Friday 29th January 2021
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If a scammer gets hold of an ebay account log-in and password, how do they stop it? The scammers either steal or find out a genuine user's account details and exploit them. Reporting the item or bidding millions (which I've seen. smile ) is the way.


salty-nlv

438 posts

288 months

Friday 29th January 2021
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But what I'm trying to understand the nature of the scam?

Are they getting deposits off people or people paying for the car without seeing it?

vikingaero

13,255 posts

198 months

Friday 29th January 2021
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salty-nlv said:
But what I'm trying to understand the nature of the scam?

Are they getting deposits off people or people paying for the car without seeing it?
There's lot of variations on it but it usually means you send them money to an escrow account where your money is protected (WTF uses escrow in the UK apart from businesses). You can send them a deposit of a few thousand or the full amount.
The escrow account is a fake account - UK Escrow Services PLC - anything to sound official, big and real.
They promise to ship the car to you FREE! As a mug you think oooh "free shipping!"
The seller says if you don't like the vehicle you can have a full refund. As a mug you think: "oooh just like shopping at Tesco!"

Truth is they may hook a few people who have sent them say £3k each before the ad is taken down.

eBay and most other platforms don't care as they get listing and advert fees (unless the scammer has paid using stolen credit cards).

Sheepshanks

40,982 posts

148 months

Friday 29th January 2021
quotequote all
2172cc said:
It's been going on for years and eBay seem powerless to stop it. I've been watching how many times an Avon Sunbeam Lotus has been listed and it must be well into the several hundreds now possibly thousands. As soon as it's reported and gets taken down , it reappears under a different username. The same picture and description each time but either buy it now at a ridiculously low price or auction and multiple listings.
I can't believe eBay don't have the technology to stop this and potential buyers don't spot it a mile off.
Seems bizarre to use such an odd and recognisable vehicle. Surely something anonymous would be better.

We laugh at these scams, but you do read of people being caught out.

Cliftonite

8,740 posts

167 months

Friday 29th January 2021
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Register1

2,279 posts

123 months

Friday 29th January 2021
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Mikee19 said:
If you browse regularly you will notice loads of these ads with cars too cheap to be true and usually an email address in the description. I report them but there are always loads of new adverts. eBay don't appear to be doing much to stop this.
Yeah,

These are mostly just 2 pictures in the gallery, and the second picture is an email.
You could go on reporting these for weeks, and still they keep popping up.


Edited by Register1 on Friday 29th January 19:16

Plus8

Original Poster:

254 posts

119 months

Friday 29th January 2021
quotequote all
Yes, that’s exactly how my vehicle appeared, 1 photo and e mail address. When asked to provide more photos he copied those from Autotrader and forwarded them on. Fortunately I managed to sell a few weeks later to a genuine Buyer at a price I was happy with.