Cobra for sale on ebay for $8000

[balloonist]

This looks and smells fishy or worse. Ebay # 2471557886 This guy is selling a Shell Valley Cobra for $8000. Ebay suggests "Never pay for your eBay item through instant cash transfer services such as Western Union or MoneyGram -- such services offer Internet shoppers no protection against fraud."
This is the responce I received from the seller.

Date: Sat, 03 Apr 2004 02:39:48 +0000
From: Laurean Milleru
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To:
Subject: RE: Question from eBay Member: Shelby : All Models


Hello and thank you for your interest
I want to tell you a few words about the car.
First of all the car is in perfect condition and looks just like in the
pictures.It is in imaculate condition and has no schrach on and hasn't
been
involved in any accident.
The motor run very well. The title is clear ,it is not a salvage one.
The car belongs to my brother.He died last month in a bike accident.
The car is now in United Kindom as my brother lived there.I am willing to
sell
it
and shipp it to any of the UE countries or to US.I will not ship to any
African,Asian or Eastern European countries.
I know that the price is low but i have no use for the car and I want
to
get
back home as soon as i sell it.
This price includes the 25%
shipping to your door and insurance, the shipping cost is 1700$ -
2000$
and
if you agree
with this price we can start to complete the transaction.As i've told
you,in
order to proceed with the deal i need a deposit of 2000USD.The payment
must
be done using a money order service.
I prefer money order because in this way i will ship the car in the
same
day
you make the payment.As i've said my brother lived in UK and now i
arrived here to take care of his funerals and to solve his problems
here
and
i want to get back home asap.
You will arrange payment through western union .You receive and inspect
the
machine you have to send me the rest of the money.The inspection period
for
it is 3 days.
Look here how things are going:
l'm a serious seller with more than 2 years of experience in this
field. l'm a fair trader with a very good feedback on ebay which is
the proof that l have closed a lot of sucessful deals.
You will have to make a deposit of 2000 USD . You will have to go
personal to an western union office with the cash and send the money
(the
deposit of 2000 USD ) from your name and address to WATH NAME DO YOU
WANT
(FOR YOUR SIGURANCE)NEVER CAN TUCH THE MONEY IN THIS WAY ONLY AFTER YOU
WILL
RECEIVED THE CAR AND YOU WILL INSPECT IT YOU CAN CHANGE THE RECEIVER
NAME
WITH MY NAME.
The transfer only need to be here in United Kindom for i can be avaible to
check at
my WU agent that you really have the money for this great car .in this
case
the money is deposited in westernunion on my adress but on your friend
name.
.I will ship the car as a gift for my best friend so you will not have
to
pay any custom taxes and I hope you will do the same thing when you
will
make the transfer because
this way we will not have to pay any other taxes.
After you will make the transfer you will email me the details:
-the sender name
-the sender address
-the amount
-the confirmation #-MTCN (money transfer control number)
-the receiver name, that you choose to be and the adress.
With all this informations i will be able to check the payment and
after i will see that it is OK i will send the car right away
and you will receive it in 10 days at your door (if not less).
Here is my name and my address where you must send the money:
First name: Laurean
Last name: Milleru
Address:19 Gloster Road
Martlesham Heath
London
United Kindom
Don't forget to give me your exact adress!!!
Please let me know what you decision asap in order to prepare the
shippment and because I have a lot of offers and I can not wait much
longer, thanks.
Best Regards
I shall be awaiting your response.
With upmost respect

[clayfoushee]

Balloonist,

Yes, it's one of numerous recent e-bay Cobra frauds. The item number you listed doesn't come up when I checked. E-bay has been catching these rather quickly lately, so maybe it's already gone.

If you have about 3-days to kill, you can do a search on this site to see how many of these have been reported already. Members on this site have been very diligent about submitting the fraud reports to e-bay.

Be careful sending e-mail on things like this....these people are likely identity thieves.

[balloonist]

I replyed to the seller:

What happen to the car? It is no longer on ebay. Did you sell it or is it still for sale?

The sellers reply was:

The car is still for selling You only need to prove me that you really have the money for my car and i will shipp it to you I told you all terms in myfist email to you
Waitting your decision asap

I replyed:

Is there any other way to pay for the car? Maybe an escrow company? Ebay suggest "Never pay for your eBay item through instant cash transfer services such as Western Union or MoneyGram -- such services offer Internet shoppers no protection against fraud." Now that the car is not on Ebay I loose the protection Ebay provides.

Answer pending.

[COBRAGAR]

i remember seeing this car for sale in the auto trader about 1 yr. ago and the car was here in the u.s. looks like this guy download pictures of cars for sale and tries to scam peoples out of there money . be careful guys

[mrmustang]

Guys, this is the typical scam going on with stolen Ebay accounts right now. I can point to several ads with cars/bikes/boats/motorhomes/trailers/antique furniture that are too good to be true...All have the same "feel", all are for "pre approved" bidders only...........All of them are SCAMS!!!!!!!!!!!!



Bill S.

[BlueRooster]

Bill, why does the buyer need to be preapproved? Cant anyone send money through Western Union? Im not an ebay'r so excuse my ignorance. It just amazes me that these people can get away with this. It seems that i'm seeing this here in the posts more and more. The one thing I notice is if any of the words are misspelled, either in the add itself or in a return email, report it and look at something else. Just wait till these knuckleheads learn how to use spell-check.

Dane

[mrmustang]

Dane,

it's the scammers who are doing this. Trying to get someone to just say offline " I'll send you the money today if you cancel the auction". A scammers dream...........


Bill S.

[balloonist]

Bill and Dane,
This auction did not have a "pre approved" clause. I've seen several of the other auctions like the ones Bill is describing. I emailed a couple of them and get the same sob story about the brother and the bike accident. After I refuse to send the money through Western Union or ask to use a escrow company, the emails stop. How are you guys reporting these auctions? Are you reporting them to ebay or a federal authority? Still no answer from yesterday.

[clayfoushee]

Balloonist,

After you log in on e-bay, at the very bottom of the home page is a "Security" or Security Center" button. Click on that, and it will lead you through a menu to report a suspected fraudulent listing.

A few weeks ago, all the scam ads were "pre-approved bidder" format. Obviously, that was just a way to get someone to e-mail so he could establish contact. That was the original red flag and e-bay caught on. Now, the scammers have dropped that in order to try to slip through without being caught.

However, they're still all 3-day auctions, which is another clue in addition to the obvious......price.

Again, I, personally, would not e-mail these people. It's all wrapped up in an identity theft ring, with stolen e-bay account names. If you do, make sure you have a damn good firewall on your ISP connection.

[balloonist]

Clay,
Thanks for the info. I have three firewalls they have to get through plus a anti-virus program that will shut down my internet connection if someone tries to send me any spy ware.
Paul

[Excaliber]

3 day pre-approved is the most common scam technique. But there are some that are 7 day open to anybody to bid.

What they ALL have in common is ulta LOW price and no reserve.

Ernie

[balloonist]

Congratulations ernie on the great buy on the ERA. I don't think you should call your self Drity Ernie. It should be Slick.

[Excaliber]

Slick? Ha ha,,,, OK that works too. I better get me one of them gold chains, maybe some hair oil. No,,, make that Snake Oil.

[klayfish]

Excaliber, do you walk around with a toothpick in your mouth too?

These Ebay people are probably the same ones sending e-mails about having millions of dollars in Africa.

Steve

[MysteryTrain]

Definietly a scam. There was another one recently that was the subject of a thread here, and I emailed the seller just for kicks and got PRECISELY the same story as you got from this one. Car is mint, blah, blah, brother owned it, blah, blah, died in tragic accident, blah, blah, just trying to get it off my hands, blah, blah, live overseas . . . you get the picture.

MT

[Andreas]

You would think that they would at least change the story a little. The only real difference is that this guys brother died and in the guys story below his grandfather died. Oh and one guy lives in Italy and the other in the UK.

The price I hope to obtain is 8200$ (this price includes the 25% shipping to your door and insurance) and if you agree
with this price we can start to complete the transaction.The total shipping costs including insurance will be 1700-2000$ depending on your exact location. As I've told you,in order to proceed with the deal i need a deposit of 3000USD.The payment must be done using a money order service.
I prefer money order because in this way i will ship the car in the same day you make the payment.As I've said my grandfather lived in Italy and now i arrived here to take care of his will and to solve his problems here and i want to get back home asap.
I'm a fair trader with a very good feedback on ebay which is the proof that l have closed
a lot of successful deals.
During this period l learned that the best deals are closed when the risk involved is
minimum. You will arrange payment through western union(www.westernunion.com) .You receive and inspect the
machine you have to send me the rest of the money.The inspection period for it is 3 days.
I have something safe for you because I want you to be sure that you will
receive the vehicle and I hope we will collaborate in future too .
Look what I can do for you:
-you will make the transfer to my location but not to my name(you will use
your best friends name for example as receiver's name)so you can be sure that i will
not pick up the money until you get the car.So you make a deposit at western union
and you will give me the transfer's details(SENDER NAME,RECEIVER NAME,MTCN) so i can
check that the deposit was made .(this will take a few hours because i can check it on-line on www.westernunion.com)
After i verify I will send you the car immediately.
-only after you will receive the car and check it if it OK you
will have to change the of the transfer to my name so i can collect my money.
So until you will have the vehicle in your hands the money will be deposited on your
best friend's name at western union agent.
I think it is better to not inform western union that you will
change the receivers name in a few days because it is possible they ask you to pay the
fees twice(fees that are quite big for such an amount) also when you go to an western
union office to make the transfer,please don't tell there the reason for you send the
money because here in this country I must pay some additional taxes when I receive the
founds.Please say you send the money to your friends or to your partner.
My old buyers of course make the transfer at western union direct to my name which is
easier and i will be happy if you can trust in me but because it is our first deal i
proposed you this very safe and efficient method so you can only deposit the money
first and after you get the car to allowed me to cash it.
After you've completed the transfer you will receive a confirmation that will allow me to track the transfer.
Here are the details that i need:
-sender name and address
-receiver name will be me
-exact amount wired
-MTCN # (10 digits)
-if it is possible a scanned copy of the receipt format .JPEG for me to add to the files
As soon as the payment will be confirmed and the money properly sent, i will IMMEDIATELY
proceed with shipping .
I will ship the vehicle via Ocean freight insured and It will take 10-15 days until you will have it at your door.
The payment is fully refundable if for any reason you do not accept the vehicle or
if it has scratches, hidden defects, or it is not as advertised. I will even pay for
the shipping back to my location if you reject the vehicle but since it is a state of
the machine and works and looks perfectly I think it would get to this.
After you check the car and do all the tests with it you must send me the remaining part of the amount directly to my name
Here is my name and address you need for the western union transfer:

First name: Emilio
Last name: Teros
Address: Via Di Franco 7
ZIP: 56100
City: Livorno
Country: Italy
If you agree with these terms,let me know and i will be more than glad to
start to complete the transaction with you.
Thank you and I hope that you will have the pleasure to drive this machine.
Kind regards.