Those cheap vans on FB marketplace.

The fact you are asking answers the question.  Scamtastic IMHO.

I'd definitely take a punt, could be a bargain to be had.*

*Run a mile, it's a scam. 🤪

scam - the account is hacked, and will be recovered but by that time you're already emailing the email address. Will likely require a deposit or a delivery fee, which you'll pay up front and never hear again

Yeah, Facebook is a really good place to find really good bargains on vans/motorbikes/motorhomes/caravans/premium marque cars – I don't know why more people don't snap up all these great bargains.

Not vans but I've noticed similar postings for sofas (because I need a sofa), often marked as free or very cheap and listed in locations all over the place. When looking at the actual advert there is very little information and its clearly not located in the place they have listed it. That's enough to count me out because they're being dishonest about the price and location.

In short its probably either a scam or a legit but dodgy deal. It is FB after all!

There are so many scams going on with vehicle sales these days.

Things to watch out for include crash repaired vehicles that were never declared to the insurers so don't have a Cat S or N marker.

Also sellers who have an old V5 and a new one, perhaps from swapping private plate before sale. I've heard of a guy selling a car, buyer searches for the usual problems but it comes back clean, but seller still has the current V5 after the sale , buyer was given the old one, seller uses newer V5 as collateral to take out a loan. So you've just bought a vehicle with outstanding finance. Eventually the finance company will repossess it. Avoid this by completing the V5 transfer online at point of sale, not with the V5 slip the seller gives you.

I'd avoid anything that looks too good to be true in the mileage or price stakes. I'd be super wary of any private sale or fly by night garage. You've got to do homework and use an enhanced vehicle service even if buying from a main dealer these days

Things to watch out for include crash repaired vehicles that were never declared to the insurers so don’t have a Cat S or N marker.

its worth noting that there are huge numbers of crash repaired vehicles that were declared/repaired through insurers that would also have no markers. A 1 year old car worth £20k that has an accident causing £10k of damage will likely get no marker, but the same car at 8 years old, worth £5k, that has a scrape causing £3k of damage will get written off

Thanks all - pretty much as I thought then.

Just ignore FB completely, you'll go mad trying to work out which are scams or real.

Gumtree, Autotrader & eBay are much better.

You're not after a 16-year-old Vivaro are you?

@chakaping depends - is it a scam? 😁

@dirkpitt74  Of course not, just wire me the money by Western Transfer and my uncle will drop it off later.

But if you are looking for something of that vintage for under £3k, I'll be putting my crew cab up for sale next week - 162k miles with a good service history.

The scammers aren't reserved to selling, we have recently tried to sell a kitchen table on FB and the number of people with convoluted stories about pick up and payments, and their uncle lives round the corner, we gave up. 

Likewise the £89 power tools, designer furniture etc.

I've stopped touching any of these places with a bargepole.
We were genuinely giving away an 'excess' sofa + chair ( house  clearance) and you'd not believe the amount of dicking about we had to deal with.
I hate just dumping stuff in  landfill when it still has good service life left. But **** me this left no option (charity places wouldn't take it either despite having fire labels etc)

I was also selling 2x old but serviceable bikes suitable for commuting. Old, well used hard tails, but safe and reliable, functioning forks , but 8 or 9 speed and 26" QR wheels etc for £50 each. I needed garage space. How many time wasting dickhwads or taking the pish ers ?  Eventually gage away to a bike recycling scheme. I'd rather do that than some chavvy whaaaanker try to case out the garage or have both for £30.
The country is full of tossbandits.

Don't write it off completely. There are genuine sellers, you just have to be careful. I understand that some people just don't want to deal with them but generally if you look at the sellers profile and there is a huge list of available vehicles, that is most likely a scam.

I've sold 2 cars on Marketplace no problems. 

The new and old V5 doc scam could happen on any site. Even Autotrader.

The details they give on the email reply seem to be a genuine transport company (checks out on companies house) but the address for their "warehouse" location is a residential address...... even fishier

Facebook Marketplace in real life.....

I’ve stopped touching any of these places with a bargepole.

Same here, I used to give things away on Freecycle, even stuff I could have charged for like a perfectly good, not-too-old freezer but you just spend all day fending emails from chancers and hoarders, then the loon who said they want it decides that a trolley jack will be too heavy to take on the bus, so you have to try and offer it to someone who you told it had gone. Like I haven't got better things to do at the weekend. Last straw was giving away a perfectly good pine single bed with mattress. Guy turns up, looks at the bed.. "has chip there" - points to end of bed that would be against the wall, small cosmetic wood chip. Made a fuss about it as if I was somehow scamming him, but took it anyway.

Just all goes to the local tip now.

@chakaping if it's a LWB crew cab I could be interested 

I have a 13 plate Vivaro LWB minibus coming up for sale. Less than 60k, MOT is next weekend, it's an auto and had the seats stripped out but most of the belts are still there I think. Tailgate on the back and towbar fitted.

Based in Ayrshire

@chakaping if it’s a LWB crew cab I could be interested

SWB I'm afraid @droplinked

I bought my Leaf on FB Marketplace but I did think carefully about it. Turns out they were a business although they didn't advertise as one. But we travelled there and did the transaction face to face at their site. No delivery/deposit nonsense.

Marketplace is clearly full of scam cars though. 6 year old Merc for £6k? Mm hmm.

Marketplace is a cesspit but I've bought and sold successfully on it over the years. See it all the time as I'm always idly browsing for a newer Caddy. Best way is to click on the sellers profile, usually 'selling' 20+ cars/vans and 1/4 of the market value! Easy enough to spot/avoid though TBH

We've recently sold my OH's Polo.. sold for about £10k..

We did list on FB marketplace, but sold to a friend of a friend...

But there were similar age/spec cars listed for £3k ish..

I mean... It's unfair people get scammed, but I've little sympathy fo those people who really can't see that a car selling for 30% of it's value ISN'T dodgier than a dodgy thing!

DrP

@chakaping can you get a 29'er in the back with wheels?

@dirkpitt74 yes I have a M/L bird aeris 9 in there now, which is similar to most large size enduro gnarpoons

Avoid this by completing the V5 transfer online at point of sale, not with the V5 slip the seller gives you.

I've heard of this scam, but can't see any option to transfer the V5 online, care to point me in the right direction?

As I can find this site but it's doesn't allow you to do anything useful: Tell DVLA you've sold, transferred or bought a vehicle - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The key with that service is to tell it you are the seller, which allows you to transfer online. If you tell it you are the buyer it doesn’t let you. Also, it’s not 24hr (obvs, as it’s a Gov web service!) 

I was looking at buying an espresso machine last night on marketplace, fair price, used, plenty of pics.

Person wanted £100 deposit and remaining £15 on collection 'as she didn't want to get robbed'

😂😂😂