You’re in need of a car, so you check your local online classifieds. You see a car for a good price - possibly reasonable, but maybe on the edge of reasonable. The seller can’t show you the car for whatever reason - for example, they’re in the hospital. And of course, the car is nowhere near where you live, so you can’t see it.

But in comes eBay to save the day! They’re selling through eBay, so eBay will ship the car to you on the seller’s behalf. (Some versions of this scam use Amazon or another well-known, respected company that has nothing to do with the scam.)

Of course, they’ll want you to wire the money, or send it via other irreversible methods. And of course, there’s no car and you’ll never see your money again.

How to protect yourself
Never, ever buy a car, especially a used car, you can’t inspect before you hand over the money. This includes local transactions - always have a qualified, trusted mechanic check over a used vehicle sold by owner before you pay for it.

On top of that, eBay doesn’t ship cars for people - or anything else; sellers ship items, or in the case of vehicles, shipping is arranged by the buyer. eBay will facilitate the transaction, but it doesn’t do any of the actual sending. While eBay does have its VPP (Vehicle Purchase Protection) program, this is limited to vehicles bought through eBay Motors, not by someone who has their item ‘delivered by eBay’.

Be aware of buyers you can’t meet in person. Use common sense - if the seller says that they can’t show the vehicle in person because they’re in the hospital awaiting surgery, you might wonder why they’re thinking about selling their car at all. If you’re in the hospital awaiting surgery, your first thought is not going to be “I need to sell my car to an internet stranger that I can’t verify really exists.” (Scams happen to sellers too, after all.)