E-bay Scam?

[Dmill]

Just checking with the experts to see if this is a scam:

1. I found a 1965 356 C Cab on e-bay with a buy it now price of $8,000. the car looks like a great car clearly worth a lot more than $8k. The ad also says all buyers need to be pre-screened and the seller will contact you

2. I send the seller an e-mail asking if the "Buy it now" price is really $8k and if the car has any rust.

3. Seller responds Yes, it's $8k and that I will need to send him my address and acknowledge I don't have any bad e-bay history

4. I send him my address and my phone number and tell him to call me. I also tell him I can bring him a certified check and pick up the car in 48 hours with an enclosed trailer (The auction showed up as being less than 150 miles from my house)

5. I never get a call, but I do get an e-mail back from the seller telling me I bought the car and then another e-mail from E-bay telling me to wire a $4,000 deposit to a transwestern account in Miami that the transaction will be settled once I take delivery of the car and that I am covered by e-bay if I don't like what I see....oh yea, forgot to mention the car came with free delivery!

5. Send the guy another e-mail asking him to call...still no response

I recall reading about this type of scam in the past and just wanted to get folks opinion

other interesting items
1. the pics of the car are in front of this very nice suburban home
2. the sellers address is Rush St in Chicago about 5 blocks from the lake

Sellers name is Micheal Leeroy

I guess it looks like my '72E won't be getting an older brother to share the garage with......rats!

[MoparBoy72]

You can send the supposed "Ebay branded" emails to spoof@ebay.com and they will send you an automated response and then a later email confirming the originality of the first letter.

[ErVikingo]

I got the same email and it was only sent to me after the auction had ended.... I asked about additional pics, rust condition, .... this is what I received (I did not reply )


"luv.camaros@gmail.com

Hello

Thank you for your interest in my 65 Porsche. The car is in perfect condition and ready to hit the road. The price that I'm asking for it is $8,000 all expences included. I will offer shipping which is included in the final price, so as soon as we close the deal the car will be on it's way to you. Our transaction will be covered by ebay's protection program and they will hold the money until the purchase is final. You will be asked to send a deposit to ebay which is 100% refundable if the car is not as described. If you are interested please send me your shipping details to start the official transaction:

-your full name and address for shipping
-your phone number
-any negative feedback and if so .... for what reason.

If I receive the requested information you will be informed by eBay during the next hours with details about your purchase..

Thank you
Mike"

[Dmill]

I guess I was the sucker who replied....I wonder if he will ever call?

[bmendel]

the problem with this scam is that even if you don't send any money, they've now got your name, address and telephone number. A great start for them to steal your identity. You might get a call soon from a scammer pretending to be your bank or some other feeble attempt to get additional financial info from you, I wouldn't confirm any other info to anyone on the phone for a while.

Luckily for the masses, the scammers are stupid/greedy and make it obvious. If they priced it 10% below market (instead of 20% of market value) and asked for a 10% deposit, a lot more people would probably fall for it.

[boxster03]

Luckily for the masses, the scammers are stupid/greedy and make it obvious. If they priced it 10% below market (instead of 20% of market value) and asked for a 10% deposit, a lot more people would probably fall for it.

Man I was going to start that scam this weekend

[kenikh]

I guess I was the sucker who replied....I wonder if he will ever call?

The cost of calling from Nigeria is too high to make it worth their time.

[Porsche]

100% a scam. In fact, a well-known one. Report it to eBay. And tell your friends so they don't fall for it and give away personal information.

[mike66]

Of course it's a scam but you know that too. Nobody gives away a nice 356 for 8k. That's e-Bay, I guess from my own experience that at least 50% of the sellers there want to screw you. No wonder with the ever increasing prices of classic Porsche.

But don't think you can trust all your fellow Early 911S Registry members! I've bougth 3 911's from a well know member of our registry, description "no rust, very good cars etc etc". I've asked again and again if there was rust cause that's a big problem for me over here in Switzerland (as in most countries). I even had a pro call him and discuss the cars in lenght. So finally I trust him and transfer almost 70k. How stupid of me, I should have know better after other bad experiences (especially on e-Bay). But I thought "Hey, he's a great guy, one of us, he certainly cares about his reputation and wouldn't screw another member". Wrong thinking!!!! You guess it... when they arrive 2 of them are complete rust buckets! I've never been that disappointed in my live. What the hell has led an apparently very nice guy and fellow member to do something like that? Profit of course! I've paid well over 20k each, none of the cars was worth more than 10 or 12k.
He paid back a few thousands but of course nowhere enough to compensate for the extremely misleading descriptions. Now I'm stuck with 2 shiny but VERY rotten cars and have to take a big loss. Great! Stories like this take all the fun our of collecting, trading, exchanging these great Porsche cars.

Be warned, the are among us!

Keep the faith (if you can),
Mike

[SandyI]

Of course it's a scam but you know that too. Nobody gives away a nice 356 for 8k. That's e-Bay, I guess from my own experience that at least 50% of the sellers there want to screw you. No wonder with the ever increasing prices of classic Porsche.

But don't think you can trust all your fellow Early 911S Registry members! I've bougth 3 911's from a well know member of our registry, description "no rust, very good cars etc etc". I've asked again and again if there was rust cause that's a big problem for me over here in Switzerland (as in most countries). I even had a pro call him and discuss the cars in lenght. So finally I trust him and transfer almost 70k. How stupid of me, I should have know better after other bad experiences (especially on e-Bay). But I thought "Hey, he's a great guy, one of us, he certainly cares about his reputation and wouldn't screw another member". Wrong thinking!!!! You guess it... when they arrive 2 of them are complete rust buckets! I've never been that disappointed in my live. What the hell has led an apparently very nice guy and fellow member to do something like that? Profit of course! I've paid well over 20k each, none of the cars was worth more than 10 or 12k.
He paid back a few thousands but of course nowhere enough to compensate for the extremely misleading descriptions. Now I'm stuck with 2 shiny but VERY rotten cars and have to take a big loss. Great! Stories like this take all the fun our of collecting, trading, exchanging these great Porsche cars.

Be warned, the are among us!

Keep the faith (if you can),
Mike

I think we'd all be very interested in seeing pictures of those rusty cars and getting the name of the person on this board who ripped you off.