Motor Vehicle / Motorcycle Anti-Scam Guide

IntroductionThis guide is intended to help you recognise fraudulent auctions and advertisiements for motorcycles that don't existBackgroundFraud and the Sale of Stolen Property on E-Bay is on the rise. Once only really prevalent in the US, Australia is now a target.A random survey of the E-bay Motors section recently found over 50 possible scam ads.If you complete a transaction outside of E-bay - You are on your own.If it sounds to good to be true - IT IS.Scammers lie and they don't care about you. Beware of Divorce/Dead Mothers/Debt stories. They are just lines ro reel you in on.How it worksThe Scam Artist - let's call him Joe Blow - gets some photos off the internet, either from a bike/car fan site or a classified ad and lists it for sale on E-bay using a stolen username and password or a new account with zero feedback.Joe will often make up some story about how his E-bay email account doesn't work for some bull reason and you will need to deal with him direct through his web based email from one of the usual providers.If you win the auction or use the buy it now option Joe will obligingly send you bank accouint details for an offshore bank in the US, UK, Spain, France, Romania or some other country nowhere near here. In exchange you will get a routing number, tracking number or some other useless string of digits supposedly enabling you to claim the bike which is currently "on hold" in a warehouse or "in transit". Once the funds have cleared scammer disappears along with your money. A few weeks later you lodge a complaint with E-bay but it's too late.How to recognise a Scam AdScam Ads follow are pretty easy pattern to recognise if you know what to look for:1. The seller id will be a new user with zero feedback. OR2. The seller account will be old with a good score but either registered in another country or with a noticeable gap in activity. IE: The person stopped using their E-bay account and the scammer hacked it. OR3. The scammer uses a phishing scam to hack an existing/live account. Look for a woman who normally sells teddy bears who is suddenly branching out into Harleys.4. There will be a Buy it Now option either in Ebay format or as a written in option in the item description. The price will be well below the normal value of the item.5. There will be an aol. com, yahoo. com. hotmail. com