I’ve been scouring the for sale ads on eBay, Autotrader, etc. for a T5 Kombi van. (yeah, I know! 🙄 ) I found one on Autotrader last night, the price was to good to be true, but I emailed anyway. (Wet bank holiday w/e, nothing better to do) I asked some basic questions, today I got a reply.

My first message:

Message:

Hi.

Interested in viewing the VW T5, reg VK11FWB. Also some additional info.

Is the V5 documents all present and correct? Is all of the info in the advert correct, including price?

Many thanks.

Big Black Shed

To which I received this:

Hello,
Its still for sale. Immaculate condition, no damages, nothing to worry about. All necessary documents available. My current location is Scotland due to my work commitments,If this is going to be a quick sale, I will let it go for £5,300 delivered at my costs. Are you familiar to eBay? I will list the van on eBay Motors for the £5,300 buy it now price and I will send you a link to my auction, so you can buy it immediate.
As soon as you will confirm the payment to eBay, I will proceed delivery without any additional costs for you.
In case you are not familiar with them, please read their Buyer Protection and will see that they cover 100% the transaction done through them up to £50,000. You will receive the van with all the documents. As you know eBay is the best company of online transactions. If indeed interested in buying it and have the funds, I will list it on eBay, as I have a 100% positive feedback with them.
Please let me know your decision.
Thank you

Ding, ding goes the bell. So I pitch in with:

Hi Laura.

I’m very interested in the VW T5, reg VK11FWB, but I would like to view and test drive it before committing to purchase.

The link in your email reply to your Autotrader advert shows that the advert no longer exists. But if I remember correctly it’s located in Manchester?

I have no need to use eBay Motors or to buy the van through that site, I would be a cash buyer, either cash, bankers draft or bank transfer, your preference. I could use PayPal if you wish, but it would be after viewing and test driving the van.

When can we arrange a time and date for me to view the van, please?

Regards.

Big Black Shed

Their reply, DING DONG!

Hi Andrew ,

Due to my location and since view is not an option I have requested personal support and I was approved to use Buyer Protection Program. Here is how the process works through the Buyer Protection Program:

– I make the private listing on eBay for you,
– you go and buy it through their website,
– you have to pay for the item to eBay to secure the funds,
– they confirm me that they received the funds,
– I deliver the van,
– you receive the van,
– they send me the money,

Everything is covered by eBay. I will get paid only after you confirm that you received the van in good order.
Let me know if this is acceptable. Thank you

DING DONG, DING DONG!

I’m intrigued as to how far they will go, So:

Hi Laura.

I wouldn’t be comfortable in using eBay to buy a van I had not seen or test driven. Where are you in Scotland? It might be possible for me to view the van at your location.

Can you send me photos of the van please? The advert on Autotrader is now not available to view, so I would like some photos to check condition, etc. Please include exterior, interior, dashboard including the mileage readout, the V5 document and keys please.

Regards.

Big Black Shed

To which they reply:

Hi Andrew ,

I am afraid that we can go ahead with the deal only through Ebay Motors , in the attachment you will find the pictures .
Have a nice day

They include the photos I asked for, straight from the Autotrader advert.

Whilst waiting for the various replies I’ve done some Google-Fu and found the photos in an ebay listing all for another, almost identical van, but different reg number. Also checked the DVLA website for MOT and basic V5 info. MOT expired March 2015, no tax since April 2014. So:

Hi Laura.

Thanks for the photos.

A couple more questions. When does the MOT expire? When can I view the van? I would be able to purchase through ebay, if that is your preference, but I’d like to view it first.

Regards.

Big Black Shed

They’re getting a bit curt now:

Hi Andrew ,

Sorry for inconvenience but viewing is not available this is the reason I insisted to do it genuine with eBay. A full refund/return policy is available.
Thank you

I started to type the email to call them out about some facts, but then I thought “BUT IT”S A BARGAIN, LET’S GO FOR THE EBAY LISTING”!!

Laura.

Can you put the van on ebay so I can purchase, please?

Regards.

Big Black Shed

Still waiting for their reply.

So, let hear your predictions about how it will go from here? I’m at work tonight with nothing to do, so this may keep me from getting bored.

I can see why you wouldn’t be totally convinced it’s a scam…..

Enjoy the van.

Dont pay that much for something you havent viewed or driven.

£5.3k for an 11 plate T5!!

Scammers are people too. 🙁

😆
Classic scam, for some reason t4/t5’s seem to attract no end of these. It’s quite sad that some people probably do fall for these…..

Just google a sentence in their message. Simple innit 🙂

“Its still for sale. Immaculate condition, no damages, nothing to worry about. All necessary documents available. My current location is Scotland due to my work commitments,If this is going to be a quick sale”

https://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=170216

Sounds well iffy. You can’t view it before you buy? Saying that, I bought a Passat which was 150 miles away without seeing it but I’d only put a deposit down. (Had it for 7 years & did 140k in it, best car I’ve ever had)

SCAM!! Run away.

Or have some fun?

Sounds well iffy. You can’t view it before you buy? Saying that, I bought a Passat which was 150 miles away without seeing it but I’d only put a deposit down. (Had it for 7 years & did 140k in it, best car I’ve ever had)

Saw a very similar ad when buying my sons car, reported it to Autotrader who confirmed it was a scam and removed advert.

Get them to list it and we’ll all fire some silly questions at them. At least it would give you the chance to highlight their scam account that they have built up some feedback on, or get them to reveal which poor sod has had their account hacked.

I know it’s a SCAM. I messaged them initially thinking they had missed a 1 off the front of the price. But then the reply came back full of church bells ringing, I thought “I’ll have some fun here”

Still waiting for the eBay listing though……,, 😥

That advert seems identical to the one the tiler at work replied to a year ago….

Unfortunately he did follow the link he was sent, and paid a hefty deposit, in fact I seem to think it may have been £2500.

Needless to say he never did get a van or his money back, despite doing the transaction in his local bank and asking them if the payment was legit.
Banking ombudsman was no help

Please report the ad before somebody else gets ripped off!

Very common scam on gumtree too.

Seems to be a fairly common scam for T5’s, the worst thing about it is that it’s so obviously a scam but plenty of idiots still fall for it.
Surely it’s blatantly obvious that it’s a scam when someone’s selling a van that’s probably worth £14k for £5k.

It’s surprising how many so called wise folk get caught out by these scammers, my mate was all set to pull the trigger on a similarly advertised T5 via eBay etc….thankfully he contacted me first!!

VK11 FWB

Not insured.

MOT expired 22 March 2015

Tax expired. (Due 23 April 2014)

Bet it’ll be a dodgy ebay link to a pretend site so they harvest your login details too

Just had the eBay link through. Follow link, not logged in, “listing no longer available”.

Now there’s a surprise!

Meanwhile, another van I spotted and emailed about has replied. Very similar wording but guess where the seller is?

Any ideas? No?

Iceland. Not the frozen food shop either. 🙄

Another example….

https://www.gumtree.com/p/vans/2012-vw-transporter-t30-140bhp-55k-swb-fvwsh-kombi-conversion/1132443888

If someone genuine is selling (insert product name) seriously below its value usually its because they really need to sell due to job loss/bereavement or some sort of episode. Anyone willing to take advantage is a ****. When I bust myself and not working in2003 there were a couple of stw’ers who pursued me trying to get my bike frame for peanuts ‘to stop it reminding me etc’. These type of people are scum. When a scammer steps into this situation but this time looking to take advantage of those who would take advantage I don’t feel that sad if they get bitten. If its too cheap theres a reason. Not ‘all’ those bitten are entirely innocent themselves

Ok what she is going to do is send you a “link” to the auction, which guess what, is not on ebay, its a spoofing site instead. So you pay and then get no comeback. Just avoid.

Just had the eBay link through. Follow link, not logged in, “listing no longer available”.

Now there’s a surprise!
dude I have just read this, it was likely a fake listing and you may have given them your user name and password. log into ebay now and change your password.

i friend of mine who sells transporters as his business has a 2012 kombi going at the moment….. its just a little bit more then 5 grand though 😆

What Toys said.

Never, ever follow links in emails. Go to the known site manually.

DON’T PANIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I took enough precautions so what Toys19 has suggested wouldn’t happen.

“Laura The Van Seller” has gone all coy on me since she suggested I send some money via Western Union, because her PayPal account has been restricted and she can’t receive funds, and I pointed out some basic facts and that she “MAY” not be being entirely truthful.

Like I said further up the thread, my first thought on seeing the ad was SCAM, closely followed by “Shirley they’ve missed a 1 off the front of the price”. Then the emails started rolling in so I took the piss for a bit, my sensible bit of brain was going:

Hora. So are you saying I deserved to get scammed because I responded to an obviously dodgy advert or that I was some sort of **** for trying to scam someone out of a vastly underpriced van?

Wow, just wow! 😯

Horaworld gets odder than usual when T5 Kombis are involved.

Didn’t read everything up there, but I had a similar one for a Mini Cooper earlier this year. Same sort of vehicle isn’t it, insofar as they hold their value and are sought after.

Anyway, the ad said somewhere in England (I think in the South East) but the reply said the car was in Wick in the Highlands, so viewing would be difficult. I declined and forgot about it. Then an almost identical ad came up again (may have been one on Autotrader and one on Gumtree actually).

Someone falls for it sometimes, otherwise they wouldn’t do it.