Scammed after bidding on Ebay

After bidding and loosing a motorhome on ebay I was offered a Second Chance Offer. After receiving the SCO email which I believed to be original was not it was the beginning of an elaborate scam which I fell for. The invoice was so convincing and the guarantee from the Vehicle Payment Protection email convinced me to go ahead with the SCO on the motorhome I wanted. It wasn't until I went to pick it up from the address told I realized I had been scammed, police informed and £3000 lost came home very unhappy and fuming I could be so stupid. So if anyone else received a SCO please check properly. As it was it was nothing to do with the original seller I had been scammed by someone who got all my Ebay information and the last bid I made on the vehicle.

Sorry to hear this, buying anything like this on ebay these days seems to be at great risk especially after all the reports posted on this forum over the months. not heard of the second chance offer scam before though one for others to be very wary of

Oh what bad luck, lynian

There are certainly some right about

Brian

Sorry for your loss but you only have yourself to blame.

Do you buy a car at your local dealer without looking at it first and test driving it. No you don't.

Simple message is don't pay until you have seen vehicle, checked both it and the paperwork with DVLA and the AA/RAC to ascertain ownership, and with the HP sites to ensure there is no outstanding debt on it.

Hindsight is a great thing for everyone and easy to condemn others. I,ve bought classic cars and bikes over the years on the net and was lucky enough in my dealings, I only ever paid a deposit before collection of maybe a couple of hundred pounds. I,m sure you must be gutted Lynian I know I would be and I hope the scum get caught and somehow you get your money back as its hard enough to earn.

Lynian,

OUCH!! Please acept my condolences.

I have used the eBay system once in the last ten years. Less than two weeks later my Credit Card was cloned for the first time EVER!

I know millions of people buy millions of products this way every day. I know that there may be no link so I am just saying that:

I have used the eBay system once in the last ten years. Less than two weeks later my Credit Card was cloned for the first time EVER!

Best regards,

Ian

I've used Ebay many times (feedback shows around 500+ items bought or sold) and never been scammed (yet...). But I too have received a bogus Second Chance Offer before, and I can't figure out quite how they do it - unless the seller has chosen a weak account password and had their account broken into.

I was lucky that the Nigerian-English wording was so radically different than the wording used by the original seller, and the scam was immediately obvious.

One of the major alarm bells these days is the fake escrow services, which (supposedly) hold your payment as an independent agency that will give you your money back if you don't want to finish the deal. Although genuine escrow services do exist, there are huge number of fake ones out there, all with convincing-looking websites. Needless to say, you will almost ~never~ get your money back if you give it to an "independent" third party, despite the legitimate appearance of many of them... My understanding is that real escrow services are expensive, and used for substantial transactions - none of us should expect to encounter one in "normal" life.

As many of you know, I try to bring to members attention any scam motorhomes that appear on Ebay but this is a scam that although I knew it existed I had not come across a successful one before. I assume that at some point the 'seller' sends an email direct and not through Ebay. When you sell something , you get the usernames of all bidders and by clicking on their names you have the option to 'contact member' . You don't need to hack their account. Please tell us (to help others not fall for this) at what point you were contacted to provide your email address and at what point the deal went 'outside Ebay'.
To any one else, just google 'Ebay second chance scam' and you'll see many examples and warnings of what to watch for.
In these cases it is not something that is 'too good to be true' because the price is not 'too cheap'. Remember this member tried to buy through normal auction methods. All the other scams that I highlight are 'classified ads'.

Very sorry to hear this, I too was 'caught' about 10 yrs ago, bought a laptop after one of mine was stolen from my office, paid via paypal, & waited,
zilch!! Both e-bay & paypal said I'd get my money back, but I didn't, although to be fair, there were no safegaurds in place for the consumer
like there is now.

I DID by my Talisman via e-bay, BUT, I found it, drove over to see it, had a 'poke around' & a test drive, made an offer, gave a deposit, then
collected it the following week.

Reference has been made to scammers being based in Nigeria. This weekend I wrote to Ebay (again) to tell them of the huge number of scams now being placed as 'classified ads'. Here is the reply I got this morning. Judging by the grammar (or lack of it) you might be lead to believe that Ebay itself is based in Nigeria...

Hello Paul,



My name is Noel and I'm happy to assist you with your query about member listing are in breach eBay policy.



We appreciate you for taking time and reporting to us about the listing that you suspect are in breach of eBay policy. All the item reported by 'report item' link are directly delivered to our policy expert team and they will take an appropriated action on all such listings which are in breach of eBay policy. You will see the gradual decrease in the volume for such listings on the site.



Furthermore, I would like to inform that listing listed under 'Classified Ads' format are for advertisement purpose only. All the transaction of listing listed under 'Classified Ads' format are done off eBay. We have policy in place for this type of format in order to keep eBay a safe and fun place to shop.



Moreover, the policy remains same for all the sellers on the site regardless of the status of the seller. You will be able to see the changes on the site.



For more details about the Classified Ad format, you can refer the below link:



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Thanks again for taking time and clarifying the issue with us. We greatly appreciate your cooperation.



Regards,



Noel Patterson

eBay Trust & Safety

Paul,

Reading through that lot my immediate thoughts were "atrocious"!

Obviously "written English skills" are not a priority at eBay!

Best regards and keep up the good work.

Ian

Are you sure your complaint about scammers didn't get redirected to a scammers inbox?
I'd be contacting their customer services and complaining about the unprofessional reply, it reads like they got a 5 year old to write it.

Paulmold wrote:When you sell something , you get the usernames of all bidders and by clicking on their names you have the option to 'contact member' . You don't need to hack their account.

Hi Paul - I was the one that referred to the "hacked account", because nobody other than the seller can see the identity of other bidders on an item these days - ebay obscures them quite well now, and has done for at least the last year. So to be able to send a bogus SCO, the fraudster needs to get that identity+bid info from somewhere, by nefarious means. The only 3 ways I could think that this could happen these days are 1. collusion with the original seller, 2. hacking the original seller's account and 3. collusion with someone in Ebay.

But anyway, this is really only speculation...

Well done with the sleuthing work - it must be a significant inconvenience for them to have their listings removed so quickly...

Before I posted the comment about 'hacked account' I just went into an item I sold last week. By clicking on 'bids' I got the full breakdown of who bid what and when (as you say, only available to the seller). By then clicking on the name I got options including 'contact member'. I could then send a message via Ebay to any of the bidders and through this ask them to contact me and provide their email address on some pretext or other. What I think can happen is an auction can be set up normally but at the last moment a friend or even the seller using another account can bid and win by entering any huge amount to ensure they win. The seller then has access to all other bidders through the method mentioned above. No need to hack an account, just set up a bogus seller name and account.

Feel very sorry for people who get caught out by this scam.

I think some of us are more trusting than others. I would never fall for something like this as I am sceptical by nature and always look at the worst scenario. I wouldn't send a penny on a vehicle until I had met the owner and seeing the vehicle as a minimum. Even after getting to that point you obviously need to be on your guard for the numerous other scams/frauds.

I sell motorhomes at a dealership for a living so get to see a lot of motorhome buyers. Many accept that they are paying retail price but are happy to pay that premium to get a genuine vehicle and the service that goes with it. Many would never entertain buying privateley or off ebay etc.

Having said that there are also unscrupulous dealers out there not giving good service to the public so you must always be on your guard.

I don't think it helps saying people have themselves to blame after losing £3000. These scams are very convincing. All we can hope is that the internet and forums like these spread the word and educate people in the future. Hopefully the scammers will give up when they have no success...... then they'll move on to the next scam!!!!

I know this isn't an AS but it's just to show how convincing an advert can be. Apart from the low price, there is nothing untoward about the advert. Location Fort Augustus, there has been at lot for sale up there lately but again for the uninitiated nothing untoward. Here is todays advert..

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and this is the original ad..

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It's quite a rare van but what caught my eye is that I see this van every day as it is only about 3 miles from me.

I always wonder why most the scams make the vans stupidly cheap.

For example a van with a trade price of £15000 they list for £5000, its so obviously cheap it rings the alarm bells.

The most convincing ones I've seen are when the price is just under trade which makes it more believable.

Paulmold wrote:

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and this is the original ad..

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Paul,

I just love that tell-tale chimney pot and distinctive brickwork!! Oh that all photographs were so easy to see were identical.

Best regards,

Ian

Especially since as you look at the ad which says 'item withdrawn' your eyes are drawn to the bottom of the page were the banner reads, ' you may also be interested in these'.

There like a sore thumb is the offending motohome winking at you.

Davy

If you look at the sellers of the van, their feedback scores go back over 12 months and are pretty good. I would be happy dealing with somebody with a score like that, it isn't somebody who set up an account yesterday. Even if the scores were from purchasing items rather than selling, it has taken a while to cultivate that score.

Dutto, if you use PayPal whilst on eBay, nobody knows your credit card details. I only give my card details when I'm buying from a well established and trustworthy source. Otherwise I use PayPal, so nobody can get my details and extract money.

matchlessman wrote:If you look at the sellers of the van, their feedback scores go back over 12 months and are pretty good. I would be happy dealing with somebody with a score like that, it isn't somebody who set up an account yesterday. Even if the scores were from purchasing items rather than selling, it has taken a while to cultivate that score. .

Thats were hijacking an account with some feedback makes it more difficult to detect a scam. It all boils down to not parting with any money without seeing the vehicle.

Sorry to read of your scam Lynian,and Oldbiker you are wrong to be so judgemental,its well documented on this forum how I was the victim of a scam/fraud when I saw the vehicle and did more than the usual checks with all parties,so believe me these are very very clever at what they do...

On MotorhomeFun forum there is a thread following the scamming of a scammer. It tells of the whole procedure that these scammers go through with an interested buyer. For those who don't understand how the scams work, I suggest you follow it...

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