EBay scam

[john.mitchell]

Hi guys. Some of you may have noticed a classified ad. listing no. 140873453484 for a beautiful 1926 Model A Ariel. The price was £4700 (far too low for such a bike). The advert was perfectly set out with many photos of the best Model A I have ever seen. The description was extremely realistic too. The seller was 77ttdoot. I have been in email contact with the guy who is apparently in Scotland and is willing to send me the bike when the formalities are completed... He has my address and i am expecting for him to request my bank details next. I didn't think there would be any possibility of actually purchasing the bike but I am trying to string him along. (of course I would buy the bike were it kosher!) The Advert is no longer on the site and the vendor is no longer a registered user. Presumably Ebay have wised up to him.
I mention this in case any of you are also in contact with him.
The disconcerting thing is that somewhere out there is an Ariel owner of a lovely bike who is involved in this scam (perhaps unknowingly).

This is in fact the second time this listing has appeared. Did anyone save it in their Watch list?

Caveat emptor

[john.mitchell]

Further to my last post. I have now received some very impressive documentation, purportedly from ebay to enable me to pay for the bike. It really is very high quality. I am sure if I go through with it, my cash will soon disappear. Interestingly I am given the guy's name and address. I put the post code on google and got this; http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewto ... 0&p=129034

So any others out there, please be very careful.

[brenton.roy]

Great work Editor John. Pity the listing isn't there anymore.

[Wali.Badger.Taylor]

Well spotted John.

[huw.parsons]

This bike has been on ebay three times in the last three months; I'm pretty sure it was on about 18 months ago from Montrose or Arbroath
too. I have been looking for a '26 bike and rather stupidly just thought the bike hadn't made it's reserve, I lost interest once past £7000. I see now, looking back, that it was on sale from West Wales last time.

Make a note of the Registration John and put it on here? I seem to remember it was TX ----

Cheers

Huw

[john.mitchell]

I managed to get a low res pic from the Ebay problem report page. It is TX as you see, Huw.

[pete.collings]

A BBC Wales consumer programme highlighted the above scam recently, although this involved camper vans advertised in Autotrader at way below actual value. The Welsh purchasers were told that the seller had relocated to Scotland with the van, to put them off viewing it, and a link to a (duplicated but fake) payment site provided. Unfortunately, the purchasers had paid before they discovered it was a scam.
The programme found the picture and details had been lifted from a genuine sale (at true cost!). Sadly, there are still a few people who allow their eagerness to get a bargain overcome sensible caution when distance buying.

[huw.parsons]

thanks John , that's the one. Looks really pretty...

cheers

Huw

[GuyH]

The VMCC club magazine last month highlighted a scammer who calls himself Tom Baxter. This person replies to wanted advertisements saying he has the parts needed. He asks for payment via bank transfer and promises to send the parts which never arrive. I received a few calls from him in reply to a wanted advert I had placed in Old Bike Mart for an Ariel HP gearbox. He seemed to know what he was talking about but said I couldn't collect the gearbox as he was in Wales and I'm in Suffolk. I said I was happy to go to Wales to collect the box and he started making excuses as to why this wouldn't be possible so I decided not to go ahead. I Googled his name and found he trawls through all the motoring and motorcycling magazines looking for people to scam. I informed OBM who responded by telling me to go to the Police but declined to publish a warning.

[adrie.degraaff]

Still had it.