[TreeDoc]

Fabs, tell him to have a looksy on ebaY. On average ebaY is on the up and up but when it comes to Motorcycles and ATV's it's a paradise for fraud. They almost always eminate from the UK for some reason but I have seen others that are blatant fraud from other countries like Denmark, that's another common one.

I may have relayed this story before but a member from an ATV Forum sent me an email asking when I had shipped my ATV to the UK to sell it. He then provided me with a link to an ebaY auction. Some crook had copied all the pictures I had posted in my Gallery of this forum and put my ATV up for sale for a "Buy It Now" price of $2000 USD. I had just paid over $6 grand for it without all the extras I had outfitted. The pictures even included a couple with my wife on it! These guys always seem to offer free 4 Day Air service via FedEx too.

I was "almost" involved in one but I vowed that I would only participate in an auction for an ATV if I could drive to see and touch the merchandise, prove it had clear title, and hand the seller the cash. I had one lined up down in Southern California, 4 hours south of me where I have lots of Family still. I had many good communications with the seller prior to bidding and I was going to bid this thing to win it. All was good till right before the end of the auction when my last communication with the guy was about me winning the auction and then driving down there to review the documentation, check the machine, and give him cash. He never replied in the last few minutes and the auction was bidding at about $3300 for a nearly new Polaris Scrambler 400, a 4x4 Sport Quad for the dunes by my house. I watched the auction until it was down to the last 30 seconds and I entered my proxy of $4500. I was positive I had it nailed only to see a screen come up saying "Auction ended early...winning bidder is XYZ Person". It "supposedly" sold for $3325! I emailed the guy fuming pissed and asked him what was going on and he replied immediately that he didn't feel he could trust me so he let it go to the another bidder who had never bought anything on ebaY before and had zero feedback and hadn't even submitted a prior bid on this item. He left about $1700 dollars on the table! It was obviously a Con that he was hoping to pull and I would have called his bluff had I won.

Amazing how people out there in the real world conduct themselves!