Scam email pretending to be ebay?

[nathanheys]

In pursuit of finding my dream boat, I stumbled across an ad on a third party website claiming to be selling a boat for $6800. After several emails back and forth with a lady named 'Linda Chalmers', she claimed she was selling the boat through EBAY and that their team would get in contact with me via email. This is the email I received ( attached bellow)

I am sharing this message in the hopes that others don't fall victim to this scam as I myself was close to losing thousands of dollars. These scammers are professionals and very convincing, often using stories such as that they are selling their ex husbands boat awarded in divorce settlement and claiming to be part of the royal Australian airforce to gain sense of trustworthiness. On investigation I came across hundreds of people scammed out out of there hard earned money, I hope people read this before its to late!

eBay sent this message to……….  

Your registered name is included to show this message originated from eBay. 

eBay Buyer Protection

Dear ……….., Please read this email carefully. In order to start the identity verification process please reply with a scanned copy (or photo) of your VALID ID (Drivers license or Passport) Once verified, you are free to continue with vehicle inspection.

Terms & Conditions

1. General

We realize that a vehicle is an important purchase. When you buy a vehicle through eBay, you have to be completely satisfied with your investment. This program protects your vehicle purchase against accidents, major mechanical failure, odometer-tampering, and salvage or flood damage. You only buy the vehicle if it passes YOUR verification. These Terms and Conditions with our Privacy Policy contain the entire agreement and understanding between the parties relating to this transaction.

2. Inspection

You have a maximum of 5 days to inspect the vehicle. We accurately verified all vehicle documents before launching this transaction but you have the option to use an independent Inspection Authority to make sure that the vehicle is as described.

3. Safety Deposit

Once your identity is confirmed, we will send you an invoice for you to make payment to one of our accounts.

Your money will be held by us while you inspect the vehicle and we will NOT send any payment to the Seller until we have the confirmation from you within the 5 days inspection period.

Once your deposit is confirmed we will instruct Linda Chalmers to send you all necessary details to get the inspection done as soon as possible.

4. Refundable Payment

If after 5 days of inspection, you are not satisfied with the vehicle, you can simply contact us and we will give you a FULL REFUND, no questions asked. Also if no confirmation is received from you after the inspection period we will automatically issue a FULL REFUND. Bear in mind you need to return the vehicle in the same condition as the day of delivery if you decide not to keep it, for us to be able to issue the refund in full.

Refund requests are usually processed within 2 working days.

5. Shipping

You have the option to get the vehicle 2013 Quintrex 481 Fishabout delivered to your desired location. It can be shipped within 24 hours after we confirm the payment. When your inspection passes and you are satisfied with your purchase we can agree to finish the buying process by sending you all the relevant documents.

The shipping is free of charge and the vehicle is fully insured for damage during the transportation, inspection process and prior to the physical sale. The vehicle will come with all the documents needed for new registration under your name and details.

In order to proceed with this process please reply with a scanned (or photo) copy of your  VALID ID ( Drivers license or Passport ) to verify your identity and receive the deposit invoice.

Email reference ID: [#6d5c96bf9148497fbf228cd6a9fe7d87#]

Best regards, Alex P. eBay Financial Department Manager

[imastawka]

Nothing new.

One of the many threads about this, and similar scams -

Is this a scam? - The eBay Community

[nathanheys]

There is no harm in keeping people aware. I'd rather post about my experience than have people lose there hard earned money to these low life scammers.  

[twyngwyn]

run a mile & then some...but at least you know.....buyer beware

[davewil1964]

The problem is that those likely to fall for this over a decade old scam have obviously never read how eBay works, and are unlikely to visit the boards until they have done their dough.

Hindsight is a scammer's friend. As are bargain hunting and a lack of due diligence.

[sugar249]

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@nathanheys wrote:

There is no harm in keeping people aware. I'd rather post about my experience than have people lose there hard earned money to these low life scammers.  

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True,  but if everyone posted a new thread everytime they got a dodgy email purporting to be from Ebay, amazon, the tax office, the Sherriff,  the local thai restaurant, the, the, the, the, the.    These and other boards would be flooded with this type of thread.  I alone could start 5 to 10 a week.

Sometimes you just can't help stupid, if the deal is to good, or just sounds dodgy. It is dodgy.  There are suckers born everyday, sadly a post like this will not help them.    I say this from experience as my sister got suckered with a scam, not just once, but twice, if after we told her not to do it again.

[science_ntr]

Very helpful post. I had a similar experience with a car advertised on Facebook. They got me to email an address to get in touch with the seller and I received in response an email supposedly from E-Bay. They wanted personal info/copies of ID, etc. Their email was very similar to yours. Scammers.

[sandypebbles]

Yes, same scammers that have been sound well over 12 years that there a many hundred warning about on the forum alone, an numerous other places

Worrying that anyone for a second still believes this can be remotely real or anything else other than a scam

[sugar249]

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@science_ntr wrote:

Very helpful post. I had a similar experience with a car advertised on Facebook. They got me to email an address to get in touch with the seller and I received in response an email supposedly from E-Bay. They wanted personal info/copies of ID, etc. Their email was very similar to yours. Scammers.

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And you sent them your address?  No wonder these scammers prosper.   

The best way to defeat them is to break there business model,  if its to good to be true, well you know the rest.

[*sons_n_daughters*]

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@sandypebbles wrote:

Yes, same scammers that have been sound well over 12 years that there a many hundred warning about on the forum alone, an numerous other places

Worrying that anyone for a second still believes this can be remotely real or anything else other than a scam

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Sadly, many do still fall for these scams. Ebay, Facebook, are the place of bargains remember, so if someone is offered a good price they don't give it a second though.

Plus, how many people still fall for these scams you often read in the paper, or they go on TV because they got a message saying there was an issue with their bank, or PayPal, or some other financial thing, and to click on the link to fix it? In Australia alone, people are losing millions and millions a year to these scammers. Still.

Then there are the emails where you are told you are being watched through your webcam, and they have remote access to your computer. They then tell you they can see all the adult sites you've visited, and watched you "act out" to those sites, and how naughty you are. If you don't pay them X amount in bitcoin, they will share all this stuff to your contacts.

I get them. My webcam is covered and I don't visit adult sites. I have one contact in my email, so I am not concerned. I can easily see it's a scam. People who do visit adult sites and "act out" could be quite concerned, especially if they have their boss in their contacts, so they pay the ransom. 

A lot of people aren't as savvy as you and I. We can pick a scam. Plenty can't because if it's on the internet, it must be true.