Hi, am new to the board and am still looking for my first bay, but this weekend I was close to parting with my hard earned cash. There's probably a thread on this already but the detail to which these "people" go to shows that someone must fall for it for them to keep doing it.
I spotted a classified on ebay, decent looking 1972 tin top, user id 100% for a 75 rating, price not too bad but bit lower than comparable vans elsewhere. Only two photos and the seller asked for my email address to send more. At this point I was having second thoughts but was never intending to pay up front - was always going to cash on the day.
The van in the photos was amazing and the seller described how much resto work had taken place - this didnt add up to the sale price. this was being undersold and i was aware that this is a classic "hooking" technique.
These were sent to my email inbox and not through "ebay message centre" and the name on the email header didn't match the name in the hotmail email address. The seller gave me her address but no phone number. I questioned her on this and asked for a phone number but this was not forthcoming. The name and address all check out (electoral roll) and I even google mapped the address to see if I could see a van!
I did a vehicle check with autotrader and this came up clean other than the van had had a respray. When I emailed the seller to ask what the previous colour was, she confirmed what was on the check and confirmed the VIN. The photos had a builders van in the background so I googled the dialling code and this confirmed that it was for south wales whereas the van was in Beds.
The seller insisted that the deal be done through ebay to protect us both and issued an invoice - Ebay branded with Vehicle Payment Protection. She was very specific in telling me how protected we both would be and sent me another email immediately afterwards for me to make payment and to come and view the van at the end of this week. The invoice only came by email and not through message centre.
That's when I called it a day - basically had I bitten, I would have paid the money to a spoof account thinking that ebay were holding the funds under escrow and by the time I had got to Beds, my money would have been long gone. 'I haven't received a chaser from her for payment and the van has since been removed from ebay - i forwarded the invoice to the spoof email team at ebay but they havent replied yet. The person whose ebay account was being used probably doesn't even know it.
So I still don't have a van but at least I still have my money and will continue my search.......
I spotted a classified on ebay, decent looking 1972 tin top, user id 100% for a 75 rating, price not too bad but bit lower than comparable vans elsewhere. Only two photos and the seller asked for my email address to send more. At this point I was having second thoughts but was never intending to pay up front - was always going to cash on the day.
The van in the photos was amazing and the seller described how much resto work had taken place - this didnt add up to the sale price. this was being undersold and i was aware that this is a classic "hooking" technique.
These were sent to my email inbox and not through "ebay message centre" and the name on the email header didn't match the name in the hotmail email address. The seller gave me her address but no phone number. I questioned her on this and asked for a phone number but this was not forthcoming. The name and address all check out (electoral roll) and I even google mapped the address to see if I could see a van!
I did a vehicle check with autotrader and this came up clean other than the van had had a respray. When I emailed the seller to ask what the previous colour was, she confirmed what was on the check and confirmed the VIN. The photos had a builders van in the background so I googled the dialling code and this confirmed that it was for south wales whereas the van was in Beds.
The seller insisted that the deal be done through ebay to protect us both and issued an invoice - Ebay branded with Vehicle Payment Protection. She was very specific in telling me how protected we both would be and sent me another email immediately afterwards for me to make payment and to come and view the van at the end of this week. The invoice only came by email and not through message centre.
That's when I called it a day - basically had I bitten, I would have paid the money to a spoof account thinking that ebay were holding the funds under escrow and by the time I had got to Beds, my money would have been long gone. 'I haven't received a chaser from her for payment and the van has since been removed from ebay - i forwarded the invoice to the spoof email team at ebay but they havent replied yet. The person whose ebay account was being used probably doesn't even know it.
So I still don't have a van but at least I still have my money and will continue my search.......
