I have been scammed

Question

Using information from ebay motors.com I have been scammed for 800$ trying to ourchase a vehicle. Seller is not responding anymore after I have made a payment using a the steps that were listed from the ebay motors.com account. I have never created an account with ebay now as I gave my information to these scammed they have obviously created one using my information I have given them. I need help with finding my money that I have paid out to these people. I have all emails from this purchase I h...

lady_madonna · Answer

@jimharts0

So sorry that you were the victim of a common scam.

Ebay cannot help you since this transaction did NOT occur on the Ebay website. The scammer (a criminal) tried to pretend that it was being handled through Ebay. Ebay does not have anything to do with ads you find on other websites. Ebay would never require payment with gift cards.

You can report it to law enforcement, but unfortunately your money is gone.

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.