https://kleinanzeigen.de previously known as https://ebay-kleinanzeigen.de the most used second-hand platform in Germany was sold from ebay to an norwegian Investor Adevinta
Also “ebay for cars” mobile.de was sold from ebay to Adevinta.
“In June 2020, Adevinta won the bid to acquire eBay Classifieds Group – which includes the German platforms mobile.de GmbH and eBay Kleinanzeigen – for US$9.2 billion.[2] In return, eBay received 44% of the shares in Adevinta, making it the largest shareholder with
with 33.3% of the voting rights. The sale was completed on June 26, 2021
completed.[3]” (Wiki)
Quiet a lot of money.
fraud
While on ebay, sellers and buyers have to extensively verify their identity, on kleinanzeigen.de (basically craig’s list) the original concept was: the user A visits user B and buys the product in cash from the front door.
But often user B is too far away and the item is small enough to be shippable, so a simple (paypal-enabled) mail address is sufficient to signup and send money, for products that MIGHT never arrive.
With products for small amounts of money users trusted each other and after a paypal transaction the product was send.
AFAIK also on mobile.de no proper identity check is done. So fraud was done by gangs sitting abroad systematically scamming users. the scam goes like this:
- “Here is a very pretty car for a very cheap price… for 1000 bucks we will ship it to you, you can look at it and if you like it, buy it, and if not the car returns”
90% of all users are sincere but: WHENEVER there is “money upfront” business: BE VERY VERY SUSPICIOUS as it is OFTEN fraud.
- “Hello I am the King of Bell Air and inherited billions that i want to transfer abroad via your bank account. But in order to do so you have to send me 1000 bucks to cover the transaction costs” #wtf? Yes! Money greedy users fall for such things!
- guy from (Indian?) callcenter:
- “Hello you won in the Greencard lottery, but in order to get the Greencard you have to wire us 1000 Bucks in processing costs”
- “Hello this is Micro$oft. You have a virus on your computer, please browser to this address https://microfraud.com and download the fix.”
- the list of examples is endless…
too good to be true:
Today this seemed to be a VERY CHEAP offer 150 bucks for a 24V 100Ah battery (2.4kWh) that usually costs at least 400 Bucks.
the fraudster SKILLFULLY used a picture from a real SECOND HAND offer to make it really look like it’s second hand item.
it is GOOD that kleinanzeigen.de is displaying those warnings when sending mobile phone numbers or asking for payment WITHOUT their secure payment function.
a very similar battery, even on Aliexpress costs 500 Bucks!
soon after… the offer was gone, the fraudster account deleted and this mail came in: (so he obviously was scamming more users at the same time X-D)
Bet just as those “send (fake) Elon Musk bitcoin to get even more bitcoin” AI generated live youtube scam, this scammer was deleted, but he will probably be back tomorrow, with a new (paypal enabled) mail address.
kleinanzeigen.de definately has a lot of security enhancement to do, before it can be considered to be safe to do “remote ordering and selling” via this platform.
They try with their “secure payment” option, but it won’t be enough.
Charging small comission:
- a small flat fee of 0,35 Bucks and
- 4,5 % (this is way more than paypal but less than ebay and amazon! (15% to 20% depending on their category)) of the price you agreed on with the seller.
Example: You agree with the seller on 50 Bucks the fee in this case is a 2.60 Bucks (0.35 Bucks plus 4.5 percent of 50 Bucks).
https://www.ebay.de/help/selling#selling-fees
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