eBay is full of scammers, especially the car and motorcycle section. Con Artists have cottoned on to the fact the eBay is awash with trusting people that are easy to take for a ride. Excuse the pun.
If you have been to the eBay motors section lately you may notice that it has literally hundreds of sports cars and other relatively high value cars going for a quarter of what they are actually worth.
Most of the dodgy eBay advertisements follow along the same lines, I will explain.
Think for a minute that you are in the market for a second hand car, you’re surfing eBay for a cheap car, and maybe you have a few thousand to spend.
You are casually surfing through the advertisements and you come across a BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Honda, Porsche or other medium to high level car.
When looking at the details you notice that the car had done very little mileage and is in excellent condition.
You also notice that the price that they are offering usually on a “Buy It Now” auction is incredibly cheap. So cheap in fact that you think it is a bargain of a life time.
You get excited and bid on it immediately, not wanting the deal to slip away before it’s too late or some other person snaps the car up at such a low price.
Your suspicions are squashed when you notice that the seller has a high positive feedback score, sometimes in the hundreds.
So you confirm your bid, and shortly after the seller of this “Car” sends you an email saying that the car is still available.
He tells you that the car is in excellent condition and he can arrange to deliver the car as soon as he has received payment from you.
You write back to him asking him what email address his Paypal account is connected too so you can send the payment immediately.
He then responds and tells you that he would rather not use Paypal because of the high fees involved or that he does not trust Paypal. The list of excuses is endless.
He asks you to do a Western Union payment, and once you have done this he will arrange the car to be delivered.
The next day you merrily go down to your nearest Western Union shop and transfer thousands or dollars or pounds to the car seller.
You make your way home feeling excited that you will be receiving your new car in a day or two and you feel proud that you have taken advantage of “Such a Bargain”, your friends are going to be so jealous of your new car, they are going to wonder how you ever afforded to buy such and expensive car - Little will they know.
You get home and send the car seller an email confirming that you have sent him the money and want to know when you can arrange to take delivery of the car.
The next day you still have not heard back from him, so you send him another email, a few hours later still nothing.
So you try calling him on the number that he gave you to contact him and his mobile is switched off. You keep emailing and calling him over the next few days, and you hear nothing.
It finally dawns on you that you have been scammed. Shock and Horror, you have sent the person months and months of saved money and it’s all gone. You have nothing to show for it.
These scenarios happen everyday on eBay; I’m shocked by the growing number of scams that appear on eBay everyday. It’s a endemic that is out of control, eBay is a multi billion dollar industry that will be brought to it’s knees by a handful of dishonest people if they don’t get on top of the situation.
Ebay is already loosing business and credibility on the internet as people are starting not to trust eBay as a safe place to buy goods.
The con artists not only rip people off trying to buy cars and motorcycles but in all sections that high value goods are sold. Including Mobile Phones, Jewellery and watches and even businesses that don’t exist.
There are hundreds of ways that these people will look legitimate but still end up taking your money. At the end of the day, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
Anthony Gregory Helps to promote the following sites:
car insurance UK
Asbestos Surveys
SEO Company
Anthony Gregory is a freelance writer and journalist. He is available for hire and website promotion.
Chris@brilliantseo.com
He writes articles on behalf of clients for £20.00 each – These articles are then submitted to quality article directories.
About the Author:
Christopher Angus is a freelance writer and website promoter. He is available for hire.
Please contact him at chris (at) brilliantseo (dot) com
Ebay - A Scammers Paradise
