BEWARE of SCAM-Second Hand Car Sale

jane_0808

I had recently inquired on a second hand car from an advert on Gumtree.com and received the following replies from the "seller". I thereafter found out that it is an ongoing scam asking buyers to put money into MoneyGram or Western Union with the promise of using Ebay Motor Service to facilitate the inspection and shipment of the car. Ebay confirmed that such services do not exist. Hence beware of similar scam using similar method.

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First email:

Reply to your ad: Audi A2 SE 1400 like new
Hi,
Sorry for getting back so late. The car has 39.000 miles, I am the
second owner. Unfortunately I can't setup a meeting or to call you,
right now I am at Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps (QARANC)
making final preparations before deploying to Afghanistan. I can't use
the phone for personal reasons ( we are not allowed with mobile phones
), I have a lot of interested buyers who want to call me but I cannot
talk with them, this is why I choose to use the email. However, I want
to sell my car before I leave and I have the car at our local shipping
center. Shipping may take anywhere between 1-2 business days depending
on your location ( this is available only for UK ). All documents you
need for ownership, log book, manuals and bill of sale will be provided
along with the vehicle. If you want to buy my car I can arrange a deal
that comes with a 15 days inspection for you and that guarantees that I
will be paid after 15 days. Let me know if you're interested.

Diana - Nurse Corporal

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Second email:

If you're really interested in purchasing my car I would like to use
eBay Motors as a third party that will handle our transaction. I used
their services before and everything went well. Basically, they will
check me, make sure that the car exists and it's exactly as advertised
and they will ask me to deliver the car to your address. In the same
time you need to prove them that you have the funds for buying my car.
You have 15 days to inspect the car and if you don't like it you will
return it to me. If you like the car you will contact them and ask them
to pay me. In order to start a transaction with them I need to provide
them your details so please reply with your :

- Full Name
- Address
- A second address if it's different from yours for the shipping company
- Phone Number

They should contact us in max. 24 hours after I will start the
transaction.

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Enfieldian

There are hundreds if not thousands of these anywhere like Gumtree or Autotrader.

They are obvious as the value of the car is a lot higher than the asking price. Therefore greedy suckers get drawn in.

Why are Nigerians so obsessed with stating job titles/ranks in their scams? Like any member of the armed forces is going to put their rank in a personal email anyway.......

hewhoisnotintheknow

the worring thing is people who fall for this scam have driving licences

Gumtree_company_representative

Yep NEVER user Western Union or Moneygram (or even Paypal for that matter) on Gumtree. The golden rule is to meet face to face. And when meeting to see a car (where lots of cash could be involved) don't take the cash with you. Go see the car, assess the situation and then go draw the cash if you are comfortable.

hartcjhart

Gumtree rep,
a quick question,is it possible for you to put a search function on the site that enables you to search all the other areas or a set distance from your local site?

I use the site a lot and it would be much easier

Gumtree_company_representative

Yeah a lot of people ask for this. It is kind of contrary our local community ethos so this is why are not doing it currently. That being said, we are testing some other ways of doing this so it may change in the next few months