Too good to be true?

[royce_allen]

I am looking to purchase a motorcycle and I happened upon a great deal on craigslist. After negotiating he said he would ship the bike to me through using eBay buyer protection. The dilemma I'm facing is that it feels like a scam but he wants the money 5 days after I receive what ever he sends me. Should I just go with it to see if it's real since I have yet to pay anything?

Any advice would be appreciated!

[kensgiftshop · Accepted solution]

It's a SCAM!

Ebay has nothing to do with Craigs List.

[royce_allen]

What could he be scamming if he doesn't have any of my payment information?

[marinermikes]

Before it's all said and done he's going to tell you that you make the payment to EBay and they will hold the money until your satisfied. No matter what it's a scam! You also better make sure your antivirus software is up to date.

[legitimate_bidder]

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@royce_allen wrote:

What could he be scamming if he doesn't have any of my payment information?

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He will send you a fraudulent email purporting to be from "Ebay"- complete with Ebay logos and all, instructing you to submit payment via gift cards or MoneyGram; MoneyPak, etc.

Of course, you'll never receive any bike, and never see the money again.

Did you not see all the warnings on practically every page of Craigslist saying "Deal locally. All offers that involve shipping are fruadulent"?

The REAL Ebay does not work that way! Ebay does not handle payment for vehicles; they do not act as an escrow service; they are not involved in shipping; they do not have "agents" or "warehouses". This is the oldest scam on the internet.

Seriously, if someone really wanted to sell a nice bike for a fraction of what it is worth, you don't think they could do so locally within a hour; instead of having to advertise it a few thousand miles away, and get even less for it paying for "free shipping"?

[royce_allen]

Yeah the guy want me to put money down first and that was when I called the deal off. Thanks everyone!

[legitimate_bidder]

Glad that you didn't fall for it. You can always spot these scams a mile away- always a beautiful vehicle at an absurdly low price; and usually the ad contains no info- just says "text for pics and info" and or has an email address (always Gmail!) embedded in one of the photos, 'cause they don't want you contacting through CL- they want your email address or phone number, so they can send you all the fake **bleep**).

And I LOVE that their ridiculously low price wasn't even low enough for you...but you negotiated them down even more! 😄

These scams prey uponm people's greed.

Remember the old stock market saying:

Bulls make money.

Bears make money.

Pigs go to slaughter.

[hyperrush]

Very untrusty. Ebay it's always inside Ebay you're protected.

[ripsmc]

The OP should follow this forum closely for a while. They would likely be amazed at the number of people posting who have been scammed or in the process of being scammed before asking for advice.

Cars, boats, RVs, bikes; the scams are everywhere.

And for everyone who posts here with a tale of woe, there are countless people out there who have already been bilked and are saying nothing on the internet about it.

[royce_allen]

I'm just glad I looked for more advice before following through with it. The most messed up thing is that the scammer used some sob story about his son being murdered for a reasoning of the extremely low price.

[sockmonkeydave]

Son, daughter, grandpa, they all died, 

or they are in Omaha, on a military base, to deploy to Normandy to storm the beaches.

I am selling the RV cheap, I caught my husband and the babysetter in it.

You can try it out for a week, money back, no problem.

And I will pay return shipping....

Trust me... I never tell a lie...

[ripsmc]

Recently I was in the market for a small truck. I found one in OK City that appeared to fit the bill.

The price wasn't as cheap as most but still way cheaper than it should have been.

I got to scouting around on CL sites in other parts of the country just out of curiosity. That same truck (pic, description, and alll) was also shown to be for sale in UT.AZ, SC, TX, and LA.
I quit looking at sites after that. Odds are it was listed in every state in the union.

On an associated note, that same truck still has an ad running here as of today. Eventually someone is going to get snagged by it.

[legitimate_bidder]

The scammers are not even very good at what they do- and yet people continue to fall for their scams. Saw a few scam ads on my local CL last night. One mentioned that the truck had a good inspection (This state doesn't have inspections); one mentioned something about "Halls[sic] on the freeway" (No freeways 'round here). One, purporting to be in a nearby town (population: 1500) shows the vehicle parked in a driveway of a house in a sea of look-a-like tract houses (No such thing in that town!).....

Oh, and there was a nice Kubota tractor with a loader and a backhoe- 4x4, no less, for $2000. Literally, 3 pictures away from that scam, was a real one...same tractor, but without a backhoe....price was $24,000.00.

It's comical.

And the sad thing is, I clicked on a legit ad, wanting the phone number, and now I get some box to click to prove I'm not a robot...and then after that, one of those things where you have to click on pictures that contain "street signs" to further verify your humanity..... I just closed out the tab- Heck with it- not worth it.

So much for the "communication age"- I'm yearning for the days of newspaper classifieds! If this verification carp becomes the norm, I will consider CL unusable.  Enough is enough.

[ripsmc]

I agree the ads are lame. It's tragically funny that so many people wade into those nightmares without even giving them a second thought.

When I was truck hunting I saw one area that showed the same pic of the same truck  with all 3 ads in a row. It was  2007 Tundra priced at 2000, 2100, and 1950. Low miles and a gmail address of course...

Some (or most..) of these scammers aren't even in the U.S. based on the crummy English.

[msianowl]

I want to say a BIG THANK YOU to you all for these discussions. I was spared (I hope) from a scam because I was on here reading about the scams last night. I too looked on CL and then got the eBay Motors emails asking for this and that plus the $3500 cash deposit for the 1995 Honda Goldwing I was interested in. I am disappointed but glad I didn't lose my savings to the scammers.

Yes, dead husband - 5 months ago from heart attack, son, and sold house to move away to start a new life etc. I just reported her to CL and the fraud protection agency. My spidey sense kicked in when she didn't respond to my note of sympathy for her plight, plus the fact that she said like I told you I will pay for shipping it to you and back again if you aren't satisfied after the 5 day test drive. She never mentioned it til I asked about those costs. Her name is "Cindy Jhonson." One more too good to be true deals on trikes showed up last night for a total of 3 for thousands less than book.