UK ebay scam..

If any of you were watching that black 1974 850 Interstate that 'left' ebay yesterday and looked too good to be true at £3500 then it was.

It was a classified advert. i offered to buy it at full price and for him to get in touch. No response. Eventually he comes back with he has a poor phone signal. I ask for engine frame numbers etc which he doesn't answer and take several more days to respond. He has zero feedback...He also has a tractor for sale.

He says I can have it but just need to buy by paypal to protect us both; it will be delivered for free... I said i need to see it but will collect within 5 days.

Without boring you too much I get an invite today (at 2:41 am!) telling me I have bought it and just need to transfer the funds. I call ebay and find he and the tractor and his ID on community have disappered..He is reported as a scammer.

He asks me to call him but his number doesn't connect, ever. I ask him to call me, he won't. Apparently he is is Berlin, it was his brothers who has died and will get a friend to drive to Manchester to ship the bike to me. He doesn't know the registration number as it is with the bike in Manchester.

When i look at the paypal request he doesn't have enough feedback to have an account and therefore wanted me to send the funds by bank transfer to an account in a separate name to his. Better still i just get another email five minutes ago with a different bank account number to pay the funds to.

Aren't some people creative....

Beware ebayers without feedback, this was just as I thought

FastFred said:

If any of you were watching that black 1974 850 Interstate that 'left' ebay yesterday and looked too good to be true at £3500 then it was.

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A very common scam. (I had already reported that classified ad. to ebay)

There was a similar classified ad. last week for a '72 Commando and Triumph Tridents seem to be a particular favourite of the scammers for some reason.

Apparently classified ads once accepted no longer have any link to ebay. It's quite easy to see how someone could get caught by this. His ebay ID was skeikh.group and he went under the name of Iam Drummond on the emails and then offered two different bank accounts in the nme of Erwin Baumann and another was F. Hirsch. The Barclay bank sort codes were in Leicester and Richmond. I'd call the police if they were interested but they would probably want me to lose £3500 first...

FastFred said:

. I'd call the police if they were interested but they would probably want me to lose £3500 first...

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And debatable if they'd be interested even then! Of course if you're doing 35mph in a 30mph limit at 2am it may be a different story....


Ian

I have had three "Buy it now's" for bikes that had sold, i bid 2500 on a commando, it sold for 5800. then three days later offered to me as a second chance offer..same story pay ebay and get the bike delivered free.
Told the seller i would only pay cash and collect........NO RESPONCE. Makes me think if any unsuspecting people get burned? My old man once said " if it sounds to good to be true,then it is",

If you pay for anything on Ebay by Paypal you are protected & shouldn't lose your money. Pay by bank transfer & kiss goodbye to your cash. However if someone is selling something as expensive as a Commando & asks to be paid by Paypal that makes it suspicious because Paypal take 5% commission so people avoid using it. Any sensible & genuine person selling something like that usually asks for a securing deposit via Paypal & the rest by cash on collection.
I bought a BMW off Ebay & the transaction was fine, but you do need to be careful, especially with desirable bikes.

Ian

Agree.The point here was that he sent two emails looking like Paypal and was telling me I was protected up to £10,000 by Paypal. He actually couldn't be paid that way and the actual method was bank transfer.

Hi FastFred. I 'bought' that bike as well. Same story. Noticed there was something fishy about the 'eBay transaction'. PayPal request was also not quite right. He said his name was Ian and lived in Berlin. Selling the bike on behalf of his bro who passed 2 months ago. His email is copied below.


From: Ian Drummond [mailto:iandr2100@gmail.com]
Sent: 06 February 2013 12:15
To: Gordon Craig
Subject: Re: Norton



The bike has matching frame numbers. It's in very good condition, recently serviced, everything works as it should. All paperwork present. It belonged to my brother who unfortunately passed away 2 months ago. I do not reside in the UK, i'm based in Berlin, Germany and because of that i've chosen to handle the sale online through eBay. This way we can both be protected and insured. I will get somebody to bring it to you if you decide to buy it but we have to close the deal through eBay. My friend is not in Manchester and will be traveling from a distance so I must be sure and not put him on the road based on words, no one would, because I have no one in Manchester. You will receive the bike in 3-4 days and you will have the chance to inspect it before I get paid. My friend will bring the bike directly to you as soon as I will have the payment confirmation from eBay. Also you will have to put your decision there and if it will be an " Yes, i want keep the bike" or " No, I want to return the bike" (in case it isn't as i have described it), PayPal will either advance the funds to me or give you a refund and my friend will collect the bike.

If you want it, let me know your ebay user id along with a phone number and your name, address where it must be delivered so i can register the sale with ebay to proceed. If you will decide to not go through now then is not a problem I still quite have a few more offers from potential buyers. Hopefully, I made myself understood and we will be closing the deal. I look forward to hearing from you soon.



Kind Regards

Ian

You don't have to look very far to find that email is extensively used by a well known scammer / scam artist.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VERY-RARE-BOO ... 0793705587

Had something similar last year on Gumtree, MKIIA engine, complete, low mileage £600......OK says I, I will collect, will come to you, confirm it is what it should be and then pay cash....Oh, no, I can arrange deliver free from my work as soon as you pay....just give me your full address and post code and I will arrange......no thankyou.....

emails that stopped responding, text from a phone that never answered.....reported it to Gumtree and they ignored me.....

Hi CrazyTrain

Can I have a ride if you bought it as I own half!

That was exactly the same email he sent me.

It's amazing that these fuggers don't get locked up.

Regards

It's amazing that these fuggers don't get locked up

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There's a guy over here hitting the Hot rod and classic 'wanted' ads, claiming he has the parts people are looking for. He deliberately keeps the prices down, takes a small deposit of £50-100 (enough to lose but not a fortune) agrees to meet somewhere but he and parts never materialise. Lots are being taken in by him but the point of this is that he supposedly has just done time for similar fraud and he's back at it :? . He has a normal bank account which is where the 'deposits' are made (was Nat West or Barclays in Crawley nr Gatwick airport I believe). Before the police can do anything he probably runs up a nice little pot of cash and then moves on. He's been caught once so hardly seems worth it really. Not sure where the bank stands on all this. I guess he opens accounts online and all transactions are done in a similar way.

Another over here a mate got caught by was a quad bike advertised that had to have £200 non-refundable deposit paid within 24 hours and then collection by 7 days. Then he disappears so you can't possibly make contact.

I'd line them all up and saw off their gonads, not wanting to be too extreme

Ebay ain't interested...only taking your dosh 10% final value plus listing, plus 5% paypal....i reported these scams 18 months ago...nothing as happened.

Ebay will certainly remove such listings if advised.
And Interpol are reportedly chasing them down - its tough to identify/catch them if paid by Western Union etc though.
And is all thats keeping Nigeria afloat at the moment, must about be a national industry ?!

john robert bould said:

Ebay ain't interested...only taking your dosh 10% final value plus listing, plus 5% paypal....i reported these scams 18 months ago...nothing as happened.

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Sadly true.

Although not a scam like the others (yes, I've also been lured, but the LR Fastback photos they were using were watermarked by the actual vendor,and he turned out to be a sound guy with a sense of humour, who was aware of the scam), I have also found Ebay wanting in the customer care front.

I posted about one I 'won' :?: :!: last year which actually existed, but when I went to collect, I found there was no VIN plate and a hand-carved engine number. It was also advertised with a Quaife box, but there was a story about it only being able to get 4 of the 5 gears. After explaining that I wasn't born yesterday I declined to buy on the basis that I could not relate the log book to the bike.

I reported the seller to Ebay, suspecting the bike may have been stolen, and I got a long string of offensive and threatening emails from the seller 'Hotnorth' (yes, I should have spotted that one :roll: ) - all via Ebay!

I duly pointed that one out, but got nil response.

A Week later the bike was back on Ebay... 'no more timewasters'.
It sold, and Ebay knew it was suspected to be stolen - Hotnorth had evidently been told of my report (referred to in his threats), so they must have believed his story - just a guess.

Keith1069 said:

It's amazing that these fuggers don't get locked up

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There's a guy over here hitting the Hot rod and classic 'wanted' ads, claiming he has the parts people are looking for. He deliberately keeps the prices down, takes a small deposit of £50-100 (enough to lose but not a fortune) agrees to meet somewhere but he and parts never materialise. Lots are being taken in by him but the point of this is that he supposedly has just done time for similar fraud and he's back at it :? . He has a normal bank account which is where the 'deposits' are made (was Nat West or Barclays in Crawley nr Gatwick airport I believe). Before the police can do anything he probably runs up a nice little pot of cash and then moves on. He's been caught once so hardly seems worth it really. Not sure where the bank stands on all this. I guess he opens accounts online and all transactions are done in a similar way.

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Not on AccessNorton.com but on a Ducati site Ive sought out parts and got several replies from guys in the UK. Ex Army, retirees,pillars of society etc. Some state they are too old or unable to take pics and email same but have paypal and actual UK addresses. Who in this day and age cant take a cell phone pic and send it? Immediate red flag to me. I reported to site moderators and emails stopped coming. So buyer beware when you want that rare item. Dont list your email address in the wanted Ad ask to be contacted through the forum PM system.

'I'd line them all up and saw off their gonads, not wanting to be too extreme'

Is that slow enough, it might be kinder to use an angle grinder ?
- also better aesthetics.