The first red flag, a really large red flag, is the super low price, a fraction of what they normally sell for. This is the bait. It makes you think, "This seller has no idea what this is really worth and I had better jump on it before someone else does." If the price really was that low, the seller could get rid of it locally in an afternoon.
The second red flag is the "story." When you sell something, do you share your life story or do you just describe the item? It is almost always a "woman" who (take your pick) is widowed, going through a divorce, lost a child in horrible accident and the vehicle was her son's who died, or she is getting deployed in the military. I have even seen scams where the "seller" has used a combination, such as "I got this in a divorce and just want to get rid of it, and I'm getting deployed and don't have time to sell it so eBay is going to take care of it for me."
No legitimate transaction begins on another website such as craiglist, facebook marketplace, letgo, offerup, etc., and then is finished on eBay. Not ever, not never. It doesn't happen. Any time and every time the so-called seller tells you that eBay will take care of the transaction (usually using "buyer protection" for your safety, you know), you know 100% it is a scam. Always, no exceptions.
When the seller tells you the vehicle is already at the eBay shipping center (and sometimes already in a "shipping container"), you know it's a scam. eBay does not have shipping centers and does not stuff shipping containers with anything.
Free shipping. So the seller is selling you a 2015 Toyota Camry for $1600 and shipping is free. A friend of mine inherited a vehicle recently and rather than go get it (due to covid concerns), she had it delivered. Shipping was over $1,000. So someone is going to sell you a car (truck, boat, RV) for a super low price and ship it to you on their dime. Do the math. And then they promise you that you have five days to decide if you want to keep it and only then will "eBay" release the payment to them. More on that in moment. Oh, and in the very rare case that you decide you don't want to keep the vehicle after five days of inspecting it, the seller will also pay for return shipping, no cost to you. Again, do the math.
Payment in gift cards is ALWAYS a scam. Would you sell anything at all and require that payment be in gift cards? I go for cold, hard cash myself. They ask you to give them the card numbers. So you do it, knowing that it's no problem since eBay won't release the money until after you let them know you're keeping the vehicle. Only problem is, the very second you give them the card numbers, your money is gone, forever, and cannot be traced.
These scams work, over and over, all day, every day, because people want to get something for (almost) nothing. If it sounds too good to be true, unless you can see it in person and touch it and inspect it, it literally IS too good to be true and all you're doing is paying a lot of money for a picture on the internet.
