BUYING SCAMS: Fake ads

If it’s too good to be true, then it probably is. We recently found a long list of classified ads on ebay from one specific seller, which included 10-year-old Range Rovers and an Audi Q7 for sale for less than £5000, often at half the usual price or less. Each ad requested potential buyers to send an email message and some requested a mobile phone number.

We contacted ebay to discuss this particular case and they looked into it, discovering the account had been hacked (possibly via a phishing scam) and the advertisements were scams. These cars were not for sale, but the fraudsters were probably hoping to take a deposit payment via a fraudulently opened bank account, then disappear with the funds.

Fake advertisements are not limited to online websites. Magazine ads are equally vulnerable, but are often removed before they appear. However, it remains a big problem for magazine websites, where advertisements can be posted for free.