eBay Money Back Guarantee Programme?

Whilst there are many honest car sellers on ebay and some bargains to be had there are also scammers out there attempting to de-fraud you of your money. Thankfully, many of these scammers are not too clever in their methods and are generally easy to spot. However, if you are new to ebay, or even new to buying cars on ebay, it may not seem so easy to tell the scammers from the honest ebayer. Therefore, Temple Tuning has written this guide with the intention of laying down some easy pointers for spotting those naughty scammers. Hopefully, this guide will go a small way to helping keep ebay a safe place to trade.
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The old adage if it looks to good to be true it probably is applies to ebay. Be very wary if an car is on offer way under market value. It is easy to check across the internet roughly what you would expect to pay for practically any model car.

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Be wary of exotica or prestige cars. Scammers will often try to hook buyers in using 'dream' motors such as Mustangs or Nissan Skyline GTRs. Clearly these cars can be reliably bought on ebay from honest sellers. It is just a case of looking out for bad egg alerts in listings.

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Be wary of low or 0 feedback sellers with expensive items for sale. Of course, the low feedback seller may simply be an honest newbie. Feedback ratings need to be taken in context with other alerts.

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BUT don't judge a car sale on seller's feedback alone. Scammers often hi-jack accounts with good feedback standing to try and lend their fraud some credibility. The real owner of the account may be unaware that there ebaying has been taken over. Have a look to see what the seller has sold in the past. Does this seem consistent with the car they are selling? For instance an account that has mostly been used to sell face creams suddenly selling sports cars might indicate you should be cautious.

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Similarily be cautious of seller whose positive feedback has been built up through purchasing of 1p e-books.

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Scam listings will generally contain messages from the seller asking you to contact them via email and not to use ebays private messaging systems. Email addresses tend to be provided in very bold large type as this is where the scammer is trying to lead you. Scammers are eager to get you communicating with them away from ebay.

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Sometimes these listings will be restricted to pre-approved bidders only and contain instructions to email the seller to be added to the list. This is often yet another attempt by the seller to get you communicating with them by email. Remember that sometimes an honest ebayer will have genuine reason for citing pre-approved bidders. This indicator has to be taken in conjuction with other warning signs.

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While listings are often put up at auction to hook buyers in, they will tend to also feature invites to buy item immediately at a fixed price. Generally this fixed price although substantial will be well under market value. For instance an exotic car worth 25k may be on offer at 5k!

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Western Union! Avoid and report any listing that asks for payment by Western Union. Often scammers will indicate that they accept paypal but once they are in communication with you they will request payment via Western Union money transfer. This is an untraceable payment option abused by fraudsters. Never pay anyone using Western Union. If you are in contact with anyone asking for payment by Western Union be immediately very suspicious.

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Be wary if the description doesnt fit the car in the listing too well. It is likely that a scammer has pulled generic information about this type of vehicle but it may not be entirely accurate when applied to the photographed car.

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Look carefully at the photograph of the car being offered for sale. Sometimes there are tell tale signs that the car is not in the UK as specified in the ebay listing. Non-UK number plates are an instant giveaway but also look at the surroundings the car is photographed in. Tropical plants, palm trees, road signs, general geographic and architectural features may all indicate that a photograph has been taken outside the UK.

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Increasingly we are seeing scammers who will place a dead page on top of an ebay page. They will insert clickable links within this page which will lead you outside of the ebay site. For instance, you may click on the seller's ebay id where you would expect to find their profile information + feedback page and instead be taken to email page. Never, never, never enter personal details through a link in a listing or email. Ebay take a very dim view of interference with site operations/functionality so make sure you report if encountered.

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Be on the alert for the shipping scam. A scam seller will list a car as being held abroad and offer to ship it to your country. The seller will re-assure you that you make your payment to the shipping company only after car has left his possession and you have tracking number. They will even give you a web link for said company so you can check it out. These fake shipping company pages have been set up as part of the scam.
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