is this fake?

[2009mell]

hi people, have been in contact with a seller for car found on the trading post site. Deal is good, but is it too good? Apparently the owner just moved to uk after divorce. Car is meant to be at transport company in Aust, revs check confirmed what it is and where its registered.
My problem is, the owners email tells me that she has a contract with ebay to sell the car through them... then says...
deal will go like this (remember Ive never used ebay for more than small stuff).
1, i give her my details and shipping address
2, she informs ebay and ebay sends me an invoice for amount payable
3, i pay ebay and the car is "shipped" to me at no cost to me
4, i have 5 days to have the car inspected and decide whether i want it.
5, if i want it ebay pays her, if i dont, she sends for the car, ebay refunds my money and thats the end of that......

Is this a SCAM? Or is this a legitimate way for difficult situation sales to be managed by ebay????
Please Help, still waiting for ebay support to get back to me..

[rmb_victoria]

SCAM

Do not go anywhere near this.

There's many different 'stories' but all have the same basic structure.

[2009mell]

Thanks, much appreciated.

[franny2376]

It will be interesting to note what ebay has to say about this as we are interested in two things on the trader, one is overseas and one in darwin, they have both said the same thing about buying, that they would have is "shipped" to me we have 5 days to accept it or not, if not they will ship it back to them at there cost?

[2009mell]

Darwin is where the car is being "stored" for shipping supposedly , could I just enquire if its a vehicle your interested in, and if so what kind? Would be interesting if we are both looking at the same car.....

[viewmont1071]

It is the set up of a fraud third party payment or escrow service that the scam pivots on ie the scammers clone the square trade escrow site or another so that they have immediate access to the car payment and shipping fees, while the seller believes their p[ayment is secure. Generally the ebay account that the car has been listed on has also beeen stolen.

This often shows in the feedback or the sold items search of the stolen account. Often the accounts have a period of inactivity.

If you believe that the ebay account has also been stolen you should report username and listing

[viewmont1071]

3, i pay ebay and the car is "shipped" to me at no cost to me

this is the nux of the scam ebay never collects any money for sellers.


link to real squaretrade site

the scam squaretrade site sometimes starts with the URL www.iesquaretrade.com

[viewmont1071]

link to ebayau escrow information. I note ebayau has changed the recomendation to the servcie below ebay link
An escrow service is a licensed and regulated company that collects, holds, and sends a buyer's money to a seller according to instructions agreed on by both the buyer and seller. Typically, once the buyer receives and approves the item from the seller within an agreed time frame, the escrow service then sends the payment to the seller.

Escrow is available for any purchase.
Use caution when considering an escrow service

If you are a buyer or a seller and choose to pay or be paid through an escrow service, we recommend you use escrowaustralia.com (www.escrowaustralia.com.au)

There are fraudulent escrow services, so use caution if a seller suggests using a service other than www.escrowaustralia.com.au

If your trading partner insists that you use a specific escrow service and will not accept www.escrowaustralia.com.au (or an eBay approved international escrow service for international transactions) as an alternative, please decline the transaction and report the seller or buyer to eBay:

the info below is integral to not being scammed
To avoid being deceived by fraudulent emails, you should sign in to www.escrowaustralia.com.au to verify information you have received via email. Make sure you type the entire address (www.escrowaustralia.com.au). Do not let the browser auto-type the site address for you. It could auto-type a fraudulent address.

[2009mell]

* VIEWMONT* You are seriously armed with information, I cannot thankyou enough for the trouble you went to, to help me out. You were so much more helpful than the ebay security help!!! Thankyou!!!!

[viewmont1071]

no problem, dont like seeing anybody getting their hard earned $$$$$$ ripped off.... the report autobot or an ebay sycophant button pusher reported the four one nine post and I got a smack on the bot bot ... not to worry my bot bot needs lashings of soothing cream most mornings from the faux pas posts the night b4