Buying a privately owned rider mower

[sjbarr44]

A lady wants to sell me her rider mower that she says she has left with Ebay motors to handle the purchase of it. She has moved back east. She states I will pay Ebay the $800 sale price, and Ebay will ship mower to me in about 3 days. I then have 5 days to inspect and decide if I do want to buy it. If not, I notify Ebay and they will promptly return the full $800 I paid them to hold through my 5 day inspection.  And she says I'll be refunded in cash. She says it is at the Ebay shipping yard, waiting to be delivered once I pay Ebay the $800. She also states Ebay will confirm to me that she is legitimate and that the sale is going through Ebay. The email I received from Ebay came in my spam folder, which she had already suggested to me that it would come as spam. I'm very leary of all this and am hoping for legitimate advice from the authentic Ebay site. Thank you

[lisa5768]

@sjbarr44 

Did you find the mower on another website like Facebook or Craig's List and the seller said that eBay will handle the sale and you had to pay with gift cards?

If so it is a SCAM.

That is not how eBay works and they had no part in the sale. Once you send the codes for the gift cards your money is gone and there is no way to get it back. To purchase a vehicle on eBay you need to sign in to eBay and complete the checkout process on eBay. The vehicle will be in your Purchase History.

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