Autotrader conman be carefull !!!

balsingh

Simple way to avoid this sort of rubbish is to not have email as a point of contact. If someone really wants your car, they shuld call you. A conman wont call!!!

MickKnipfler

Ask him if he can send the money up on the banana boat

tinkerbell1978

off topic but mick shhhh are you a mason!?!

david29dpo

i had a phone call just like this! from NI. says he will come to collect the car and bring cash. i am excited to very worried. says he will ring back tonight so i will see what happens. he also asked if i would leave the car in my name for three months! why?

saintjanet

The sad thing about all this,is that there are genuine cash buyers who purchase cars to take abroad ,where they resell them and make a profit.This is legit. unlike the people who the op is dealing with.

I had a car stolen,on a test drive,i had advertised in Autotrader,so i am so suspicious now, it puts me off trying to sell privately.Its a shame really as most people are probably genuine.

david29dpo

update on my last post. the chap from NI rang again. he wants my car. he has asked for a honest description because of the distance he has to come. fair enough. he has booked the flight from belfast to birmingham for friday, and then the train from the airport to new street. he with then hop over to show hill for a train to stourbridge. i have agreed to meet him at stourbridge station. i am taking a friend with me. he is bringing cash, and we will all go into my bank and pay the money in. i then hand over the car and wave goodbye! he then intends to drive to hollyhead to catch the 5.15pm ferry to dublin. please can anyone tell me if all this is ok? what could go wrong? am i doing the right thing? if this is a scam, have i covered myself? many many thanks.

odowdchr

If he's bringing cash and taking it to the bank with you, it seems legit.
Just park the car in the multi-storey so he can't leg it and drive off or something.

Oh...leaving the car in your name for 3 months....Did he explain why? That seems weird, unless he's trying to hide his assets for some reason. Wife? Debt collector?

david29dpo

thanks for that. i did ask him, and told him its illegal for me to not put the car in his name. i think he is selling it on. he is ok with it now after i told him no deal unless on my terms.

wazza

odowdchr wrote:

If he's bringing cash and taking it to the bank with you, it seems legit.
Just park the car in the multi-storey so he can't leg it and drive off or something.

Oh...leaving the car in your name for 3 months....Did he explain why? That seems weird, unless he's trying to hide his assets for some reason. Wife? Debt collector?

remember that any speeding fines will come to you if you are the registered keeper

violetta

david29dpo wrote:

the chap from NI rang again. he wants my car. he has asked for a honest description because of the distance he has to come. fair enough. he has booked the flight from belfast to birmingham for friday, and then the train from the airport to new street. he with then hop over to show hill for a train to stourbridge. i have agreed to meet him at stourbridge station. i am taking a friend with me. he is bringing cash, and we will all go into my bank and pay the money in. i then hand over the car and wave goodbye! he then intends to drive to hollyhead to catch the 5.15pm ferry to dublin. please can anyone tell me if all this is ok? what could go wrong? am i doing the right thing? if this is a scam, have i covered myself? many many thanks.

A few points would worry me.

Is he definitely phoning from NI or just saying that he is? If he phoned by mobile you would have no way of checking. He could arrive at Stourbridge station from a few stops up the line, then tell you sorry, his bank advised him not to travel with so much cash on him, and issued a banker's draft for him instead. Which he assures you is genuine but could easily be a forgery, that you pay in successfully on the day. Then six weeks or so later, after the car is long gone, your bank tells you sorry but on trying to obtain the money from the other bank, it did turn out to be fraudulent.
Because you think he has gone to a lot of trouble to come all the way by plane and then has a ferry booking back that he has to catch, you would be pressurised to believe him and allow him to take the car in exchange for a banker's draft.

If you know his name (which I expect you might do by now) phone the ferry company that served Holyhead - Dublin, pretend to be him and say you are checking your 5.15 reservation is all in order for the given date. They may say there is no booking at all in that name. He would have had to book the car on as well, and you can easily give the ferry company the make and reg of that if they ask. You could also do this with the airline if you know what time and where he is supposed to be landing.

The only way to be sure would be to let him know that cash and only cash is acceptable, and no way can this be substituted at the last minute for any other form of payment, no matter how far he says he has travelled to get the car or what inconvenience he might say he has been put to.

I would ask myself why he would come all that way to buy a car, sight unseen, when they must have plenty of second hand cars near to where he lives (unless you have a very rare and desirable kind of car).

Sorry to sound paranoid but I have read articles in the Telegraph about how clever and plausible these scamsters are. And because you handed over the keys and docs willingly, your insurance company does not want to know.

Hope you get on alright - let us know what happens!

Violetta