EBAY VW camper Scam (possible)

[wildbillcoyote]

Hi

New to forum so I apologise If I am getting all this wrong.
I believe I have identified a scammer on ebay who is hijacking individual users accounts and then advertising what look like very nice VW campers for very little money.
This may be a common problem but ive only just become aware of it following a warning from ebay.
Effectively once you make contact the guy tries to get you to email him outside ebay from what looks like a legit hotmail account though the english isnt very good, especially once you add any detail to your reply.
The listing that I responded to was removed by ebay but the guy continued to engage in email and started pressing for a money transfer after which he would deliver the vehicle. as soon as i asked for v5's receipts etc and to arrange to view he vanished, however I have remade contact arbitrarily using a spoof mail account and he seems to have taken the bait again.

Ive checked the SRC IP within his email header and it is registered to an outfit called RDS in Romania, making it look a little suspicious to be selling a vehicle near Andover in the UK..
I may be getting this completely wrong and it may all be legit but was wondering if anybody else out there has had a similar experience.
I'm gonna keep up the mail conversation and track the IP's to see if I can get any more data, I will post up relevant IP's and mail addresses once I am sure.

Ive also seen recently a couple of Ebay adverts that try and get you to follow a link to a contact form outside of Ebay which also look a bit dodgy, Ebay havent responded to my notification on them yet so am going to bait these for a while too.
cheers
WBC

[lightfair]

I may be getting this completely wrong and it may all be legit [...]

Nah. Well spotted and investigated. Most of those scammers come indeed from Romania. Please keep us updated on your additional findings. Yes, this is a typical "modus operandi" of the scammers.

[wildbillcoyote]

just so you know I havent forgotten this thread, and am still communicating with the scammer, just in case any body out there is looking for a van at the moment, he has just relisted under another ebay ID.. the Auction is as follows

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Volkswagen-1972-B ... 4aa4f390aa

probably be removed by ebay shortly

The scammers Email is ben-robo@hotmail.co.uk
regards
WBC

[Mormor]

I think I've come across the same type of thing.
I was browsing on gumtree and spotted a lovely 1962 split screen for £4500 (too good to be true). So I emailed. I got a response in seconds, as follows:-

Hello,
Its still for sale. Immaculate condition, no damages, nothing to worry about. All necessary documents available. My current location is Scotland due to my work commitments,If this is going to be a quick sale, I will let it go for £4,500 buy delivered at my costs. Are you familiar to eBay? I will list the camper on eBay Motors for the £4,500 buy it now price and I will send you a link to my auction, so you can buy it immediate.
As soon as you will confirm the payment to eBay, I will proceed delivery without any additional costs for you.
In case you are not familiar with them, please read their Buyer Protection and will see that they cover 100% the transaction done through them up to £50,000. You will receive the camper with all the documents. As you know eBay is the best company of online transactions. If indeed interested in buying it and have the funds, I will list it on eBay, as I have a 100% positive feedback with them.
Please let me know your decision.
Thank you

When I asked to see the camper I was told that the seller lived in Scotland and it would be difficult! The response I got was this:-

Due to my location and since view is not an option I have requested personal support and I was approved to use Buyer Protection Program. Here is how the process works through the Buyer Protection Program:

- I make the private listing on eBay for you,
- you go and buy it through their website,
- you have to pay for the item to eBay to secure the funds,
- they confirm me that they received the funds,
- I deliver the van,
- you receive the van,
- they send me the money,

Everything is covered by eBay. I will get paid only after you confirm that you received the van in good order.
Let me know if this is acceptable. Thank you

I left it.