Car Scam On Ebay

bluey9

Don't know if this is the right place to post this or whether it's already been discussed. However, I though it might help some people if I posted my thoughts and findings.
I had been looking for a cheap MGF car for the summer in the hope of some decent weather. Sometimes my searches of other marques were turning up results for really high value cars at knockdown prices, sometimes only 25% of the current market value. The first car I e-mailed the seller about was a 2005 BMW 645ci convertible. The market value of this car is currently £35-40k and the seller wanted only £9600 as a buy it now. I e-mailed out of curiosity but smelled a rat from the begining.
The seller came back with a speil that might have sounded plausible to someone less cynical than myself. The story was one of a business woman who was returning to Amsterdam following a period working in the uk. She had checked out bringing the car home but didn't realise that when she got there the registration and emmissions testing would be so strict or costly.
So in summary a woman who owned a 40 grand car was willing to take a 30k hit because of some import duty and registration tax. Oh, and a year old beemer couldn't pass an emissions test.

I've since checked out some other marques including a £18k Merc for £5k, a £20 BMW Z4 for £8k and a £22k Porsche Boxter for £8.8k. These people all have the same bullsh!t story. Importation, registration, emissions testing. 3 of the 4 have been Amsterdam based and the Boxster was Hungary.

The fairy story tells you that the car will be delivered to you and you don't need to pay all the money til satisfied. The seller asks for your ebay id and full name and address..... don't do it.
The sellers who have these really swank cars invariably don't have mobile so that you can ask them about the car and a lot of the ads insist that e-mail contact is via a personal e-mail address outside ebay.

I know some people will read this and think "I'd never fall for that" but every day we read stories of people who get caught up in thrill of getting a nice car at a reallygood price only to hear that they lost all their money. Told in isolation each of these stories just might be believable to some people.

If I've posted this in the wrong area then please move it to where it should be.

Cheers
Bluey

Hintza

These scams seem to becoming more common brings two things to mind:-

If its too good to be true it probably is.

A fool and his money are easily parted.

bluey9

Ebay are quick to pull up legititimate buyers and sellers but never seem to bother much with the real scams.I'd say there should be a rule preventing sales over a certian value (say £5k, an average car) in the first year and that sellers must be verified by the car trade or have a certain level of positive feedback before they can offer high value cars for sale. The Nigerian scammers ain't gonna sit and but and sell for a year so they can set up a couple of bum deals before being banned.

soolin

This has been a very common scam for ages, started off in the small ads and places like LOOT but moved onto ebay where it is less common but no less dangerous.

dbonbon

Just transferred £4995 for a '05' Porsche Boxter S with only 14000 miles. What a steal! Getting delivered on the 14th.

bluey9

Oh, me poor ribs. Think one just popped there.......

I only posted in the hope that if one person benefitted then it would have been worthwhile.

kriss_boy

I dont care what ridiculous reasons these sellers have for offering items a third of the value.. youd have to be an idiot to get sucked in. no offense.

The bottom line is no one in the right mind would ever be forced to have to accept a quarter of an items value, even for a quick sale.

Supposing the car was worth 40K, then for a very fast sale at worst the seller could probably get 25/30K for it.

I know from experience of selling expensive guitars... if one is worth £1500, at times, for a very fast sale i may be tempted to sell it at £1200, and buyers would snap them up. But based on these scams, what are the chances of my offering it for a third/quater, ie £600. No way. Its just totally unbelievable and its never going to happen.

kriss_boy

dbonbon wrote:

Just transferred £4995 for a '05' Porsche Boxter S with only 14000 miles. What a steal! Getting delivered on the 14th.

Are you joking? from where?

bluey9

Kriss, none taken. I wasn't sucked in for a second. Mr Bonbon was trying to be witty and failed miserably.

missile

I suppose the problem would be identifying a scammer, when the price is a bit closer to the real value?

AlInshearah

dbonbon wrote:

Just transferred £4995 for a '05' Porsche Boxter S with only 14000 miles. What a steal! Getting delivered on the 14th.

That's where the scam is. You bought a "Boxter" when you thought you had bought a "Boxster"