Scam eBay seller.
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Discussion

Stick Legs

Original Poster:

8,923 posts

194 months

Sunday 12th December 2021
quotequote all
This eBay seller has loads of listings.
I doubt very much they have a vast stick of classic cars they can’t be bothered to describe.
Always poorly described.
Almost certainly a scam of some sort.
I don’t get how the scam works though.
Presumably he’s hoping someone turns up with £5k in cash to roll them for it?


Does anyone know anymore about this?


mmm-five

12,330 posts

313 months

Sunday 12th December 2021
quotequote all
How about you try it for us and report back how you got on?

Stick Legs

Original Poster:

8,923 posts

194 months

Sunday 12th December 2021
quotequote all
mmm-five said:
How about you try it for us and report back how you got on?
Not keen funnily enough.

Screams dodgy.

I’d get it if they required a £50 deposit on winning or something.



Toaster Pilot

14,863 posts

187 months

Sunday 12th December 2021
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It’ll be the usual advance fee type fraud. Payment up front at least partial if not full, seller disappears.

Plymo

1,267 posts

118 months

Sunday 12th December 2021
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That's been going on for ages - the listings (at least the details and photo) are copies of previous genuine listings from other sellers. Usually the price is set very low as well!
Not quite sure what the scam is, but probably something involving fees.

Stick Legs

Original Poster:

8,923 posts

194 months

Sunday 12th December 2021
quotequote all
Just astounded that eBay don’t stop it.

It’s about 25% of the Jaguar Classics listings.

Toaster Pilot

14,863 posts

187 months

Sunday 12th December 2021
quotequote all
Stick Legs said:
Just astounded that eBay don’t stop it.

It’s about 25% of the Jaguar Classics listings.
That’s eBay for you. God forbid you get a buyer to contact you outside of eBay but this st? Crack on.

Stick Legs

Original Poster:

8,923 posts

194 months

Sunday 12th December 2021
quotequote all
Toaster Pilot said:
That’s eBay for you. God forbid you get a buyer to contact you outside of eBay but this st? Crack on.
biglaugh

Riley Blue

23,205 posts

255 months

Sunday 12th December 2021
quotequote all
Stick Legs said:
This eBay seller has loads of listings.
I doubt very much they have a vast stick of classic cars they can’t be bothered to describe.
Always poorly described.
Almost certainly a scam of some sort.
I don’t get how the scam works though.
Presumably he’s hoping someone turns up with £5k in cash to roll them for it?


Does anyone know anymore about this?
Criminal gangs with hundreds of false accounts. They've been operating from eastern Europe for years.

Plymo

1,267 posts

118 months

Sunday 12th December 2021
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Just had another look - he's got 42 boats for sale, all ending at about 1900 today - only one picture and description mentioning being sold by a "fella who has resised away" whatever that means!
Worryingly a lot have bids... It's either people taking the piss or who will spend a lot of money on something with one photo and no description...

They definitely are things that have been listed/sold before, I recognise some of them.
FWIW, reported!




anonymous-user

83 months

Sunday 12th December 2021
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Do ebay get any fees from the scammers?

ShampooEfficient

4,278 posts

240 months

Sunday 12th December 2021
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Funnily enough, today I decided I wanted a Mini and the first half dozen listings were from this meatwhistle. All reported, but it's a massive issue.

lost in espace

6,586 posts

236 months

Sunday 12th December 2021
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Apparently they hack someone's account and spam advert the hell out of it, and someone gets a nice invoice from Ebay.

Mr Miata

1,220 posts

79 months

Sunday 12th December 2021
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I once had something similar when looking for a road bike. There was an eBay listing for a high spec bike, the price was too good to be true (the price was way below retail price for a bike that looked unused in the photos).

I emailed the seller asking if I can travel down and see the bike in person and then bank transfer the money if I was happy. The seller refused and wanted me to transfer the money without ever seeing the bike.

I didn’t even get back to him and ran away. To this day I’m not convinced the bike even existed and it was just a scam.

Mr Miata

1,220 posts

79 months

Sunday 12th December 2021
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Plymo said:
Just had another look - he's got 42 boats for sale
He has more boats than the Royal Navy.

Does he have a F-35 for sale? Light crash damage and water ingress, needs a bit of TLC, would make a good project jet.

Castrol for a knave

7,934 posts

120 months

Sunday 12th December 2021
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They use random photos they've grabbed from the internet.

I one spotted one for a 944 for sale in Broseley. I recognised the road, so nipped up and took a photo of the house.

I emailed the seller and he correctly said he was "Telford", so he must have got the photo from an older advert (a Google image search just threw up loads of 944 photos).

I asked him various questions in several emails, including asking if he genuine, which he said he was. when I asked him what colour the garage door was of the house next door, he never replied....

Silverage

2,408 posts

159 months

Sunday 12th December 2021
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“Buy with confidence”. Worth a try.

anonymous-user

83 months

Sunday 12th December 2021
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lost in espace said:
Apparently they hack someone's account and spam advert the hell out of it, and someone gets a nice invoice from Ebay.
I'm glad you explained that. I was wondering why the OP's ad had a user account opened 17 years ago with 98%+ positive feedback. That's a lot of advanced planning for a crim. But a hacked account makes sense. I am very naieve in these things!

sospan

2,755 posts

251 months

Sunday 12th December 2021
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Buyer scam so the other side......
A few years ago I worked in police ops and had a call from a small business owner with an ebay “shop”. Sold an item worth about £1000. There was a slight delay in delivery date so an agreed “ refund” of £200 was given and accepted. The buyer said it was delivered but late. The buyer then went to ebay to claim non delivery. The business seller forwarded all details, including the buyer confirming delivery in a message, courier confirmation of delivery etc.. Result was ebay still sided with the buyer and gave a full £1000 refund despite the £200 discount. Buyer got the item for free!
The seller took it forward as a fraud and won.
ebay didn’t properly look at the evidence that proved fraud. Their attitude was ( still is?) virtually automatic siding with the buyer. The business also pushed ebay by claiming an unauthorised debit from their account when clear fraud had occurred. Not sure of that outcome though.

4rephill

5,167 posts

207 months

Sunday 12th December 2021
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These scam sellers keep cropping up every few days.

They usually use the same pictures over and over again, with stupidly low prices, and poorly worded information (as though English is not their first language), and attach the adverts to hijacked, legitimate accounts (which change every few days)

They do get reported as scams, and usually, after a day or so, ebay remove all the adverts.

Sometimes though, frustratingly, for some reason it seems to take ebay several days to remove the adverts.

What's really annoying is, these scam adverts have been going on for years now, and are blindingly obvious scams, but rather than employing a team to look out for them, and stop them immediately, ebay relies on site members reporting them, otherwise they do nothing.