eBay Scam

[bullzed]

Hey everyone,

 

Just wanted to let you guys know about an eBay scam going around at the moment. The person who contacted me went by the name 'Mary Leon' and wanted to buy my Z flat tack straight out no bull. She said she lived in Australia but worked in the UK and wanted my Z as a daily driver over there. She hurried me along to give her details for payment and she then told me she couldn't wire the money to her Australian agent and asked if I would do it for her, so I humoured her. It was all going 'well' until she told me she had made the payment. She said she had 'contacted paypal to let them know that the funds should not be released to me until proof of payment to her australian agent was given to paypal', she then went ahead and sent 2 emails from 'paypal' to my email which looked completely illegitimate.

 

If you put your car up for sale and are asked to help with western union money transfers to the address:

 

Name-:Mathew Joey

57 Lexington Street,

London,

W1R 3LG.

United Kingdom

 

This is a scam!! Do not proceed with it and instead tell them to rack off and scam someone else. To the untrained eye this could seem legitimate, however no confirmation on the paypal site, dodgy grammar and the haste of which she wanted to buy and ship my Z to the UK all shows it's nothing but bullcrap.

 

Just thought I would let everyone know, watch out guys!

[Mr Camouflage]

https://reportfraud.actionfraud.org.uk/fraudreport/

[gav240z]

This is a scam!! Do not proceed with it and instead tell them to rack off and scam someone else.

 

Thanks for the heads up, but perhaps telling them to scam someone else is just encouragement? .

 

Have you notified PayPal of who they are? The email address should be useful to them.

[Zeddophile]

I'm amazed this scam is still new to anyone in the car community, given that it's been going on for years now, yet every month or two I'm talking to someone who's selling their car, and has been all excited by having 'someone overseas/working on an oil rig/temporarily incapacitated beyond using their nose to type on the keyboard' wanting to buy their car.

 

Another common variant of the same scam is that they 'overpay' you with Paypal, and ask you to refund the excess.  I'm sure there are plenty more though, and they're rampant on Carsales as well.

[luvemfast]

But how do they "scam" you?

How do they get money from you via paypal or Western Union (what ever that is)?

[chris240]

Simon, its usually a fake paypal website link......or something like that 

[Patch]

There are different ways how these scams work, but mainly stolen credit card number's, Payment is made to you though paypal and an agent will come and take the car, and when the person with the credit card gets there statement and notice money has gone, they make a clam with their bank and paypal remove the money paid to you, you have now lost the money and the car.

 

Or they over pay you and get you to send the refund back to them western union, when you have found you have been scammed you can't get that money back.

 

Another good one is they empty lots of credit card money into your account and you keep 30 % and a guy comes and picks up the rest of the money after you have drawn out of your bank, when everybody notices their money gone, they follow the paper trail to your bank and then police and fred turn up at your door for stealing all this money, you go to jail.

[dat2kman]

Cold hard folding cash, or ged  da fargoutta here.

 

Even bank cheques can be faked or fraudulent/modified.

Caveat emptor - on both sides really.

 

Sure I can't pay you in cash, I am on a oil rig on Mars!  Well, tell the "buyer" to just take their time, you in no hurry, and their "agent"here in Australia can rock up to ypur place with cash, folding, otherwise, no sale!

[gav240z]

Cold hard folding cash, or ged  da fargoutta here.

 

Even bank cheques can be faked or fraudulent/modified.

Caveat emptor - on both sides really.

 

Sure I can't pay you in cash, I am on a oil rig on Mars!  Well, tell the "buyer" to just take their time, you in no hurry, and their "agent"here in Australia can rock up to ypur place with cash, folding, otherwise, no sale!

Amen to that. Usually putting money into your PayPal or western union is a way to money launder. My g/f used to work for western union and based on all those stories I'd never use them myself :-) . So many scams going on.

[RBZ 260]

;D nothing new, that's old school way.

 

On any advertised car I had anywhere (carsales, gumtree, ebay etc...) I get 5-6 scam buyers in first 3 days with almost identical stories.

 

I usually entertain them with few emails till they realise I'm taking them for a ride.Than they leave me alone.

 

The new way is even harder they sms or even call you on the phone with similar story. (word of warning lot of buyers txt these days so you don't want to offend a legitimate buyer) if they are very pushy than its a scam either via txt or phonecall

 

Simple answer "don't care who comes bring cash and car is yours". They can be very agressive on the phone. Usually with overseas number showing is easiest way of ignoring them. I did have few callers with Australian numbers too so be carefull.

 

Just say no to paypal payments.

either direct depo to my account or cash on pick up.

 

+1 on bank cheques.dont trust them

 

If they insist on bank cheque, agree to the terms to meet at your bank and deposit the cheque infront of them.

You may have to pay $10 fee or something like that for instant clearance to your account.(cheap insurance)

Once cashier says its all clear and in your account you handover the keys and transfer papers.

 

happy selling