Likely Ebay Fraudulent Item

Laneco · 02-05-2007, 02:21 PM

No one here is crazy enough to actually think they could get a 1963 356 Cabriolet - pristine - for just $8,000. Especially from a seller whose been on ebay for less than 30 days and has only sold 3 items (that were less than ten bucks each...)

I wonder if this is a Pelican's car? Sure is a nice car. Especially nice for just $8,000!!!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1963-Porsche-356-B-Cabriolet_W0QQitemZ110088144709QQihZ001QQcategoryZ 6058QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

angela

MBAtarga · 02-05-2007, 03:54 PM

The listing states the car is in Atlanta and I'm local. I just asked for his phone number so I could come over and pay cash for the car. I'll let you know what response I get.

azasadny · azasadny's Garage

Interesting...

onlycafe · 02-05-2007, 04:10 PM

guaranteed scam. i bet it will be gone in no time flat. probably some legit seller who has had their id swiped by a no good dirty bastard. sorry, that would disparage illegitimate children. how about no good dirty human.

tabs · 02-05-2007, 04:16 PM

Or maybe he forgot a ZERO in the price...

techweenie · techweenie's Garage

When you see listings like this on the basis of 'preapproved bidder,' the trick is to get you to identify yourself and then the seller will make a side deal at a bargain price and take your deposit (or full payment if you're gullible) and of course, in some cases, many, many bidders are tempted to do under-the-market side deals.

Laneco · 02-05-2007, 04:33 PM

Well, let's see:
1. Seller is less than 30 days old
2. Seller has 3 prior transactions for $10 each or less!
3. Seller is obscuring the bidders. There are legitimate reasons for this, but usually it is to HIDE THE FACT that the two bidders are the seller under a seperate identity.
4. The item is beautiful, desirable, and ridiculously cheap
5. Even though it is of great value, nobody is bidding it up...

Tell ya what, Tabs, if this is the "real" deal, the next time I'm in Vegas I'm buying you lunch. And we don't even have to go to a buffet.

angela

tabs · 02-06-2007, 05:43 AM

E-bay is HIDING EVERYBODIES ID now.

If I had a classic car to sell I'd use the Bay even if I never used it before..U get alot of eyes on your product quick. ..so a Zero feedback while suspicious might not mean much for an item like this.

tabs · 02-06-2007, 05:44 AM

The $8000 is the real sticking point...if the guy said 80K nobody would blink...

notfarnow · 02-06-2007, 05:54 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by tabs
The $8000 is the real sticking point...if the guy said 80K nobody would blink...

You bet. Dad called me about a 56 Austin Healey a few weeks ago. Buy it now was $15k and dad wanted to know how to complete the transaction... he had already had a couple email exchanges with the seller. Same deal, "pre-approved" bidders only.

I told dad to get images of the car with newspaper from the same day, buddy stopped replying.

Laneco · 02-06-2007, 06:01 AM

Ebay is NOT concealing bidders identity. That is the choice of the seller. Some people legitimately conceal the bidders identity to keep fraudulent "second chance" listings from reaching them.

Other people conceal it for more nefarious reasons. Like to hide the fact that the "bidders" are the seller under a different identity, or even better to keep people who see this IS a fraud from contacting the sellers.

We got burned BIG TIME on ebay from a scam seller with a 3.0 engine. Even though we reported him to ebay, they would not do anything. The fellow opened up another auction with the same engine and a few other high end parts. I contacted all the bidders as the seller had not concealed their identities. In two cases, this kept people from paying the seller who did wind up with his account closed by Ebay. If I hadn't contacted them, they would have sent the money....

That's the real reason people with little or no feedback and short history on ebay like to conceal the ID of the bidders. When you see that BEWARE.
angela

Laneco · 02-06-2007, 06:05 AM

UPDATE Item is "removed by ebay or no longer listed".

Either someone bought themselves a 63 Cab for $8K or the this auction just turned inside out.

angela

tabs · 02-06-2007, 06:40 AM

Punch up BID HISTORY on an $100 item and all E-bay shows now is Bidder #1, Bidder #2 etc...no longer do they show Bidders IDs. I E-mailed them about this, and they said it was to help stop fraud from fake 2nd chancers.

tabs · 02-06-2007, 06:43 AM

Yep this was a fake listing...someone probably had a real 63 cab sometime back and this guy relisted it under his own ID.

Laneco · 02-06-2007, 07:15 AM

Either that or Mark bought it for $8k and is driving it around atlanta right now!

angela

legion · 02-06-2007, 07:22 AM

Tabs, Angela, your avatars are screwing with my head.

madmmac · madmmac's Garage

I emailed him and stated I lived in Atlanta and wanted to inspect the car...Here's what I got back:

Hello,

The 63 Porsche is in perfect working condition.My experienced Porsche tech has fully checked out this car and gives it a special high rating has a CLEAR and CLEAN TITLE a great history and mechanically without any problems ever safety check and pre-delivery inspection along with a fresh servicing before I ship or deliver the vehicle.The problem is that in the meanwhile I had to move with my family in the United Kingdom where I got a new job as a construction engineer.I brought the car here with me with the intention of driving it but when I found out about the very high import duties and all the restrictions regarding registration and emissions tests here I have made up my mind and decided to sell the vehicle.The amount you will have to pay in order to own this vehicle is $ 8000 with shipping costs included!
Also, I take in consideration only those buyers who are really interested in buying the car,so be sure that I don't waste my time with endless discussions. This way, I shall be assured of
your serious intentions.I only use eBay approved payment methods for this kind of transaction.

Let me know if you are still interested.

Regards,

I immediately replied as soon as this email hit my box stating that it was perfect as I was flying to London this morning and asking where I could meet him and inspect the car.

Amazingly...heh..heh....heh, I did not get a reply back.

hytem · 02-06-2007, 07:53 AM

The best way to buy a car on ebay is to select out the cars in your area, contact the seller, and go see them. They are usually willing to take them off ebay if you want to buy, since it saves them money.

There is also a lot of gray market art on ebay, which can be bought for cheap. There is usually no provenance or guarantees attached, and they are very difficult to authenticate. Picasso and other big artists did a lot of stuff in their lives, mostly small study sketches and the like, which have lost their provenance along the way. Maybe even stolen works. There are also, of course, fakes. They are usually marked "attibuted to..." on ebay. Nice stuff, real or no, can be bought for cheap. Good to look at, anyway.

Overpaid Slacker · 02-06-2007, 08:48 AM

I've seen three of these "low low price" and "Pre-approved bidders only" auctions in the last couple of months.

They're bunk, plain and simple.

My fave was a listing in Schenectady (near Albany, NY) for a great, late-model pick-up at a very attractive price. I sent a request to be pre-approved, and mentioned that I'm only a couple of hours away and would like to drop by.

Silence. So I ran the VIN and it came up clean - in Washington State; including mileage within 300 miles of the what the auction said (and this is not a vehicle you'd pay to ship x-country), so the vehicle had made it 3000 miles showing only 300 on the odo.

After the auction, I got an email very similar to madmmac's, but my guy had shipped out to Thailand, which is why he didn't get back to me during the auction (a surprise trans-oceanic re-lo; you know, it's happened to all of us). The car was in storage in WA... blah blah blah.

Oh, and his 10 prior auctions were all for small items in the last few months.

JP

MBAtarga · 02-06-2007, 05:04 PM

Follow-up - I knew it was a scam when I sent the original email. I got a reply from the "Security Center" of ebay. It has this generic picture/logo at the top with the text below. I guess he's expecting to be emailed directly from this:

Merchandise Description: 1963 Porsche 356 B Cabriolet

Our records indicate that you recently sent an email to or received an email from cabaretic1 through the eBay email system.

Please note that we have recently ended all listings for the seller noted above because of a site error. We are very sorry for the inconvenience.

Ebay was recently contacted by cabaretic1 (wb1000us@yahoo.com), regarding the above item.cabaretic1 asked our help in the following problem:

-Help me to show this buyer that I am a serious seller.

We verified seller´s informations and we strongly recommend him.
Our verifications confirm seller's contact info and his ability to deliver the merchandise advertised on our site .There is a limited group of sellers on ebay which we can recommend and cabaretic1 is one of them.

At the request of user cabaretic1 eBay is recording the transaction for item 1963 Porsche 356 B Cabriolet. Both the seller and the buyer are protected and in case of fraud by eBay

We will take full measures against persons that will break the eBay's rules.
You can continue with this deal as you are both fully insured against fraud. If something goes wrong, please email us and we will take the needed measures. We will recover the funds. This request was asked by the seller because he can not use PayPal,Escrow or Credit Card as method of payment.

Regards,
Square Trade Safety Board
eBay Inc