Buying a car on ebay and why is ebay allowing scammers to use their name?

Question

Has anyone bought a car from someone selling on ebay by using giftcards to purchase or is it all just scams and why isn't ebay doing something to stop it?

kensgiftshop · Answer

Those ads are usually found on FaceBook, CL and other sites like that and they have nothing to do with Ebay.

To buy a vehicle through Ebay, it has to be listed here on Ebay and you don't pay for them with gift cards.

woodland_gnome · Answer

What do you propose that eBay do? The scammer is NOT "selling on ebay". S/he is faking invoices from "eBay" and has nothing to do with eBay.

eburtonlab · Answer

Beware scammers who advertise on other sites and tell you that the transaction will be handled through eBay.

That is not how eBay works. eBay does not rely on users finding ads on Facebook or other sites and sending contact information to a seller. Likely the seller will send a phony "invoice" that appears to be from eBay but is not, asking you to pay with gift cards to have the vehicle shipped to you for a free evaluation period.

eBay has no warehouse and does not ship vehicles. eBay does not handle such transactions or provide "vehicle protection orders". Scammers often promise those things, though. Any phone number you may receive on such an "invoice" does not connect to eBay, but to the scammer.

Anyone that asks you to purchase gift cards or to send card codes to them to complete a transaction is trying to take advantage of you. Anyone asking for a gift card is looking for a gift at your expense. Once anyone else knows the code, your money will be gone and you will have no recourse.

See here for some info about avoiding such scams (US links):

https://pages.motors.ebay.com/buy/security/index.html

https://www.fbi.gov/scams-and-safety/common-fraud-schemes/online-vehicle-sale-fraud

The only way to purchase a vehicle on eBay is to sign in to eBay, find the vehicle on eBay and complete the checkout process on eBay, so that the item appears in your Purchase History. Then you typically meet the seller to inspect the vehicle, pay the seller, and collect the keys, title and vehicle.

If you encountered an ad on another site, contact that site to have the ad removed. eBay is not involved with any ads listed on sites other than eBay itself.