Screwing with a ebay scamer for fun

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Not Profit. ::: sigh:::
OK, here is the deal, I have been wanting a toy car to play with. MG, Austin Healey, or a Jag XKE.
Now I am fairly new to eBay, and while I have bit on several items, I have dropped out when it got to the price I could have bought them at on the outside. So right now I have zero feedback. But between my friends that are heavy into it, and the dope, I have a fairly good idea of what to expect.
So Sunday night I see a 1966 Jag XKE convertible listed. Not perfect condition, but a good driver. Just what I am looking for. The auction has under two days left, and 0 bids on the car. Smelling a chance for a bargain, I go to bid and see that the auction is for approved bidders only. OK, a might unusual, but within the realm of possibility.
So I send off a note:

Here is what I got back:

  • Hello,
    First let me say that the Jaguar XKE is available for $7200, I am the
    third owner of the car.You will receive your car by
    DAS(www.dasautoshippers.com) at your home address. It is insured in case
    of damage and it takes 3-5 days to be delivered at your door. I will
    send the Jaguar with all the papers you need to register it(clear title,
    bill of sale, odometer disclosure statement).The car is in perfect
    condition, no marks or need for additional repairs what so ever.The real
    miles on board, a great car ready to be yours. It has no accident or any
    engine problem. The car is located in Farmington, MN and is ready for
    new owner.Because I want to deal as soon as possible I am ready to cover
    the shipping costs and insurance. If you agree with this price we can
    start to
    complete the transaction, you won’t pay any additional taxes, just the
    price for it ($7200). I need to know you,even if that means by email or
    phone before i sell you the car.Even if i seem a little paranoid,i will
    not sell this car to anyone.I took very good care of her and i feel very
    attached to her.The car has a clear title and it is on my name.I dont
    want to offend you by anything but if we are going to complete the sale
    we are going to use Ebay Purchase Program which will cover the purchases
    up to 20,000 USD.Please also provide me with the following details
    necessary to take a decision:
    -your full name and address for shipping
    -your ph#
    If you agree with my terms,i will need your name and address and i
    will contact ebay to inform them about our agreement and to start the
    program to protect us.If this is ok with you and you want me to explain
    how the process works,please email me and i will do that.

Thank you and i will wait for your email*
So far everything seems good. The price is low, but with no bids, it is possible that the seller is in a bind and wants cash now. Cool, I can swing with that. Just to make sure I am not overlooking something obvious, I call two of my friends, the first is a guy that sells 10-15 items a week on ebay, he says it sounds OK esp since the seller for sure wants go through ebay and follow the rules. The second guy is an old car buff that has bought cars though ebay before. He also says it sounds cheap, but OK. So with that I write back:

This was at about 7:30AM. I keep g mail and eBay open all morning as I worked. At about noon, the eBay listing got cancelled. Poof! gone. So I wrote this

I was thinking that the seller had pulled the listing because they had sold the car to someone else.
At about 5PM I get this:
*"Hi,
Thank you for a prompt answer.I can see that you are a decided and
serious person.Ok, i will try to explain it to you.If you want to buy a
car trough their program,I must forward to ebay your user name,name and
address.They will examine the transaction and they will contact us if
everything is fine.If this transaction will be approved they will send
you the invoice with all payment (deposit) instruction.The price is 7200
USD and the payment method will be bank wire transfer.Please let me know
if you agree in order to start this transaction.

I will wait your reply…"*
OK, at this point the Red strobe lights start flashing, the sirens start going off, and over the speakers I hear Danger Will Robinson, Danger! Danger! This is a scam I think. I call my buddies and they agree with me.
But wait we aren’t done yet. The next morning I get this:
“Dear Mr.Rick,
You are the only approved buyer for this Jaguar. Your details have been
forwarded on to the eBay Motors Customer Department and I think that you
have been informed by them about the details of this transaction. Now,
in order to finish the deal, you must complete the payment process
exactly as you have been instructed by eBay. As soon as I receive the
confirmation from eBay that you have made the payment, I will have the
car sent to you or you can pick it up,it is your choice. If you are no
more interested in purchasing this item from me, please let me know ASAP
because I have another 2 clients waiting for this item but I need your
agreement to sell it to someone else.
Thank you”
And also in my inbox is a fake invoice for the car from ebay. I wish I could reproduce the entire e mail here it was a work of art

Nice string of double talk, huh? So now it is time to go for the fuck me, no FUCK YOU with this scammer. I send this back

This morning I get this back:
“The near airport is Lakeville Airport
</maps?hl=en&lr=&q=airport&near=Farmington,+MN+55024&radius=0.0&latlng=44640278,-93143333,6529581869136184641&sa=X&oi=local&ct=result&cd=3>
and this will be greate if you caome and pick up the car but firs you
must made the payment as you has-been instructed be ebay.”
Yikes, the junior assistant scammer they passed me off too barely speaks English.
So here is what I sent back this afternoon:

So I was thinking I should get a hotmail address for Ben Dover HICA* the retired FBI agent and send them a note from Uncle Ben asking when they can get together, and mentioning that he spent his last years at the FBI extraditing scammers from Nigeria.
Anybody else got any ideas?
*That is his professional title Here it comes again. So he is Ben Dover here it comes again.

2

It sounds fun on the surface, but my suggestion would be to not mess around with scammers. Do I understand correctly that they have your real name, address, and phone number? These operations are more and more associated with foreign organized crime, which is pretty high up on the list of people you don’t want to have annoyed at you.

3

Giving out your real-life personal details to scammers, impersonating a government agent, what could possibly go wrong?

4

Does Ben Dover have a partner named Phil McCraken?

5

If I were you I’d take what steps I could to at least get that eBay account terminated so that it can’t be used to possibly scam others. Your report might contribute to a larger investigation if one happens to be taking place regarding this particular perp/group. Your report might be the tipping point toward a larger investigation if one isn’t already underway.

I know some people at eBay, and could try and escalate it for you. My personal email is in my profile.

6

I forwarded the fake invoice to spoof@ebay.com (an address that took me a longer than it should have to find) and the bank account details to the abuse email at the bank.
If you think you can get ebay to take it further I will forward everything to you.

7

I’m fairly sure that the primary function of that address is to receive reports of phishing sites, though I realize now upon editing that the spoofed invoice certainly qualifies. Go ahead and send me what you have, though. It can’t hurt to try from a few different angles.

8

Check you mailbox.
Thanks again.

9

I also recommend reporting this to eBay’s Trust & Safety department.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/contact_us/_base/result_6_4_8.html

Click the Email Us link there.

Sucks that you ran into a stinker. :frowning:

10

From the current issue of Classic Motorsports:

IMO a low BIN price is a red flag. Legitimate sellers usually have a BIN price of around the fair market value of the car. They’ll usually have a reserve price that must be met, and will not offer to sell the car for the reserve price before the auction has ended. Most of them won’t even divulge the reserve price.

Another thing that raises a flag is ‘This item is being relisted due to deadbeat bidders.’ It happens, but I’ve seen that statement on a few scam acutions. A big red flag with bells on it is ‘Please email me at this email [email link].’ I was looking at a motion picture camera a while ago with this message. Instead I used the Contact Seller link to ask my question. Guess what? The email link in the body of the auction didn’t go to the person’s registered address. You don’t get the registered user’s email address with the CS link, but the CS link should go to the registered user and not the scammer. The RU presumably reports the fraud to eBay when he starts getting queries about things he is not selling or has already sold.

11

Whoops, I thought by “toy car” you meant “toy car”.
–gigi, out of my league :wink:

12

I already did that, and thanks to my new best friend ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies it also got slipped direct to someone above the drone level in eBay’s security department. I also sent an e mail to Wells Fargo Bank’s fraud department with the account details, and an outline of the scam.

On a slightly different note, I have not heard back from my seller, I guess “she” does not want to deal with Ben Dover the retired FBI agent. :smiley:

13

This one did not have a BIN. I contacted the seller via eBay, there was no please e mail me at notice in the listing. The listing sounded like it was a real listing, and there were multiple pictures and a very valid description of the car. The pictures and description agreed. I think they found a old listing, and put did a cut and paste into a new listing.
Thanks for the tips, I will keep my eyes more open from now on.

gigi Toy car meaning not an everyday driver. A go out on a nice Sunday car.

14

I saw a 1964 Hughes 269A for an incredibly good price. The scammer did exactly that.

15

Funny you should mention that. Tonight there was not one but 2 fake Austin healey ads on eBay.
Listed by user 123 but in the middle of the ad was this
BUY IT NOW $9,400 US

PLEASE CONTACT ME ANYTIME AT : Scumbag22@gmail.com BEFORE YOU BID FOR APPROVAL OR YOU BID WILL BE CANCELED
repeated about 5 times.
I swear to OG eBay should hire me to find frauds. If I am interested in the item, its a fraud.