Beware of eBay adverts asking you to contact outside eBay

Example

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2011-Volkswagen-Passat-CC-2-0-GT-TDI-CR-BlueMotion-Tech-4dr-5-Seat-Diesel/111189828067?ssPageName=WDVW&rd=1&ih=001&category=9873&cmd=ViewItem

To make it clearer the part asking you to contact the scammer is a jpg so that it won't be picked by Google, so just to ensure that the addie gets the recognition it deserves:

[email protected]

Like this?

Perfect example John.

In fact the style looks exactly like the one I mentioned.

If you see that don't even bother contacting the seller.

I can't say it enough that no buyer should ever make any payment before seeing and inspecting a vehicle. There are enough dubious sellers I've detected on ad sites that don't fall in the category of out and out scammers we deal with, so the risks of buying online from unknown sellers are great. Many sales claiming to be by private sellers are actually trade sellers masquerading as private sellers. One trade seller on a major ad site masquerades as a limited company which no longer exists.

Undoubtedly there are some honest sellers on ad sites but I can't advise you how to detect who they are. I can only suggest methods to protect yourself from the most obvious scammers.