monkie

I did see that post, it was interesting reading. The way I look at it is that most of us have our heads screwed on and can spot these scams, but many people can't. I often think the trick ebay use is that you start picturing yourself with the item so you will bid more. This also happens with the scams: You see a really nice Land Rover Defender that you can afford. You start to picture yourself enjoying days out in it. This then can make some people blind to red flags as they are now led by their heart and not their head. Boom, £10k gone and never seen again. I picked this scam out because I have never seen one before with so many classic red flags all at once. I have no idea what happens when stuff is reported to ebay. Do they remove the listing? Do they delete or freeze the user account? So what, the person can pop up again with another user account using a different email address and they can get more photos elsewhere of what ever item they use to draw people in. They always seem to be on holiday, away with work, visiting family overseas or as you say, in a part of the country that is inaccessible to 99% of potential buyers.

Yes, totally agree ^^^ I've seen what look to me like scams before, but this one had so many warning signs before I even made contact and then when I did make contact it was literally like a textbook scam with all tricks being used: The price was about £8k under value (this is what grabbed my attention) The photos were clearly from a dealer as you could see many other cars for sale in the background (yet the user profile was not that of a dealer and had no other listings - where were the other vehicles for sale?) I checked out the car using a HPI check (I bought a bundle offer a while ago so used one up) it came out clean which made me even more suspicious that this is beyond too good to be true The ebay user profile was newly created, had nothing else listed and the user profile had no feedback score It wasn't listed anywhere else (gumtree, autotrader, Facebook market place etc), usually they are listed at least somewhere else if the ebay listing isn't an auction. Then I contacted him saying I would like to come and have a look (in my experience every single genuine seller has welcomed this and especially with a Defender, won't mid you spending an hour underneath it inspecting the chassis, props, looking for leaks etc) The ebay message immediately bounced back with an out of office notification but contained a private email address of the format name.nameyear@btnet.info as the conversation progressed he switched to a different email account He immediatly replied to my email (but was apparently too busy to reply to my ebay message) He ignored my request to view it and immediately assumed I wanted to buy when I had never mentioned buying it The listing was then taken down off ebay as he thought I was either buying it or maybe reporting it He stated he was away from home for a while (as a tanker driver) so I couldn't come to see it first He was trying to pressure me into buying it now by saying there were two options to do it (use a holding company or paypal pay after delivery) I was trying to remove the pressure by saying "don't worry if you're busy, I'm in no rush, I'm happy to come when you are back home in a few week's time" He ignored my attempt at removing pressure, if anything he tried to ramp up the pressure more I asked about the MOT - he totally ignored my question and again tried to push me into buying it (at this point I politely told him I wasn't interested). The internet is a wonderful thing for finding out information on people if you search. I had a location, name and year of birth. There was quite a bit of information on him. He has been involved in many things that appear suspicious, some of which involve finance comapanies and also car dealerships. In my experience of Land Rovers and meeting fellow enthusiasts (mostly on here), everyone has been friendly, helpful and knowledgable. This has not been an exception when I have shown interest in Defenders for sale. Any genuine seller will be more than happy to let you come and look at it first before even talking about money. Please see these red flags and if you sense something isn't right, walk away. This guy could have taken £10k off someone for a Land Rover I doubt he has never seen and I imagine you would have extreme difficulty getting your money back. £10k could be someone's life savings, these people make me so angry!

Yes that is true, I haven't met the person. However if you read up on him and go digging there is a lot of suspicious activity relating to that name for the past 8 or 9 years which involve the motor trade and finance.

Yes that is true, I haven't met the person. However if you read up on him and go digging there is a lot of suspicious activity relating to that name for the past 8 or 9 years.

Yes the ebay account was a new one, but it was his email address, year of birth and location that showed his identity. What a fool.

Lower than market price to reel you in. Email correspondence to take you away from ebay, gumtree etc. Won't let you see it, ebay advert disappeared as soon as I was emailing him and he thought I'd buy it. Talks about an escrow transport company... The land rover obviously wasn't there, he had just got some photos of one from a genuine dealer sale. I don't want others to fall in a trap and loose their money to scum bags like this.

I don't want to get in trouble for naming anything if I shouldn't. Admins, @Hybrid_From_Hell, @Happyoldgit is it okay if I name the seller or put links to companies House so others can avoid this individual?

I saw a 2011 2.4 Tdci Defender station wagon for sale on ebay last night located in Bridgend. Asking price was just £10,500. The pictures looked great but were clearly taken at a dealer as you could see other land rovers for sale in the background of the photos. But for that price, and the apparent condition from the photos, it was clearly too good to be true. I checked it out first online, all came up clean. I sent the seller a message in ebay. Instantly got an out of office, but it stated to use an alternative email address. I was too tempted to see what he'd say so I messaged him pretending I wanted to buy it. His first mistake was that I knew his location from the ebay advert and his email address was his full name with year of birth. I googled the name, year and location and he came up on companies House with an extremely dodgy history. He replied to my email saying he was happy to sell it to me (lucky me). I asked when would be convenient to come and view it. He ignored my request and said he was away for 2 weeks as a tanker driver but he'd use ab escrow transport company (at his cost) to send it to me and I could return if I didn't want it (how thoughtful of him). I thanked him for his kind offer of arranging the transport, but I was in no rush and was more than happy to wait until he returned so I could come and view it. I also said that if I liked it, I would buy it and drive it home there and then. One other thing, the MOT expired on March 1st so I asked he planned to put it through an MOT before any sale. He ignored my requests and insisted on him arranging the transport. I just politely pointed out that this contained more red flags than I could shake a stick at and stated I am not interested. Please everyone beware of too good to be true sales.

I have bought "genuine" parts off ebay, but I don't anymore. I've had a couple that are definitely not genuine parts but supplied in a genuine parts box/bag which I promptly sent back. I'm afraid I just don't trust ebay unless it is the ebay shop for a vendor I trust.

The rebuilding aspect that is what is pushing me down this road of thought. Mine is going to need a chassis and rear axle sorted at some point soon. I haven't got the time or room to do such major works.

Yep I have one. Decided to write it over the Christmas break for jobs to get done in 2022. Its grown over the past 25 days, so much so that it has almost convinced me to swap my 1988 110 for a 2000ish Td5 station wagon! EDIT: which has since started to further escalate to me reviewing getting a Tdci.

I'd be tempted to drain it and fill it with fresh diesel. Having a diesel tank half full can lead to moisture in the fuel which in turn can also lead to a black fungus growing in the diesel. Swap your fuel filter, pop in some neat cleaner and take it for an enthusiastic drive.

Don't know, good question. My gut feeling is it wouldn't do much but that's just a guess as when I use it I go for a good old fashioned Italian tune up! If it were mine I'd be inclined to swap the injector nozzles for a new set if they haven't been done before.

The thing is with injector cleaner, I understand it takes a couple hundred miles to have an effect.

^^^ do this plus give it a good service in terms of oil change and set of filters. If you want to go the extra mile get a set of new fuel injector nozzles for a belt and braces approach. Out of interest, does it have the EGR in place or has it been blanked off?

Or maybe cheaper in the long run if you could source a Discovery 200Tdi for a sensible price, rebuild it, keep yours as a spare and sell the Defender spec manifolds for a silly price on eBay to recover some of your cost?

I've just seen that Glen Coyne has a new batch of the engine mounts in stock. We'll worth the upgrade over dodgy old ones or cheap ones.

Or where possible - walk. Zero pollution and helps reduce the obesity crisis. Both my wife and I work full time, where possible I walk my daughter to school. So many of my neighbours drive their kids and it isn't because of work pressures. I find that a good walk before I start work helps me to focus throughout the day and keep stress at bay.

Yes, my individual earth wires go to a central busbar that in turn is connected directly to the battery negative terminal. What I think happened was, I had mistakingly connected the blower motor earth via the instrument earth which was then trying to earth too much through one wire. All was fine until I switched on the heater blower motor giving me the impression that the voltage was dropping with the blower on. When I investigated behind the dash, I could see my mistake. As soon as I used the dedicated earth wire for the blower, the problems all disappeared in an instant.

True, except what about schools, homes etc not in the city centre but near major roads that will have the excess traffic squeezed out of the city centres. I think it just moves the problem rather than solving it, but generates cash.

The Bristol IKEA example for me is a good one. Currently to get to IKEA from where I live (in my highly polluting diesel) up the A37, through a small bit of Bristol past Temple Meads train station and then to IKEA. This is the most direct route using the least amount of fuel. If I want to get there but avoid the charge, I have to go up the M5, across the M4 and down the M32. A much longer journey using more fuel and therefore causing more pollution. (Now how does that contribute to cleaner air for anyone?) Personally I think the best way to approach this would be to scrap VED and any clean air tax for City centres but put the charges onto the price of fuel (maybe figure out an exemption or reimbursement for HGVs to support hauliers). I think this way would be fairer because if you choose to drive a more polluting vehicle or drive a further distance or indeed have a heavy right foot, you will pay more in tax towards the pollution you have caused rather than paying a flat fee whether you have spent 5 minutes zipping through the city centre or spent all day rolling coal round the one way system.

Or how about on special occasions pay up but tweek your injection pump to get your money's worth?

And enjoy them!

Completely agree Richard. It's a slippery slope, I don't think we should just accept it being rolled out across the country. If they are serious about air quality then they would actually sort out alternatives to cars that really would make a difference rather than pushing the issue elsewhere. Anyway, rant over.

Good news, I don't have to buy a new battery or alternator... The culprit was I had mixed the earths up when I put my new speedo cable in. I had earthed the blower motor on the same earths as the instruments. Nice easy job to sort, all is working well. My gauge now reads just over 14V with the heater on max, headlights on and wipers. Thank you again for all of the suggestions.