New Ebay Scam - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

alabbasi · #1 10-25-2006, 05:14 PM

I bid on a 6.3 last week and was about bid at the last moment.

The following day I got a second chance offer and was pretty excited. They had asked me to email them for a second chance offer as the winner pulled out of the sale.

I contacted the seller and heard no response back. I later sent another Email to the contact in the second chance offer saying that if I do not hear from him, I'll assume that the deal with done with the winner.

I got a response Email informing me that he'll ship the car to London by air freight etc once I pay him the full amount..... Then alarm bells started ringing.

So I used the "ask the seller a question" option on the auction page and contacted the seller who informed me that the Emails are a hoax and the car is already scheduled to go to Germany.

The second chance offer is a totally new scam to me.

If you get one, make sure you check your Ebay account to confirm the message and contact the seller only through Ebay.

Be careful there guys I was almost had!

nhdoc · #2 10-25-2006, 05:28 PM

It's been going on for months and months. Almost every big-ticket item I have bid on recently has been followed by one of these bogus offers. You should forward it to spoof@ebay.com along with a cut and paste of the "properties" of the email (open the mail, go to file--->properties--->details and cut and paste all that gobbledeguck into the forwarded mail before you send it off). That way ebay can trace it back to the scammers and report them to the authorities.

Tony H · #3 10-25-2006, 05:30 PM

Something else I have noticed is that once the auction closes the "contact member" option does not work. It looks like you are sending the message then you get a notice from Ebay explaining the message is blocked. Once I had to find another auction from the same seller and contact him through that auction.
Tony

POS · #4 10-25-2006, 06:49 PM

When I sold the w123 wagon for $16k on ebay, I got many, many people saying they got emails from Second Chance Ebay.

I wish those bastards could be shot.

300SDog · #5 10-25-2006, 09:05 PM

Buying cars at ebay??

240Dog's first rule...... Make telephone contact with the seller and talk about the car before you bid.

My greatest ebay success story superceded the auction process entirely. I showed up and looked at the car, fanned cash in the sellers face and he closed the auction right then and there.

Jim B. · #6 10-25-2006, 10:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 240Dog

Buying cars at ebay??

240Dog's first rule...... Make telephone contact with the seller and talk about the car before you bid.

My greatest ebay success story superceded the auction process entirely. I showed up and looked at the car, fanned cash in the sellers face and he closed the auction right then and there.

Reminds me of Bob Dylan's words, "Money doesn't talk, it swears"

That's the perfect way to buy a car, on ebay, if you could get the seller to talk to you first. To see the car is even better, but that may not work if the car is across country from you, then you'd need a cross country friend to look at the car for you (I looked at an SF ebay '80 W116 300SD turbo for an ebayer in Chicago, who then bid on and won the car) Failing that a good prepurchase inspection'd be a good idea.

GaryF · #7 10-26-2006, 07:21 AM

I encountered a similar scam a few years ago. I asked the seller some questions and he offered to withdraw the car and sell it to me privately. It then got silly, I couldnt see the car because he worked on an army base and it was in storage. He sent me a link to a escrow site where my full payment would be held until I received the car and was happy with it. The site looked like a 10 year old had constructed it. Needless to say I reported it all to Ebay and the bank whose account was credited by the fund transfer.

blueeagle289 · #8 10-26-2006, 07:25 AM

Unfortunately, the Second Chance option does exist in the EBAY system, but it occurs only if the winning bidder cannot come up with the cash and they have to revert to the second bidder. The scammers look for openings like this to perpetrate the scam, preying on innocent bidders who sometimes jump at the chance to get the item. As other members have said, the answer is communication; contact the seller thru Ebay to confirm any "second chances".

Tony H · #9 10-27-2006, 05:06 PM

I bought my 3.5 coupe from seeing it on Ebay. When it was first on Ebay the reserve was not met. It was only about 3 hours away in San Francisco so I called the owner and I went and looked at it. I was able to negotiate a price for less than it got to on Ebay because the owner did not want to hassle with flaky bidders. He even stored it indoors for 4 months while I was finishing up my garage/shop.
Tony

alabbasi · #10 10-28-2006, 03:06 PM

Blueeagle is correct. I'm quite an experienced eBay member and have had valid second chance offers that I have bought from. This one looked exactly like the valid eBay offer and the email came to my email address from a valid eBay address.

The suaveness of this scam is that while it's quite easy to change the from sender Email address in an Email. My Email address is never shown on EBay and hence they must have somehow hacked EBay to get my Email. All EBay shows is the user id.

This is one of the reasons why this scam looked so legitimate and almost fooled me.

It came to my email address from EBay
It looked exactly like an Email from eBay that offers second chance offers.
It concerned an auction that I bid on and came in as the second highest bidder.

To blueeagle's point, anytime you get one of these, contact the seller and explain that you got a second chance offer and you would like to discuss it. The first time I contacted the seller, I just said that I do want to buy the car and that he should contact me. He ignored the first Email and only responded when I said that I felt that there was something suspicious going on.

Quote:

Originally Posted by blueeagle289

Unfortunately, the Second Chance option does exist in the EBAY system, but it occurs only if the winning bidder cannot come up with the cash and they have to revert to the second bidder. The scammers look for openings like this to perpetrate the scam, preying on innocent bidders who sometimes jump at the chance to get the item. As other members have said, the answer is communication; contact the seller thru Ebay to confirm any "second chances".

ewenjo · #11 10-28-2006, 03:49 PM

same thing happened to me this past August. I lost the bid and subsequently was sent a Second Chance from an Ebay look alike. When I responded, I then received a formal looking document stating terms and conditions of the sale in a Ebay format. I tried to contact the original seller but could not post a message to him. The car was in Long Island NY, and the instructions said to send the money via Western Union to a London address. I was pretty alert to this "unusual"request. I sent a couple of emails establishing contact and then contacted Ebay security with the email string. Ebay stated they could then refer it to theproper authorities.

End message... be careful.