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Help!!! Potential Scam Costing Me $5000

2K views 45 replies 34 participants last post by  gabeowen 
#1 ·
Hi guys,

sorry for shouting in the title but I really need quick advice.

I bid on this 2000 r1. I entered my max bid, then got outbid by a buyer, with ZERO feedback, who joined ebay in August of this year, and WHO LIVES IN CANADA.

So frantically, I call the seller and say you are not going to allow this guy to bid are you, he says I'll give him 2 days, if he does not pay, I'll sell it to you for X.

Someone else outbids canada and I just let them win it. So 10 minutes after the auction ends, the seller calls me and says it was his friend who bid to make sure canada does not win it, but it is still available if I want it.

I say HECK YES. I'm in. Then he says the bike does not have license plates because he moved in from Cali to TX and never drove it in tx. I have never heard anything like this before.

So I ask if he has a clear title. NO. he has to payoff the company in Cali but can have the title by monday.

So I ask if he has proof of ownership. He says no, but his name is on the registration.

This just raises a bunch of red flags. I dont want to buy a
1. stolen bike
2. a bike with a salvage title
and I definitely dont want to give almost 5k to someone who will dissappear.

I am going to pick it up tomorrow. What can I do to make sure this is a legit deal?
 
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#27 ·
1st off it is nothing to hard to change your item loaction on the ebay listing and this still says texas?? also he does have 100% but nothing in the last 3 months so you dont know if they were big $$ sales or buys as alot of people buy and sell cheap items to get there feedback up alittle??? As said before i also dont think you can run a carfax on a bike?? do more research and cross the T's and dot the I's before you buy....2000 r1 with those miles could of went for $4400.00 but its worth what ever someones wants to pay for it.......
 
#28 ·
JaguarsLogic said:
It sounds like it could fall either way. Here is what I am planning to do.

1. Check the vin with the police

2.get there in the morning. Ride it and make sure it is in good condition

3. Verify that the vin on it is the same vin on the auction

4. Take as much of his info as possible. I plan to make copies of the registration, his driver's license, job id badge, etc

5. Verify the loan amount with his bank. If he cannot verify this , then absolutely no deal. I am a car salesman so I know how easy this is to verify.

Matter of fact, I will send the full payoff amount myself and request the title be sent to my address. If I cant do this then I wont buy the bike.

6. I'll attempt to do a credit check and verify that he is who he says he is. Again, as a car salesman, I can do credit checks for free and instantly.

If I can verify the bike is not registered stolen, and he is who he says he is, I will take delivery. If not, I'll bounce and go look for another one.
If you're gonna pull his credit, make sure you do so with his written consent. It's a severe FCRA violation to check his credit without his authorization. As a car salesman I'm sure you already know that.

Overall, this seems to be a shady deal. The bike is not all that either if you ask me. As someone else pointed out, the paint job looks like crap. For 5 grand, you can find something much nicer.
 
#29 ·
JaguarsLogic said:
It sounds like it could fall either way. Here is what I am planning to do.

1. Check the vin with the police

2.get there in the morning. Ride it and make sure it is in good condition

3. Verify that the vin on it is the same vin on the auction

4. Take as much of his info as possible. I plan to make copies of the registration, his driver's license, job id badge, etc

5. Verify the loan amount with his bank. If he cannot verify this , then absolutely no deal. I am a car salesman so I know how easy this is to verify.

Matter of fact, I will send the full payoff amount myself and request the title be sent to my address. If I cant do this then I wont buy the bike.

6. I'll attempt to do a credit check and verify that he is who he says he is. Again, as a car salesman, I can do credit checks for free and instantly.

If I can verify the bike is not registered stolen, and he is who he says he is, I will take delivery. If not, I'll bounce and go look for another one.


You aren't listening. Walk away. Do not pursue, do not check on legitimacy. Just walk away.
 
#30 ·
I think you should go with your gut instinct.
If the guy sounds genuine and he will provide all the information you need to check it out that’s normally a good sign.

I have brought my last 2 bikes off ebay in the UK (98 R1 in white and red and Aprilia V twin) and always check the bike is not recorded (We have HPI in the UK which checks if the bike has been damaged or stolen).

I never pay over the internet and just drive up with the cash - if it is what it says it is I pay and leave - if not walk away. I suppose distance might be a concern for you as it's a long way to go if the bike is a mess.

I have also sold my last bike on ebay and had no problems.

Like I say - go with your gut instinct providing all the paperwork details can be sorted.
 
#31 · (Edited)
spazzypaddy said:
I think you should go with your gut instinct.
If the guy sounds genuine and he will provide all the information you need to check it out that’s normally a good sign.

Hi guys,

I went and checked it out this morning and it checked out. His name( as on his driver's license)was on the registration. I called the lien company and they verified the payoff. The lady at the lien company said she would overnight the title to me as soon as they received payoff.

Anyhow, I got stopped by a cop two minutes after taking delivery, at a gas station getting gas. He wanted to know why I did not have plates. So, I put on my best behaviour and passed the attitude test. I did not get a ticket. He was "kind" enough to run the vin though and it was not stolen. It was registered with the same guy at his old address.

anyhow, to cut a short story long, I got a good deal from an honest(well semi-honest) seller.

First thing I did was take it to the make-ready dept of my dealership and have it stripped of all the yellow-orange stuff and all the stickers. I also put the rear seat back on and took off the cowl.

The guy was kind enough to give me an expensive helmet(that wont even fit my big head), a set of gloves, and a battery tender(nice) i wonder how much battery tenders cost?

Anyhow, I am now the happy owner of a 2000 r1, with half race brakes on it. The rear tire was worn to the metal so I was scared riding it but he gave me a brand new high performance tire(at least it looks high performance)

As I said, to cut a short story long...
 
#34 ·
Yamahuh said:
First of all what is wrong with people bidding from Canada?
I've bid on and won e-bay auctions when I was living in Canada, what with import duties, taxes and the exchange rates it's an expensive proposition to buy a bike that's in the US but sometimes the price justifies it. A friend of mine drove from Canada to N.Y.City to pick up a Ducati that he won in an e-bay auction.

Anyway, that's besides the point, I don't see the plates being an issue unless you normally buy a vehicle plated, in Canada when we sell a vehicle the seller keeps the plates, so everything is sold unplated.
I would be more concerned about the clear title, I would ask him for he details on the loan, institution, contacts, phone and fax number etc and contact them directly. If they are unwilling to give you specifics about the status of his loan (i.e whether it's been paid off) I'd need som eother kind of ABSOLUTE proof that it's been paid for before I parted with any of my money.
I'm not sure how things work down there but here, the seller is legally obligated to provide and informnation package generated by the Ministry of Transport which proves that the seller is the legal owner, the bike has no salvage title and there are no liens against the bike.
It makes things very simple

Bottom line, if there are red flags in your mind ...walk away ... there are loads of bikes out there.
I think his point was just that its outside the states, could be more complicatedfrom a legal standpoint.:dunno I agree to, walk away, there are plenty of R1's!!!:)
 
#39 ·
vcyclenut said:
i wouldnt give him the money till you get the title, sounds like he could be legit but it also sounds like it could be a scam, get as much personal info as possible from the guy, run the numbers, btw no way the guy can get a title that fast, it takes at least a week best case
:iamwithst When I won the auction for my R6 on ebay, I only gave the guy $100 deposit. Paid the remaining amount when he signed the title over to my name.
 
#40 ·
I don't really thing it sounded too fishy to begin with. Like someone already said, the plates don't belong to the vehicle. They belong to the owner. When you sell your vehicle, you keep your own plates anyway, so either way, you won't get plates with the bike. If the bike is financed, of course he won't have the title in hand. It seemed like it was pretty easy to confirm everything, so I'm glad it worked out. I wouldn't buy any vehicles off of ebay either. There are just too many other places to look for bikes for sale. The only things I buy off ebay are cheap crap that would be pointless to make a scam out of.
 
#42 ·
silver_02_rider said:
I'm gonna have to say that I haven't detected anything glaringly suspicious thus far. When I bought my 02, the guy selling it to me didn't have the title either because he was still financing it through his bank, so the bank was the actual title holder. However, he was still able to register the bike under his name and operate it legally. After I paid him the money, he paid off his bank and a few weeks later they mailed him the title. He then signed over the title to me and I became the title holder and the registered owner of the bike.

This may be the same scenario for the guy that's selling it to you. From what I understand, carfax doesn't carry reports for bikes. I think the best thing to do would be to go to the dmv and have them run the vin and see if everything is legit.
+1
 
#43 ·
What kind of rear tire? Does it match the front?

Tender - 30-60 bucks
What kind of helmet?
What are "half race brakes"?
 
#44 ·
Sabian said:
What kind of rear tire? Does it match the front?

Tender - 30-60 bucks
What kind of helmet?
What are "half race brakes"?
Tire, metzeler sportech, and it matches the front

agv demon top vent -now my main helmet. Better padding, better wind protection, and easier to unhook than my other helmet.

I dont know what half race brakes are, but they are not street brakes, according to him because they are designed for the track,where he used them. They work WELL.
 
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