A RINGWOOD motorbike business owner who was left thousands of dollars out of pocket has warned others against selling goods online.

Cash 4 Motorcycles owner Neil Gates said a 2010 black Yamaha R6 motorbike was bought for $7,781 from his eBay page on April 6 with the buyer using PayPal to pay.

Mr Gates said the buyer used the “Buy it now” feature and phoned immediately after the transaction to pick up the bike on the same day.

WARNING OVER GUMTREE BIKE SCAM

“Two men came to pick up the bike and before I let them take the bike off the premises, I checked PayPal to see if the money had gone through and once the funds were cleared I transferred the money into my personal account,” Mr Gates said.

He checked his PayPal account a few hours later and was shocked to find the transaction had been reversed.

“I rang PayPal the next day and it turned out to be a stolen credit card and that they didn’t cover cars and motorbikes,” he said.

“It’s definitely a warning to thousands of people who use eBay and PayPal to buy and sell cars and motorbikes, as they would not be aware the money is not guaranteed.”

“I’m so upset and I want the public to be aware as I hope that this doesn’t happen to someone else.”

He said he was furious PayPal would accept a stolen credit to begin with.

media_camera Neil Gates says people accepting PayPal payments for vehicles should be aware the money is not guaranteed. Picture: Steve Tanner

Ringwood Police Sergeant Mick Aston said the investigation was still ongoing and they were trying to work with the victim to identify the offender.

A PayPal spokesman said the company was committed to upholding buyer and seller protections.

“At PayPal, we have zero tolerance for the use of our secure payments platform to facilitate illegal activities and we always seek to protect our customers, both buyers and sellers, against eligible losses under PayPal’s buyer and seller protection policies,” the spokesman said.

“We are required to have consent from all PayPal account holders involved to disclose personal information regarding a particular case.

“We have not received that consent and so can’t share any details around this case. “

The spokesman said when a credit card has been reported as lost or stolen, their systems used the information to immediately decline any transaction made against that card.

“As outlined in PayPal’s Seller Protection Policy, vehicles including cars, motorcycles, caravans, boats and planes are not eligible for seller protection.”