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Is this a Scam?

I was talking last night to a work colleague and he told me his son had seen a Audi A3 with 19000 miles on the clock and 3 years old in the autotrader.
The price £3500? His son e-mailed the man and it turns out he is Jamaican and living in France, but has lived in the uk in the past.
The man asked my friends son to get a reciept to prove that he had the money to buy the car. This i think is a bit strange. He then went on to say that he should put the money into the Western Union. The guy said he wanted the reciept because he had been over before to sell the car only to find it was a time waster, so wanted proof he could buy it. Whats going on? i think its a bit to good to be true, but cant figure ou what the scam is.
The car is probably worth 8 or 9k.

Comments

  • rev_henry
    rev_henry Posts: 4,965 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    In short, yes its a scam. Western Union is totally untraceable, so at some point the 'seller' will ask for the money to be sent to him by this method, at which point he will promptly disappear with it. The car more than likely doesn't exist.
  • wharty
    wharty Posts: 426 Forumite
    Ok thanks, but why is the western union untracable?
  • Meepster
    Meepster Posts: 5,955 Forumite
    Yes, it is a scam.

    There is no car. Once he has the receipt that the money has been deposited, you'll never hear from him again.

    To quote "If something sounds to good to be true, it usually is"

    Avoid like the plague...
    If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands

  • rev_henry
    rev_henry Posts: 4,965 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Basically you go into one of those cheque cashing type shops, hand over your money, fill in a form and off it goes, somewhere in the world. At the other end the receiver shows some ID and picks up the cash, less commision. Never used it myself for obvious reasons, its meant to be for sending money to family abroad, that kind of thing. But it is widely open to abuse, once the transfer has taken place you have no comeback.
  • dealer_wins
    dealer_wins Posts: 7,334 Forumite
    Classic scam. do not send any money as the others have said!!!
  • olias
    olias Posts: 3,588 Forumite
    If you are feeling community spirited then inform autotrader as well, as they rely on customers/readers to update them to this sort of thing in order to pull the ad

    olias
  • maninthestreet
    maninthestreet Posts: 16,127 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture
    "You were only supposed to blow the bl**dy doors off!!"
  • Exactly as Rev-Henry states. The scammers do this with laptops, properties to rent, cars, anything with high value. Basically they will tell you they are on business or something and rather than them waste time coming all the way down and you may just not turn up they want you to prove you are serious and have the cash. Anytime the word Western Union crops up i send a message back saying REPORTED (as long as it is a site where your email details, etc are hidden from the receipient) and you never hear a word back.
    Mummy of 3 lovely munchkins :smileyhea
  • wharty
    wharty Posts: 426 Forumite
    Thanks everyone. Its now of Autotrader.
This discussion has been closed.
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