MTFCA Forum

Be careful purchasing reproductions parts on EBay. This seller and others are using a complex scheme to make money. They list an item like the one shown heavily discounted. When they sell a tire, they order one on our website using a stolen credit card. If we don’t catch it, it gets drop shipped and we supply them with a tracking number. eBay is happy, the eBay customer gets the tire and we get a “Chargeback” from the credit card company because of the stolen credit card. That happens well after the item is delivered. Notice that the scammers don’t even remove our “watermark” from the eBay ad. This scam has been tried with brass polish, POR15, and now tires. Lucas tire has also been hit 9 times in the last month.
Don Lang
Lang’s Old Car Parts

Sorry your getting hit by scammers. The bad guys are getting creative, I assume there is no way to protect yourself from this?

Will wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 29, 2025 6:45 am

Sorry your getting hit by scammers. The bad guys are getting creative, I assume there is no way to protect yourself from this?

Generally and sadly once a dispute/complaint is made to the C.C. company THEY (which means US via higher interest rates) eat the loss. Getting worse all the time. The day will come when we will HAVE to go back to good old pen and paper. AI will see to that if it isn't involved in this already.

If it seems too good to be true...

This eBay listing today, from another fake seller "andev_2441" , has the Lang's watermark shielded by cropping the snatched photo from Lang's website.


Wicked scammers, note the location Brazil , but shipped from "USA Warehouse" i.e. Lang's! Good grief :

They both have feedback scores of 10 or less. That means " newbie." I never buy from sellers that new. Bad ju ju.

eBay is no help at all. If they get paid then it’s OK with them having small businesses scammed.

That is just plain wrong!

This is going to ruin our old car “ hobby”.
Just wait till they start selling Scat cranks on EBay for $100.
T guys are always looking for “deal”.
People think that the cc companies get stuck with this, but they need to look into it.
You all should just use our own classified ads for your parts, or order directly from the vendors. Soon there will not be any to get parts from.
WAKE UP America!!!!!!
Now I am heading to shop for the day.

Glad I just ordered my tires directly from Langs! Whew!

Everything's just fine. The "Experts" have spoken!

This thread reminded me of Model T arbitrage:

Does anybody remember the unsophisticated fellow who, years ago, would occasionally post ads with photos in the classified section for Model Ts that he didn't actually own but were listed for sale elsewhere (ex. Craigslist) at a lower price by their rightful owners?

I started buying off ebay when they first appeared on the internet. This is before Zelle, PayPal, or anything like that. To date, I have yet to sell anything on that platform.

I know several people that sell on ebay. Some people I know use it as their sole income. One thing that seems to be agreed upon by all the sellers, even though the majority of them are not acquainted with each other. When a dispute arises, ebay always sides with the seller. Period.

That's where their money comes from.