How to make sure a private sale is genuine?

[forestfern]

We’ve seen a great motorhome advertised on eBay (but must be purchased by bank transfer, which may be normal practice) It appears to be a bargain price, reason for sale being ill health. The seller has a rating of 0, from the reflection in a mirror the guy taking pics looks an older guy so he may just not have had an account and made one for the purpose of selling the MH. Hmmm.

How do you ensure that you don’t get scammed with this scenario? There’s a pic of a check he’s had done showing all is apparently legit.

Any advice welcome please. We may not go for this one but the same situation could easily occur again. Thank you in advance

 

[pappajohn]

Arrange to view at his house and confirm it is by the V5 address.
If he won't agree, walk away.

 

[PaulyP]

Must be able to view it at their home, and if you buy it no money changes hands prior to the deal being done and bank transfer at the same time as receiving the keys.

 

[Wabs]

Personally,,I’d be very cautious about buying a quite large investment off ebay,,it has already got your alarm bells ringing in your gut,,so steer clear,,if it sounds too good to be true,,,you can bet your a55e it’s gonna bite you in the bum,,good luck with your future viewings

 

[pagey]

Post the ebay number on here and and let us see the ad

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[Jimbohorlicks]

You must have a viewing to make sure it's genuine ,don't buy unseen.if they advise that it's somewhere remote and not that readily available ,advise that you have a friend in that area who is prepared to view it for you and see what the reaction is. As said don't pay upfront .make sure you get the reg and vin plate numbers so you can do an HPI check to ensure that's ate no loans against it etc and to make sure it's legit.
Best of luck. But it would be good to hear of your outcome.

 

[TOAD on Tour]

Lots of scams on eBay re: Motorhome. Obviously previous buy/selling history is 1 red flag, also sometimes direct you to enquire via an email address rather than through eBay.
if serious, I would run a HPI check on it, to ensure everything stacks up. Wouldn’t be concerned with a back transfer on collection, but again be wary of them asking for a deposit before viewing. if interested, I’d ask for his name and address (you‘ll obviously need the address to view), but again if they want to “meet” elsewhere then another red flag.
also some of the eBay scams have the destription written in a kind of faded text where the advert has probably been copied from elsewhere.
I would also go on the sellers history, to see if his 0 rating is only because of recent inactivit, if he’s been around on eBay for a few years, you’ll see previous feedback. One concern would be if he has not used eBay before, why has he not put it on autotrader instead.
Just remember if it’s too good to be true, it really is too good to be true……especially in todays market for motorhomes. also the scam vans usually appear in blocks of similar scams…..so if you search by date order and see a number of vans that all seem to be a bargain……it’ll be a scam. Not to say
one of vans are not a scam also.

 

[claude et maude]

I know that it makes sense to ask to view it at the owners registered address but I think that there are sometimes very good reasons why this may not be possible.

As an example, I’m my circumstances I could not get my motorhome close to my home (please note I am not selling it!!) but I could take them to the storage where the operators could confirm it’s me and my address. I think that as long as you take all possible precautions then you can have some leeway.

 

[PaulyP]

Personally,,I’d be very cautious about buying a quite large investment off ebay,,it has already got your alarm bells ringing in your gut,,so steer clear,,if it sounds too good to be true,,,you can bet your a55e it’s gonna bite you in the bum,,good luck with your future viewings

I sold mine on eBay guy phoned me and said he would arrange to come down to Manchester to view, looking at the number that came up on my phone I could see he was around the Lake District area, I said we were in a restaurant in Bowness and the motorhome was parked at our lodge near Bowness. He came to view the next day, he was genuine and wanted it, put a £2000 deposit (which he wanted to do) in my bank that day. Couldn’t get to come and pick it up for 6 weeks and the Monday he came down was a bank holiday so he transferred the remaining £20,000 into my bank on the Friday. I picked him up at the local station and after a cup of tea with us both he drove away. Sometimes you just know when people are genuine and trustworthy.

 

[TOAD on Tour]

I sold mine on eBay guy phoned me and said he would arrange to come down to Manchester to view, looking at the number that came up on my phone I could see he was around the Lake District area, I said we were in a restaurant in Bowness and the motorhome was parked at our lodge near Bowness. He came to view the next day, he was genuine and wanted it, put a £2000 deposit (which he wanted to do) in my bank that day. Couldn’t get to come and pick it up for 6 weeks and the Monday he came down was a bank holiday so he transferred the remaining £20,000 into my bank on the Friday. I picked him up at the local station and after a cup of tea with us both he drove away. Sometimes you just know when people are genuine and trustworthy.

I wouldn’t disagree and have sold a couple of pretty expensive cars/Motorhomes etc. over the years on eBay. Our latest van was also purchased on eBay privately and it’s by far the most we’ve ever paid for any type of vehicle and it’s also the best van we’ve had! I wouldn’t not be put of at all using eBay, just take common sense precautions.

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[Guigsy]

Tell him in advance that you want to see the V5 and his drivers licence at the address so it's not awkward when you turn up. Do a HPI check. Check the VIN matches the paperwork. If that's all good, then there's a good chance he owns it and he is who he says he is.

Confirm with him that he's got a method to check in real time that the money has appeared in his account. You don't want to transfer £££ only to be told that he'll pop down the bank on Monday.

Have a contract of sale ready to make it legitimate. There are a few free ones online.

 

[VXman]

Need to treat it like any other private sell advertised on auto trader and the like. I don't think it's any less risky just make sure th seller is ligit. Get his address, view at his housez check the V5 etc

 

[Guigsy]

I guess the other question is... is it too good to be true? Or has someone just stollen ad details from a genuine advert to pull in suckers?

Can you do some stalking? Do a reverse image lookup and make sure the image doesn't appear online elsewhere. I think you have to pay, but you can see the MOT history? Does it look like it was MOT'd locally?

 

[Wabs]

I sold mine on eBay guy phoned me and said he would arrange to come down to Manchester to view, looking at the number that came up on my phone I could see he was around the Lake District area, I said we were in a restaurant in Bowness and the motorhome was parked at our lodge near Bowness. He came to view the next day, he was genuine and wanted it, put a £2000 deposit (which he wanted to do) in my bank that day. Couldn’t get to come and pick it up for 6 weeks and the Monday he came down was a bank holiday so he transferred the remaining £20,000 into my bank on the Friday. I picked him up at the local station and after a cup of tea with us both he drove away. Sometimes you just know when people are genuine and trustworthy.

I’m glad it worked out well for you,,,all I was saying,,is that I personally wouldn’t,,that was all.

 

[forestfern]

Thank you so much for all the replies, made good reading and is so so helpful. Much appreciated.

Well, it now says the listin has been removed or the item is no longer available.

I did, however, screenshot the listing so could attach files on here, but not entirely sure if that’s ok to do, also whether there’s any point now it’s no longer listed.

It said it’s in storage so view by appointment only but didn’t say where that is apart from the area.

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[PaulyP]

I’m glad it worked out well for you,,,all I was saying,,is that I personally wouldn’t,,that was all.

I would be very wary myself, but the scammers are a small numbers compared to most people who are genuine, and you usually know when you meet them.