Am I being scammed?

bclark

I think that I may be being scammed by someone trying to buy my Car but I am just not sure.
I got contacted by e-mail by someone interested in my car and they haggled a little on price. Now it turns out that they are living abroad now (first alarm bell) and want to ship my car abroad. They say that they will pay me by a UK bankers draft and they will also take care of all of the shipping etc.
This obviously rings major alarm bells with me as I am pretty sure that I am being scammed somehow but I just can't put my finger on where they plan to get me? They are not asking for any personal details or for me to pay any money up front as other scams I have seen have. All I can think of is that the bankers draft could be dodgy? Has anyone got any clues? Is this a well know one?

tomstickland

Sounds exactly like a very common scam.
Pay you, take car, draft recalled. I think.

hewhoisnotintheknow

i bet your car is nothing that special (not being rude, but i mean not worth exporting)

total scam avoid

busiscoming2

I wouild have no idea if this was a scam or not, but go with your instincts! I would refuse to sell it to them, it sounds dodgy to me.

vikingaero

bclark wrote: »

I think that I may be being scammed by someone trying to buy my Car but I am just not sure.

If you're not sure then you are being scammed.

I got contacted by e-mail by someone interested in my car and they haggled a little on price. Now it turns out that they are living abroad now (first alarm bell) and want to ship my car abroad.

Why would someone abroad want a RHD car in LHD markets? A few place drive on the right but not many.

They say that they will pay me by a UK bankers draft and they will also take care of all of the shipping etc.

Foreign person with access to a UK bank draft? Shipping to Europe will be expensive. If you buy a car here for use in Europe most people will drive it themselves.

This obviously rings major alarm bells with me as I am pretty sure that I am being scammed somehow but I just can't put my finger on where they plan to get me? They are not asking for any personal details or for me to pay any money up front as other scams I have seen have. All I can think of is that the bankers draft could be dodgy? Has anyone got any clues? Is this a well know one?

The draft will initially clear but then come back rejected or a fake. By that time your car will be abroad and you may have spent the money and owe your bank. The only sure way is not to release the vehicle for shipping unless the draft has cleared "for fate". Sometimes they'll pay you more and ask you to send the extra money to them or a relative in the UK.

albionrovers

Avoid like the plague.

And, while we're here, avoid those UK phone calls where a local buyer has been lined up and is all ready to view your car, all you have to do is give us £100. Also a scam.

hummy

this is a rather common scam now i'm afraid. I had something similar only the opposite way in that i was interested in buying a car. The owner said he had relocated to Germany and bought his Mercedes over to Germany as he had no where to leave it in the uk. And he said because it was RHD it would be practically impossible to sell for a decent amount in Germany as they are LHD. He said to forward all funds into a money banker escrow account and he would ship the car over. If i liked it then funds get released from escrow and if i don't like it he will pay for the cost of shipping the car back and i will get my money back using escrow. It did sound too good to be true and the price for the car was unbelievable. I decided to get a HPI check done on the car and everything matched up with the owners description. So i proceeded with caution and asked him to send a moneybanker invoice. Being familiar with moneybanker i did know they provided a service that allows escrow. But when the email came it was obvious to spot it was a scam. They wanted me to go to my bank account and do a wire transfer to a german account. I decided to play along further, and email the guy saying i would rather jump on an easyjet flight out to Germany and see the car in germany and pay cash to collect. Guess what...never heard back......

It's happening more and more now on auto trader, as i have seen it also mentioned in some motoring magazines. Just play along or hang up th phone.

bclark

I am going to play along and basically say that I am happy to sell him the Car as long as he is happy that I won't release the Car until the funds are cleared in my account. I will see where he goes from there.

darich

I had the exact same email when i was selling my car a few months ago.
It was a 2003 Toyota Celica. Nice car but not extravagant or really worth exporting.
i can't remember the exact wording but i do remember replaying and asking a few questions because the original email was full of contradictions and poor english.

It was worded very like a lot of the Nigerian email scams that go on.

Voyager2002

bclark wrote: »

I am going to play along and basically say that I am happy to sell him the Car as long as he is happy that I won't release the Car until the funds are cleared in my account. I will see where he goes from there.

He may disappear at this point. However, be aware that if the draft is a good fake it will at first show as cleared funds in your account. It might take as long as six months for the fraud to be spotted and the funds recalled from your account, but be sure that that is what will eventually happen.

So if you play along, take the draft to the police and see if they can "sting" him.

TiTheRev

Similar scam but the other way around. Either way, steer clear!