I saw a car (Mustang GT) listed on eBay for $9000. I emailed the Seller and said I was interested. She replied saying she had just divorced her husband and moved back to London to her parents place but that the car was in Sydney. She then took the item off eBay but said she would still initiate the deal through eBay.
Soon after I started receiving emails that imitated eBay invoices and other policy terms and conditions with the exact eBay letterhead etc. Information on eBay’s “Vehicle Purchase Protection” and an eBay invoice that looked legitimate.
According to the invoice I had to transfer $9000 through Western Union to an eBay financing centre agent. He would then hold the money until the car arrived at my house and if I was satisified he would then release the money to the Seller. I thought I was getting an extremely good deal and got caught up in the excitement.
After I transferred the money “eBay” then sent me an email demanding an extra $4,500 shipping insurance. This didnt sound right so I rang an insurance company to compare and they informed me that price was over the top. I then spoke to an eBay agent and they told me eBay do not act as a middle-man at any stage nor do they hold or request money like that. The agent immediately told me to go to the police.
I tried emailing the Seller again and the emails bounced back to my inbox. Local authorities have given me no direction.
The $9000 was my deceased grandmothers inheritance I thought I was just making a little bit of money by purchasing this car. I feel sick everyday and cannot trust anyone anymore.
This post was submitted by Kristyn Maloney.
September 20th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
Any luck? I was ripped off for $6250 in Brooklyn ny and am yet to hear anything positive.
September 26th, 2009 at 2:42 am
They attampted to rip me off as well. I received invoice for mazda MX-8 for just 4.500Eur. I called the number on the invoice straight away to verify and got no answer.
Then I received a phone call from the guy who told me he represented ebay midlleman and he hung up when I started asking questions about transaction. I also requested more personal details of the money receiver – got none)
Make sure you get all the details before sending your money somewhere to the different part of the world.
October 3rd, 2009 at 4:07 pm
I also had the same exprience. I found a 04 tahoe on craiglist. I email the seller to tell him I was intrested in purchasing the vechile. He told me he was in contract with ebay and i recieved an ebay motors invoice. I called ebay and they told me it was fraud. The invoice was exactly as the one described earlier and after ebay told me it was fraud i strated to look for ebay scams and came accross this site. I copied the statements stated ealier and foward it to the seller a Sgt. James Glover in the US Air Force station in London. Surprisingly I have not heard back from him. Ha Ha.
October 27th, 2009 at 6:15 am
This scam is all over the country and uses the same sceam. It goes like this. The person is or just got divorced, Got the soul mates Motorcycle and does not ride. They are English or a American service man. They will say that they had to move to England because of work or the Milatary. The will use military such as Sgt but they will show a photo of a man who is a CMsgt. No CMsgt calls him self Sgt. The middleman thing sounds good but you have to think about it. Its a red flag flying in a storm. You never know if you are being scammed by 1 or more people. I got scammed out of $2,500.00 for a Harley motorcycle. The people who were involved used the names Karla Brunner and Alaxander Steels. Alexander does Steel. We all get cought up in the excitement of buying a car or motorcycle. Like a kid on Christmas Morning. I gave all my info and photos IC3. I had the Vin number and had it run and found out it belonged to a 3rd person. I am a retired CMsgt from the Airforce and have alot of time on my hands. I am thinking about starting a web site to track these scum bags down. I will get my Scammer (and maybe yours too.