BMW 4.8is ebay SCAM - PLEASE READ
 

The other day someone posted a 4.8is that was for sale on ebay for a price that was literally too good to be true ($19,000), even in these economic times. The thread was subsequently removed (not really sure why). In any case, it reeked of a scam and I wanted to look into it further and make a post to warn others not to fall for this nonsense.

Part 1- The bait
Person steals a group of photos and information of a beautiful car, in this case a 2005 BMW 4.8is, and posts an ebay ad using just 1 photo. They create a real ebay ad with someone's legitimate ebay user name, in this case 'wojtek18t' since they hacked that account.

Part 2- The phish
You come along and see the ad for this amazing car at an amazing price and wonder why there is only 1 photo posted. So you e-mail the poster asking for more pictures. You send this request through the ebay system, since you have no other choice.

What you do not realize is that the poster has hacked someone's actual ebay account in such a manner that any questions sent for that particular listing get a reply asking for you, in turn, to reply to a specific e-mail address, now outside of the ebay system. In this case the e-mail address is '[email protected]'. Notice that it differs ever so slightly from the ebay account name by a simple missing letter, the letter 't'. See attachment 1.

Part 3- The reply
You send a request for more photos to this new e-mail address (which should already make you feel that this is sort of strange to have to send multiple e-mails, to different accounts, for something as simple as more photos), instead of replying using the "Respond" button which would send your response through the ebay system.

Part 4- Caught by ebay
Ebay realizes the scam and shuts it down, likely because the true owner of the ebay account realizes their account has been hacked or someone asking for more information did use the "Respond" button on the e-mail which went through the ebay system and got flagged which started the ball rolling on getting this fake listing removed. Ebay then sends out this notice to all people who have requested additional information on that listing. See attachment 2.

Part 5- Reeling the phish in
Meanwhile, the scammer, who now has your e-mail address, sends you this e-mail. See attachment 3 using their e-mail address which has now changed to '[email protected]' and lists the name of the person as 'Deborah Fisher' . Sort of ironic since this is technically a 'phishing' scam.

Please read this e-mail carefully. There is no phone number, mailing address, information on the location of the car, ... nothing. Look at the poor grammar, though they are getting better, it is still pretty lousy. If after reading the e-mail you don't realize that it's a scam, you need to turn off your computer and go for a walk. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES REPLY TO THIS E-MAIL WITH ANY OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION. They try to make you feel better and seem more legit by claiming it is going to be a transaction done under the watchful eye of ebay. BULLSHIT. What they will do is have a FAKE ebay system send you payment instructions and details, to which you will send the money and then you will never ever see or hear from anyone again. And obviously you'll never see any car since they didn't have one to sell in the first place.

Please be careful. This shit is everywhere.

Update: The car listed in the fake ad really is for sale on ebay. Here it is listed for $40,000+ :
eBay Motors: BMW : X5 (item 260376419325 end time Apr-02-09 12:28:24 PDT)

The bogus seller who set up the scam, e-mailed the real seller requesting photos and that is how the scam got started.

Shit, how do I get my money back?! I was going to surprise everyone with a 2nd X5 4.8is! DOH!



















JK

Thanks for the heads up Meister! :)

:thumbup: My pleasure. Hopefully people will keep bumping this thread to keep it on the main page since I think it's worth it. I'd really hate for someone to get scammed when trying to acquire one of these beautiful cars.

Very informative for those not aware :thumbup:

Good info. Thanks!

Most amazing part is that this is a current ebay listing! (See my update above) I am amazed that ebay's system allows two car listings to exist simultaneously with the same VIN numbers. !?

The truth is in some cases they don't care but more like there are TOO MANY scams going on at one time for them to keep up with. Several times I pointed out listings that were scams. I even did reasearch on how to tell the real from the scams and explained to THEM how to tell. You know how their fraud dept responded?

Sir, we cannot do that (search for the scams as I described). We can only remove them if reported.

They removed all the listings I gave them but the others they didn't - because someone like me wouldn't do their job for them!

Obviously, if reporter or media gets a hold of them they're gonna say: We have the best so and so .. we do this ..we do that ... BULLSHIT!

Ebay was great in the early days ... great deals and all ... then as always scammers come ... red tape comes ... now ebay is still good for things but you really got to watch out - because Ebay themselves, they can't or unwilling to do what's necessary. :angryfire

All that money they make ... all that technology available ... doesn't mean doo doo.

Twins - you raise excellent points. I too have pointed out numerous scams to ebay and listings were removed, only to show up again and again. My point above, which I still find perplexing, is that they could very easily set up an automated check that does not allow the same VIN number to be used in two separate listings! Such a firewall, so-to-speak, once set up, would require no addition monitoring. Guess it's too much to ask for!

On the unrelated points. Yes ebay, was great way back when. Now it seems like most listings are just storefronts for sales of stuff and not actual 'auctions.' Moreover, auctions often seem fixed to me whenever I watch them. A long time ago it used to be that something would get a bid or two and then nothing until the last 10 minutes or less of the auction. And in the end you usually could get a great deal. Now, auctions from day 1 seem to have their prices bid up and up and by the time the end rolls around stuff costs as much as MSRP and buyers seem happy. Weird / Bogus. My 2 cents.

Exactly ... technology is available and manpower is available .. but profitablity is at opposites with that.

Getting those kinds of deals are gone ... storefronts ... bid schilling ... buy it now auctions ... all part of the ebay of today.

You are not 100% right, you are 1000% right.