Frequently MINI2 members highlight suspect vehicles listed on eBay. They’re usually MINIs that are sold at “too good to be true” prices, and generally avoid PayPal or other reputable escrow service providers. Other typical patterns are the sellers are overseas, often in a completely different location to the MINI on offer, and photographs that don’t match the advertised specification.

The good old fashioned saying “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is…” springs to mind here, and almost always that proves to be the case.

When highlighting these scams, which are often, but apparently not always withdrawn after being brought to the attention of the powers that be at eBay, people often question who would fall for these things?

An unnamed mother from Guernsey is one such woman, who is £3.5k worse off after falling for one such eBay trap.  All the tale tale signs seemed to have been there, the seller wanted to avoid PayPal who have “ripped her off” in the past.  The seller was moving abroad, so needed a quick sale.  The price was fantastic, most MINI fanatic eBay watchers will have seen the type of listing.

After a string of lies and deception our victim paid the money.  Sadly, after eight days had passed, it all got too much and the police were called in.

So folks, as obvious as some of these scams may appear to the eBay regulars among us, there are people out there who will sadly be conned by this sort of confidence trickster.  Be careful out there folks, we’re not going to spin the old “eBay is evil” line here, but buying on eBay doesn’t guarantee safety, and when things are taken out of the ordinary cycle, even less so.   When buying and selling used goods, it’s the same as it’s always been, buyer beware.  These people are the hustlers who show you lovely products at the market and give you a bag of tat around the back of the lorry, only £3.5k buys them a lot of tat to entice further victims with.

Full story on This is Guernsey.