eBay scam or nieve ?

Something not right about this story, could be just bad journalism or a made up tale ?
 
I do remember seeing Van's advertised for silly amounts when looking a while ago. Too good to be true then it likely is!

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
A former Warwickshire Police Officer?
If that's true, wouldn't you think he'd know better, or if not, at least be of a frame of mind to research more thoroughly? :doh:

Jock.
 
Former Police Officer -Sounds about right -He is just as effective as most of them!
 
I still think that online selling platforms especially Autotrader could do more to check out a seller and the item for sale before allowing to be placed as a genuine listing.
We were nearly taken in many moons back by a VWT5 campervan on sale in UK, but seller (ex Pat) lived in Portugal, he said he would ship the van to the UK so we could inspect it before taking our monies held on deposit from a third party deposit scheme called "Virgin Money .co.uk,!!!! The Bogus shipping company was "Atlantic Shipping" he even sent over an access code that would allow us to see exactly where the van was on the map and track it en route!
Very clever scammers these guys, as they set up bogus websites that look real, and need security access codes to let you view them.
They also open & close bank accounts in various places and close them down as soon as they have your dosh (so much for sufficient verification of ID with forged documents by the banks also)
We of course smelt a rat and informed Autotrader and then Fraud Squad immediately.
The Fraud Squad said we were lucky as they had scammed hundreds of thousands from people all over the world, especially in North America.
The "seller" turned out to be Brazilian living and scamming from Portugal, and his Bogus English seller name of Luke Hall was well known to them.
DVLA History?We did the check, the registration checked out the van was listed as registered in The Lincoln Area, the many detailed photos of the van including Vosa plate had been lifted from Autotrader genuine advert by the scammers who had simply copied details from the genuine poster and the original van details from a genuine seller months before.
When I reported the scam and complained to Autotrader, they said it would have been my fault if I had been scammed as the sellers details were in e-mail format under one of the listed photos therefore should be ignored as not genuine.....so question to them was if you knew that why didn't recognise it as a scammer, to which they said "we cannot police every listing", "its up to you as a customer to read our T&C's and take any advice we offer from there".
I said that they need to do more to prevent scammers ads being listed especially as they are not small ticket items, surely items over 20K deserve to be verified more?, they were not interested in what I had to say.
It will therefore as usual take some form of Gov intervention to force these on line sellers to tighten up their verification processes....somehow!

Les
 
Last edited:
When I first thought of buying motorhome I found a bargain, the Motorhome was in Spain, owners did not want inconvenience of bringing it back. Research revealed vehicle had been exported some time previous. The owner stated they would arrange for van to be shipped back, money to be paid into Ebay bank who hold the money until van arrives on drive, I obviously wanted to view van and with big saving could fly to Spain to view, owners stated that van was already with named shipping company at port in Spain, research showed shipping company did not exist. Further research with action fraud showed a regular occurrence. It's that bargain your after but research should mitigate the chance of it being successful. The Ebay account is a link they have produced themselves.

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
It's a really simple rule - don't part with any money till you have seen the item.
 
TinaL said:
I still think that online selling platforms especially Autotrader could do more to check out a seller and the item for sale before allowing to be placed as a genuine listing.
We were nearly taken in many moons back by a VWT5 campervan on sale in UK, but seller (ex Pat) lived in Portugal, he said he would ship the van to the UK so we could inspect it before taking our monies held on deposit from a third party deposit scheme called "Virgin Money .co.uk,!!!! The Bogus shipping company was "Atlantic Shipping" he even sent over an access code that would allow us to see exactly where the van was on the map and track it en route!
Very clever scammers these guys, as they set up bogus websites that look real, and need security access codes to let you view them.
They also open & close bank accounts in various places and close them down as soon as they have your dosh (so much for sufficient verification of ID with forged documents by the banks also)
We of course smelt a rat and informed Autotrader and then Fraud Squad immediately.
The Fraud Squad said we were lucky as they had scammed hundreds of thousands from people all over the world, especially in North America.
The "seller" turned out to be Brazilian living and scamming from Portugal, and his Bogus English seller name of Luke Hall was well known to them.
DVLA History?We did the check, the registration checked out the van was listed as registered in The Lincoln Area, the many detailed photos of the van including Vosa plate had been lifted from Autotrader genuine advert by the scammers who had simply copied details from the genuine poster and the original van details from a genuine seller months before.
When I reported the scam and complained to Autotrader, they said it would have been my fault if I had been scammed as the sellers details were in e-mail format under one of the listed photos therefore should be ignored as not genuine.....so question to them was if you knew that why didn't recognise it as a scammer, to which they said "we cannot police every listing", "its up to you as a customer to read our T&C's and take any advice we offer from there".
I said that they need to do more to prevent scammers ads being listed especially as they are not small ticket items, surely items over 20K deserve to be verified more?, they were not interested in what I had to say.
It will therefore as usual take some form of Gov intervention to force these on line sellers to tighten up their verification processes....somehow!

Les
Click to expand...
 
From the newspaper report it sounds as though the lady has a lot of health problems. Maybe the husband thought it was an easy way to buy, the seller probably said “ money held by EBay until you are happy with it on delivery” “ the money will be held in Escrow until you notify you are happy with it” and such like.
If he’d done a bit of research online he’d have realised it was a scam but possibly the motorhome was a recent dream of theirs and they just rushed in. Feel sorry for them as they’ll not get a penny back.
 
I feel sorry for them, but as a former police officer ( or tank driver!) he probably should have known better and used his policing skills of trusting no one and believing nothing he was told, without evidence.
Hope he gets his money back, but I can’t help thinking £5500 for a Kontiki is so cheap it should have raised alarm bells.
 
IanF said:
Former Police Officer -Sounds about right -He is just as effective as most of them!
Click to expand...

In this instance if he is a former police officer he should have used the skills of his job and had he done so would not have sent money to someone he had never met for something he had never seen so you could be right about him as an individual. However, we don't know their entire situation although his wife is disabled and he doesn't look to good and all they were trying to do, albeit unadvisedly, was to improve their lot. So its a pretty miserable so and so who would not have some sympathy for them.

To extend your thoughts about him to the remainder of UK police officers displays the same kind of thinking as the victim, or should I say lack of it. Others could of course apply the old saying "Thick or arm and thick of ed" unjustifiably about the whole population or Redcar, but I couldn't possibly comment.

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
when buying I always put a small holding deposit and make it clear cash on pick up if they dont like it walk away I mean very small deposit take the hit
 
There’s loads of these cheap to good to be true Motorhomes on gumtree & eBay , as quick as they are removed the scammers have more back on
 
I agreed a price with Stavros for the apartment in Corfu, but he insisted we met in the town square and not at the property
I handed him the €25,000 cash deposit and he told me to wait in the square while he went to the bank

4 days later, when he had not returned, I started to think that the bank must have been closed, but he hasn't come back and now I think he might not want to sell me the Apartment and has changed his mind

ITV+2 are one their way, but for now Im just looking for some sympathy.
 

Join us or log in to post a reply.

To join in you must be a member of MotorhomeFun

Join MotorhomeFun

Join us, it quick and easy!

Join us

Log in

Already a member? Log in here.

Latest journal entries

Back
Top