I became aware of a new twist on eBay fraud this week. It may have been
happening for awhile, but this is the first I've checked it out. I
watch eBay every week so it might be a reasonably new scam.
The scam starts out with a nice item that has a "Buy it Now" price that
seems way too low for the quality of the item. It may also require
bidder registration. The item I was looking at was a big Healey that a
co-worker pointed out. It was a nice car with a buy now of a little
over $7000 with eBay Square Deal protection. It was easy to be
interested since the car should have been in the $15,000-$25,000 range.
He also had a good history with eBay - mostly small stuff though.
It seemed too good and I was suspicious. I sent an email to the lister
asking the location of the car. Right away, the car was removed from
auction. I think this is how the scammer builds a list of targets. He
promptly sent an email offering the car at the buy now price. This was
not through eBay. The catch is the guy wanted you to send a payment
directly to him. It turned out the car was in Briton, his location was
listed as New York, and he wanted payment in Canadian dollars. Since
the car would not be sold through eBay, I don't think Square Deal would
cover a loss.
Watch out!
Randy
Check out the new British Cars Forum:
http://www.team.net/the-local/tiki-view_forum.php?forumId=8
|