is this a scam?

MrsWanda

sorry if this is the wrong forum to put this on but i need some help and advice if possible please...

im trying to sell my car and put it on the gumtree website and had a prompt email back from one guy saying this;


Thanks for the prompt response.I will love to see some pix and I am ready to buy it now for my Dad as a Birthday gift and i am at sea at the moment as i am a marine engineer and due to the nature of my work, phone calls making and visiting of website are restricted but i squeezed out time to check this advert and send you an email regarding it. I really want the item to be a surprise Birthday gift for Dad so i wont let him know anything about the item until it gets delivered to him, i am sure he will be more than happy with the item. I insisted on paypal because i don't have access to my bank account online as i don't have internet banking, but i can pay from my paypal account, as i have my bank a/c attached to it, i will need you to give me your paypal email address and the price so i can make the payments asap for the item and pls if you don't have paypal account yet, it is very easy to set up, go to www.paypal.com and get it set up, after you have set it up i will only need the e-mail address you use for registration with paypal so as to put the money through.
Note that you will not be responsible for shipping and handling. The shipping company that I used to patrol will come to your location for the pick up....
Kindly provide me your Name and full address so I can forward it to the shipping company to calculate the cost of pick up for me.
Thanks


followed by this one;

Thanks for your precaution and I appreciate that. But let me let you understand that:
I'm so sorry I can't use my Bank account to do this, because several times my Bank have send out money to sellers like you with no respond, after they might have received the money and besides, I've stop using online Banking ever since then. I find it difficult and uncomfortable doing business online until a friend of mine introduce me to PayPal and since I have been using PayPal as mode of payment in an online transaction I've not had bad experience in using it.
So I'll prefer using PayPal only because it's very secure, safe and easy.........PayPal is the most secure payment company in the whole wide world and I'm assure you that there is no problem about it, i will wait for the money to clear in your PayPal account before the shipping come for pick up and also about the shipping company, i had this problem with the my shipping they send a mail to me regarding the pick up, my pick up company says i will need to pay for the pick up before they can schedule a pick up time, i should have paid them the shipping company by my self but i don't have access to my bank account online, so i need to to add it to the payment i will make for you, so that you can help me send the money to them, so that they can schedule a date for the pick up...........so am looking up to you to help me out of this.....waiting to hear back from you
Thanks

chancesare_2

Ignore it, don't even reply.

purplebutterfly

Don't know if it's a scam but I barely understood any of what was written. I wouldn't enter into a business contract with somebody who I couldn't understand - you won't know what on earth you're agreeing to!

nnosam

I wouldnt reply to it either...
sounds like a scam to me, sorry

debsy42

Defo scam, ignore and have a read here

worried_jim

scam do not respond, its just some chancer in Lagos.

arriva

sounds like a..... ....scam

MrsWanda

Thank you all for the prompt answers. I did say to my daughter (it is her car) but they don't like to think that mum might be right and i didn't want to be wrong either.So i thought it best if she posted her cause if it sounded like a scam or anyone knows of the scam we would soon be told. Thank you again and thank you for the advice. xx

mobile48

Here is the next email you will get:

Hello...., I was just about to make the payment when i had this little problem with the picking up,I got an email from my agent..i taught i included that in my previous email.he said he won't come and pick up the item unless i pay him the agent commission fee first in order to be able to schedule a pick up time ,and my pick up agent head quarters is in the United Kingdom and all commission payments made for pick up, from anywhere in the world is sent to their head quarters in the UK and the only form of payments they accept is western union money transfer and i tried to pay online but i will need a credit card which i didn't bring along, and there is no post office(there is usually a western union section in most post offices) or any western union agent offshore! so i have to ask you to help me with the pick up fees, i will include the $3,000 they charged to pick it up and take it my home(1st class treatment), to the payments i will send through paypal. After i have made the payments and it has been confirmed by paypal, i will need you to help me send the $3,000 to my pick up agent through western union money transfer, the western union money transfer can be made at a post office near to you,there is always a western union agent in most post offices or online at www westernunion com .I will be making the payments shortly and will email you as soon as it has been done.

in_the_Cotswolds

I also had something like this some time ago. The email was along the same lines, bad spelling etc, and he wanted to pay by cheque. I replied "Due to the high amount of cheque fraud I'm only accepting cash". No reply, it stopped all the messages.

Say something like the above. Try to force them to pay cash. You won't hear anything more.

terra_ferma

there was a thread not long ago about the same scam, I suggest you search 'marine engineer' on this forum, you'll get quite a few...

It's obviously a standard template, not even mentioning what they are purchasing.