OT: Friend is getting Ebay scammed. . ., Anyone in Santa Clarita? Options

[chunger]

Hello,

A good friend of mine is in a bit of a scam. I was wondering if anyone in Santa Clarita could help.

here's the story. He purchased an Alfa a few days ago for his wife from a guy in Texas. The car has been delivered to his house. The seller calls to ask him if he's selling the same car again on Ebay. He says no, and the seller in Texas then tells him that his car is currently listed on Ebay. Pictures, VIN number and all:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAP...=ADME:B:EF:US:1

I was wondering if anyone in the area could do 2 things:

1. Contact the seller to ask to see the car in the next 2 days or so.

2. Ask the seller how many previous owners there were.


The Ebay lister does not have the car. I don't think he'll email back. But just in case, we're wondering who it is. We've contacted Ebay fraud. The seller has no feadback. The bids are all hidden. I think this guy may be trying to scam the actual car from my friend.

-'Chung

[bondo]

I've seen this before. The "seller" isn't in the US, and is probably in Nigeria. The last time I sniffed one of these out it was for a 59 impala that they were selling for well below a reasonable price. They try and get you to contact them outside of ebay, by offering to sell it at a fixed low price. Once you contact them, they say something like "I just moved to italy, so it will have to be shipped, but I know someone...". Then it just becomes the standard Nigerian shipping scam.

Just contact ebay's fraud department, and tell them they aren't selling that car, because you own it and they just stole the images from a previous auction. They'll pull it in a day or two.

Low feedback doesn't always work.. sometimes they hijack accounts with good feedback. There is only one way to avoid these scams.. "If it's too good to be true, it is."