Attn: motorcyclists. How is this a scam?

[Monkeyleg]

There's a guy on the local Cycle Trader who has a 2003 Harley Touring Ultra Classic 100th Anniversary model. It's exceptionally clean, with 9098 miles on it. He sent photos, and it's beautiful.

Selling prices on Cycle Trader for the same model and year range from $8000 with a lot of miles to $14,000 with about 14,000 miles.

There has to be something wrong. Stolen? Something else? I could easily buy the bike and sell it at a profit.

[Marnoot]

You failed to mention what his asking price is.

[Monkeyleg]

Price is $4100. Way too good to be true. $8000 I could see. Maybe $7000.

Here's our email exchange:

On Jun 10, 2014, at 9:21 PM, Daniel wrote:

  Hi Dick,
 As I told you in my first email, I recently got divorced. The bike is located in Omaha, Nebraska, but I advertised it on other states also to get more exposure and sell it faster. The bike is already at the shipping company, ready to be delivered to its future new owner. The deal is handled by eBay so I don't have much to do about it. Using eBay`s Buyer Protection Program, you get free shipping, at your place in 3 days. In addition, you get 5 days to try it out before buying it, and if you don't like it, you can send it back at my expense. For more info on how it works, I can ask eBay to send you an email with more details on how to buy it. If you would like to receive the email from eBay Motors with all the transaction information, please reply with your whole name, shipping address and phone # and they will contact you right away.

From: "
To: "Daniel
Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2014 3:25:55 PM
Subject: Re: 2003 Harley-Davidson Touring Ultra Classic 100th Anniversary

Hi, Daniel. Do you have a link to the listing?

My full name is Richard . Shipping address is . My cell is .

Thanks
Dick


Hi, Richard
This is excellent news! You will see these guys are great! So I will have eBay to send you the invoice during this day or 1st thing tomorrow morning, and you will receive it by e-mail, with all the instructions and details about your safety and about the sale altogether. After you receive the invoice, in case you decide to buy it you will have to pay through eBay, as they will hold, protect and guarantee your money until you get the bike. You will try it out for 5 days, and if at the end you are happy with it, you can give them the "green light" to release the money to me. Or if not, you can just send it back and get a refund, without paying for the shipping.
They also have their toll free number on the invoice, so for any additional questions, feel free to ring them.

Thank you,
Daniel

[tokugawa]

So you saw it on CL and he is busy talking about Ebay. Hmmm.

Now I don't know exactly how this is going to be a scam but I am quite certain it is. "too good to be true."

 Lots of reference to "protection"-  sort like "the more he talked about how honest he was, the harder I held on to my wallet"

 " I will have eBay to send you the invoice"   slip up here- his English is pretty good but not good enough.

  In general, it felt like he was selling the ebay protection instead of a bike.

  My guess is he wants to lead you on a bit, get you hooked, and then switch something -

  I have seen this on CL before- can you link to the photo source and find out where the pics came from?

 

[Balog]

Anything that isn't local on CL is a scam. If they want to ship it then it is a scam.

[Monkeyleg]

I know it's a scam. I'm just trying to figure out how it works.  The listing has already been removed from Craigslist.

[Brad Johnson]

Call the DMV in his state and ask for confirmation of registration and address.  No idea if that kind of information is considered confidential, but if you provide it and ask if they can confirm it with a simple yes or no, you might get somewhere.

Brad

[Balog]

I know it's a scam. I'm just trying to figure out how it works.  The listing has already been removed from Craigslist.

Bike does not exist, and will not be shipped to you.

[dogmush]

Bike does not exist, and will not be shipped to you.

In addition, money that is "held by eBay" isn't and will be gone.

Ebay doesn't have anything to do with sales outside their site.  This hits most of their fraud warnings.  If I had to guess, were you to continue there would be some very official looking emails from "Ebay Buyer Protection Program" explaining how to 1. Wire money to an account, or 2. That they will take and hold a money order until the bike gets to you.  Then poof, they're gone.

FWIW:
http://pages.motors.ebay.com/buy/purchase-protection/index.html

[bedlamite]

This one kinda looks like a scam too.

I wonder if any moccasins are included.

[Bob F.]

 on line a couple years ago for a good buy on a Mustang. Found a good deal, IIRC also thru EBay. $2K down and free shipping. Owner deployed, car out of state. Found the same car advertised 4 different places, different owner, one supposed to be a Nat Geo photog on foreign assignment. Passed on the deal.

Stay safe.
Bob

[Monkeyleg]

Yeah, Bedlamite. Thats the worst scam. The moccasins fall apart the first time they get wet.

Here's the email from "Ebay Motors Buyer Protection department".  Notice that the Ebay graphics aren't right. And all I have to do is wire them money. What could go wrong?


   

[Jamisjockey]

In addition, money that is "held by eBay" isn't and will be gone.

Ebay doesn't have anything to do with sales outside their site.  This hits most of their fraud warnings.  If I had to guess, were you to continue there would be some very official looking emails from "Ebay Buyer Protection Program" explaining how to 1. Wire money to an account, or 2. That they will take and hold a money order until the bike gets to you.  Then poof, they're gone.

FWIW:
http://pages.motors.ebay.com/buy/purchase-protection/index.html

This

plus

this

Bike does not exist, and will not be shipped to you.

The scam is that you pay for them to ship the bike, they never do.  You, sir, are then *expletive deleted*ed out of $4100 plus shipping.

[Jocassee]

Bike does not exist, and will not be shipped to you.

I'm late here but...pretty much this. if it were *actually* local, then it might be someone making alimony payments.

[Monkeyleg]

The guy just called. Sounded like he was calling from India. Anyway, he sounded Indian. He told me he'd sent the invoice. I told him it was a scam. He said, "what?".  I repeated that it was a scam, and he hung up.

[Sawdust]

Dick,

Is that your real address in that email? Might want to take it down, if so...

Sawdust

[Hawkmoon]

Here's the email from "Ebay Motors Buyer Protection department".  Notice that the Ebay graphics aren't right. And all I have to do is wire them money. What could go wrong?

I'm sure it's a scam, but I'm not seeing where the ebay graphics are wrong. 'Splain me, please.

[Brad Johnson]

Duplicating graphics is easy.  Spoofing the return address to mimic an ebay.com adress is also easy.  The rest is just a few minutes in Publisher to gen up an official-looking document.

Brad

[Scout26]

Notice in the little picotgram there is no Step #4.  "Buyer gets item from Ebay/seller."

[dogmush]

Notice in the little picotgram there is no Step #4.  "Buyer gets item from Ebay/seller."

Well they don't want to be accused of false advertising.

[Monkeyleg]

I'm sure it's a scam, but I'm not seeing where the ebay graphics are wrong. 'Splain me, please.

Ebay doesn't use that rainbow bar at the top, and they don't use those heavy blue brackets. They're using a lot of light gray boxes and things like that now.

Sawdust, I whited out my name. Didn't notice that. Thanks.