WARNING - Selling your car scam !!!

scheming_gypsy

paddyrg wrote: »

BTW - I have edited out your personal info in my post, you may wish to do likewise in yours :-)

I think the details are the scammers... it's the reply to the advert and from Tracie whereas the poster is called Julie

meggsy

We advertised and sold a car on autotrader a couple of years ago without a problem using telephone contact only. Another number is generated so the real one isn't published.

I would also send the fraudulent emails to http://www.actionfraud.org.uk/ to help stamp out these scams.

Riablo

I have just received a scamming email.

I've had loads over the years, but this one nearly caught me out for several reasons:

1. I live in France and have advertised the car on an English speaking website (my French is not good enough to deal with French scammers!!), so I expected the replies to be in broken English as it is many people's second language, therefore poorly written email is not a big concern.

2. Email was individual and not generic.

3. This is the first scam where the scammer has provided me with a phone number to call him on. The number was +44070... so I assumed it was a UK mobile. I called him on it and spoke to him, nothing unusual, just a poor signal. I have later found out that 070 numbers can be used anywhere in the world and are very common with scammers and to top it off can cost you a small fortune (around £1 per minute) to call. I assumed scammers would not want to talk to people in person, but I was wrong, this is a common trick apparently.

4. Scammer had a yahoo email address. Apparently this is normal for scammers as it gives them a way to hide their identity. For me this didn't register alarm bells as I was also using a yahoo address.

I haven't got as far as the scammer telling me how much or how he will pay for the car. I wanted to check out what the scams were before giving him anymore information. He has just asked for my name and address so I assume he will send me a forged cheque.

The weirdest thing I found was this comment: "how are you doing today? actually the reception here was bad but i must say you have a lovely and sonorous voice. well i will like you to tell me about yourself and maybe family and how old are you? if you don"t mind."

That freaked me out completely and was the main reason I wouldn't send my address!! It was later that I realised that it all fell into the mould of a scam...if they hadn't have creeped me out then I may well have fallen for it. I'm not sure what the point of making out that the person buying your car is a pervet is meant to intice you in, but the fact he said these things made me think it wasn't a scam...seems a funny thing for a scam artist to say?? urgh

As for people saying that you would have to be really stupid to fall for these scams I actually think that some of these can sound credible.

I have always sold things on the basis of cash on collection or payment by cheque but goods will not be released until the cheque has cleared. I think that most people would think they were taking adequate precautions by making sure that the cheque cleared before letting the buyer take the car.

unholyangel

The +44 (or 0044) replaces the inital 0 in UK phone numbers. So I would expect a UK mobile number to start +447 (or 00447) and not +4407.

I believe in other 419 scams it is now becoming more common for them to threaten the victim and/or their families. That could have been part of the reason. Or he could have been checking whether you would be susceptible to other scams.

The last thing you want is for your name to be put on a "suckers" list.

Azari

Have a look at this site for masses and masses of information on scammers and a lot of amusing anecdotes from people who spend their time playing them at their own game.

scheming_gypsy

unholyangel wrote: »

The +44 (or 0044) replaces the inital 0 in UK phone numbers. So I would expect a UK mobile number to start +447 (or 00447) and not +4407.

More than likely just a typo, a lot of people will forget to drop the 0 through regularly starting a number with 0

gb12345

Riablo wrote: »

I have always sold things on the basis of cash on collection or payment by cheque but goods will not be released until the cheque has cleared. I think that most people would think they were taking adequate precautions by making sure that the cheque cleared before letting the buyer take the car.

The problem with that is that with a good forgery, it can be weeks before a cheque is actually found to be bad and then if you have released the car or (and this is the more likely scenario with cheque scammers) sent a portion of the money to the "shippers", you will find yourself with all the money clawed back from your account. There is a wealth of information here - http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=12250#p12250 about cheque scams.

Oh and you are right about the phone number, +4470 numbers, might look like a UK mobile but they are actually personal redirect numbers that can be redirected anywhere in the world. They are free for the owner (as the costs are borne by the caller) which is why scammers love them so much as they can appear to be in the UK when they are actually in Nigeria or wherever.

jacky2004

Hello,

I have just made the payment now and i expect PayPal to have emailed you by now,i sent £3,700.00 GBP in all, PayPal said they would be holding the funds and it will not be credited into your account because of the excess payments of £500 i have added which was meant for pick up and delivery,they said they have emailed you to this effect, i will need you to send the payment of £500 out to my pick up agent Headquarters via Western Union money transfer,so that PayPal can credit the total amount of £3,700.00 GBP into your account as soon as you have email the Western Union details to them.. this is the pick up agent info needed to get the money sent through Western Union.

Bernard Dominic
No 23 Ring Road Ibadan
Oyo State.
Nigeria.
23402

Please kindly email the necessary details:the MTCN which you will be given at the Western Union office after the £500 has been sent as well as the sender's name and address you used to send the money through Western Union, so i can forward it to PayPal or better still you can email it to them directly by replying to the payment confirmation email they sent to you,that is fine with me as well, so that they can credit the total amount of £3,700.00 GBP into your account,please i will need your address where it will be picked up,and i also need your phone number as i will need to give it to my pick up agent who will contact you after they have received the payment and PayPal have credited your money.


DO NOT REPLY AND CONTACT [EMAIL="reportthisad@autotrader.co.uk"]reportthisad@autotrader.co.uk[/EMAIL]

and do not sent them any payments!!!!

Matt1997

Hi, trying to sell an old mini at the moment and have had two people contact me from abroad with similar storeys. Is this just a coincidence or is this a new variation on the same old thing? First guy calls from Greece, says he has been looking for something like my car, his son is at uni in Bradford and will call me about coming to see it, I ask a few questions about how he plans to get it back etc, never hear from him again. Second guy calls, says he is in Switzerland but his brother lives in London and he will get him to come over, same thing, I ask a few questions, is it easy to register a second hand foreign car there etc, never hear from him again. Both sounded to me like they were from where they said they were from but spoke pretty good English. Am I being paranoid or are they testing the water for some sort of scam?

paddyrg

With an old Mini it *may* be more likely to be genuine overseas buyers wanting an iconic motor - but frankly ANY scheme that isn't cash on collection has so many ways to be bent, especially from overseas, that it is worth rejecting out of hand. Make your life easier, UK buyers only, cash on collection only, and treat yourself to a £3 forgery detection pen.

PS - just for up above, the discussion of 070 numbers - they used to have some legitimate uses for 'follow me' numbers before mobiles became so ubiquitous. I have now yet to see any legitimate use for one in the past decade or so - if you see an 070 or +4470 number, it is pretty safe to assume it is a fraud. I see no reason why the whole number block and free international forwarding number services sector can't be retired now as fraud seems to be the only business case for it carryng on where there isn't a better, cheaper alternative availabe.