Ebay Corvette Scams

[Pat L.]

[Les Jacobs]

Re: Ebay Corvette Scams

I feel sorry for the seller. Over the past month he has lost his father, brother and other relatives who coincidentally all had Corvettes that he wanted to sell via ebay. But he had good deals.. 60% of typical market price and he would fund part of the transportation cost. The only thing was trust.. he couldn't furnish a copy of the title and he wouldn't agree to a car inspection, not to mention the identity theft. Now if my fever wasn't temporairly satisfied, I might just take a shot.

[Rob A.]

Re: Ebay Corvette Scams

It appears that this same person is relisting other people's cars as his own, and usually has some unrealistic "buy it now" price, and/or indicates bidding is for "approved" buyers only. He always indicates he is in another country, and his story used to be that it was his recently deceased father's car. I responded to one out of curiosity myself and in this case he wanted around $9000(buy it now) for a '66 roadster. I guess ebay doesn't have a way to immediatly identify his listings, however they do seem to dissappear rather quickly lately so I'm sure they are aware of his scam. I wonder how many people, if any, have actually wired him the $2000 or so he usually asks for as a deposit, indicating that he will send the car COD for the balance?

[Mike Cobine]

Re: Ebay Corvette Scams

Apparently, more than you would think have done so because eBay has warnings about buying via wire transfer such as Western Union.

Which is a shame, because in this age of counterfeit cashier's checks and money orders, it is almost the only way to guarantee funds actually get into your account.

Of course with that goes a warning. Set up an account for wire fund transfer because to let them transfer funds in, they have access to your account, and can actually transfer funds out, according to my bank, due to the transfer being similar to power of attorney for them. You have, essentially, given them the keys to the safe.

Just remember, you can't cheat an honest man. The only reason these scams work is someone isn't honest in the deal on the receiving end, thinking they can cheat life and get something for nothing.

[Richard G.]

Re: Ebay Corvette Scams

Pat

I have been harrasing ebay for the past three weeks about this person(s) that are stealing peoples identities and trying to scam would be Corvette buyers, but it doesn't stop there. I inquired about a Honda Quad for my business partner and got the same email, except the quad was in Poland, Portugal was overflowing with Corvettes at the time. I've even had lengthly email exchanges with this person(s) just for sport. I've actually called them a fraud and in broken english, they just wanted a deposit, ok. Anyway, I have been equally harrasing ebays fraud or "safe harbor" department and I keep getting the standard email. Even when you get a reply from the safe harbor department, it doesn't go back to the individual that sent the original email, it must be a pool system. Unfortunately, we all must, as eBay says, live by the stated "Buyer Beware" notion. This identity fraud has gotten so out of control that they have no way of monitoring the situation. I suggested that they prevent the fraud, by investigating how this person(s) is able to steal the identity rather than chase BS auctions. Just my two sense. I'd like one of the major networks to get a hold of this and do a story on it. If it teaches us one thing, be careful of what you buy and make sure someone does the look and touch before you mail the check.

All the Best

Rich

[Terry D.]

Re: Ebay Corvette Scams

Well as we all should know by now E-Bay only cares about the money coming in. This sort of scam has been going on for years on E-Bay. I believe it started with Harley Motorcycles about three or four years ago. Same MO, dad died, bike was in another state, etc. At that time several of us tried to get E-Bay to do something about it, to no avail. After lots of e-mails their basic thought is "buyer beware".

I think the idea of getting the media involved would be great. If anyone has ANY connections with even the local networks they should contact them and enlist their help.

Terry

[Rich G.]

Re: Ebay Corvette Scams

Rich

Every time I see a bogus ad I e-mail E-Bay. I've never even gotten a response, but the item does get pulled. CBS did a story about 6 months ago about guys who put up an entire "clone" of the e-bay site and were ripping people off. I'm convinced one of this current guys "side scams" is to get e-mail address that are valid, which is why he wants you to e-mail him to be "approved". I may be too electronically paranoid, but I would not even answer him with my e-mail.

Rich G.

[Jack H.]

Scams....

I've received maybe 2-3 eBay 'spoof' solicitations a week for the past month or so. Each looks like an official eBay communique repleat with eBay's artwork/logos, but they're fakes. On eBay, search on 'spoof' to get the official party line and your alternatives. The big picture is:

(1) eBay will NEVER communicate with you using your eBay 'handle'. They will always do a data base translation to your proper registered name. The scammers can't get anything more than your email address and eBay 'handle' from the public domain....

(2) If you look at the internet header, that's the gobblygook code that either preceeds or postceeds the text of your email (few people actually look at this or even have a clue as to how to decipher), you'll see the actual ISP source of the spoof email has NOTHING TO DO with eBay. It's usually, something or other on Yahoo, AOL, Etc. BTW, the same goes for those pesky virus email's you get that 'appear' to come from someone you know....

(3) There's a 'police' facility on eBay to track & trap spoofer's/scammer's. You have two ways to reach them, one is to use the eBay HELP menu, search on 'spoof' and navigate to a screen that allows you to cut & paste the spoof e you received and give eBay investigators (A) the text of the spoof message, and (B) the internet header from the message. You WILL get an automated rececipt confirmation from eBay and IF what you sent is actually a spoof, they generally follow up with a real, human-human, email later.

However, not everyone is skilled at cut & paste, so there's another even easier method to notify eBay. You simply forward the whole spoof email message to them at "spoof@eBay.com".

On scam artists using the auction house, well that's more complicated. They're basically businessmen, not police/judge/jury at eBay. Each who registers for the services of the forum agrees to contractually play by specific rules. Those who are injured by other fellow 'members' NOT playing by eBay rules, may hire an attorney and seek relief in civil courts.

BUT, that's not what most want to do (time, money, the thorn of gaining jurisdiction, Etc.). No, it's a lot easier to 'rail' at the guys who put together this GREAT computer resource system and insist they do what they can't actually do (be cop, judge, and jury). All, eBay can really do is investigate (not much help after the fact) and if membership covenants have been violated, pull the ad or revoke a given membership. But, EVERYBODY knows how easy it is to get a new email/ISP account and startup fresh....

Sooo, you protect yourself the old fashioned way. Question an offering when the seller doesn't have a resonable satisfaction rating or rating count. If a deal looks too good to be true, then it probably is just that--UNREAL!

[Chas Kingston]

Re: Ebay Corvette Scams

You mean that I WON'T be getting my Corvette shipped from Portugal?????

Ol' Geezer

[Les Jacobs]

Re: Ebay Corvette Scams

Just send a little more money to get it thru customs!

[Gary E.]

Re: Ebay Corvette Scams

Go ahead and call his bluff on the car being in Verona,Italy.As it turns out my wifes family lives in Pescatina,Italy which is basically a suburb of Verona. Tell him that someone from Quarella Fiat in Pescatina would come right over to inspect the car and see what kind of response you get. You see that you can run but you can't hide.

[Pat L.]

Re: Ebay Corvette Scams

gary,

I just received an email asking if I was still interested. I will try your suggestion and post the response, if I get one.