Selling my car - Is this a scam?

davemorton

Ahhh, so it could have been a cheque that was paid in, and not cash??

Keith

I put a motorbike on ebay, within minutes this guy sent a message "Hi, I will pay you £300 more to end it now".

I replied "sure", he sent a message saying "I will be exporting the vehicle". Alarm bells rang, two days later a nice polish man collected the bike, gave me cash and off my bike went to Poland.

Depending on the car, it may not be a scam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenya_used_car_import_law meet the bloke take the £4500 and move on. Messing about with banks and paying a teller isn't the way forward, it shows the other person that you think they aren't honest and I'd walk away if it was me.

cwoolhouse_2

Could have been. The bank couldn't tell me, although my online account shows cash or credit card payment. I suspect it was a stolen card?

If I get a call from him on Monday pulling out I'll know it was a scam. My bank told me he couldn't do anything with my details, and I assume that call was recorded, so less worried about that now.

vax2002

Keith wrote: »

I put a motorbike on ebay, within minutes this guy sent a message "Hi, I will pay you £300 more to end it now".

I replied "sure", he sent a message saying "I will be exporting the vehicle". Alarm bells rang, two days later a nice polish man collected the bike, gave me cash and off my bike went to Poland.

Depending on the car, it may not be a scam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenya_used_car_import_law meet the bloke take the £4500 and move on. Messing about with banks and paying a teller isn't the way forward, it shows the other person that you think they aren't honest and I'd walk away if it was me.

A motorbike can be driven on any road, but why would someone export a RHD car to LHD car country ?

Keith

Did you read the link?

2. All vehicles imported to Kenya must right hand drive (RHD) except for special vehicles such as ambulance and fire engine.

vax2002

Keith wrote: »

Did you read the link?

2. All vehicles imported to Kenya must right hand drive (RHD) except for special vehicles such as ambulance and fire engine.

No I did not, next question.

cwoolhouse_2

Keith wrote: »

I put a motorbike on ebay, within minutes this guy sent a message "Hi, I will pay you £300 more to end it now".

I replied "sure", he sent a message saying "I will be exporting the vehicle". Alarm bells rang, two days later a nice polish man collected the bike, gave me cash and off my bike went to Poland.

Depending on the car, it may not be a scam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenya_used_car_import_law meet the bloke take the £4500 and move on. Messing about with banks and paying a teller isn't the way forward, it shows the other person that you think they aren't honest and I'd walk away if it was me.

Hmmm. It is a 2004 car and it is Japanese. He did ask me about the tyres, any damage to panels, etc.

I tend to try to give people the benefit of the doubt, so I'll see what happens. I won't be leaving myself open though, and as said, I've been done before, so if I need to mess about in a bank to make sure I'm covered then I will. I'd rather someone walked away than I ended up £5,000 down if I'm perfectly honest.

cwoolhouse_2

Oh and Vax, I know what a 419 scam is, and this doesn't look like it. The 419 involves either me sending him some money first and getting sod all back, or him giving me a draft/cheque for too much and me sending him the balance before the cheque bounces towards the clouds.

Rover_Driver

Just a variation of it, dodgy cheque/bankers draft paid in, shows up as a credit in your account, buyer pulls out so you refund the deposit, bank not paid for the dodgy cheque/bankers draft and recall money from your account. He is £500 up, you are £500 down.

vax2002

OK ill explain the technicalities of the Scam
The period between the cheque or payment been drawn as funds and it actually clearing is know as the Float period.
The bank has to make funds available within 5 working days on international agreements , so in theory they loan you the money until the cheque clears.
Often the cheque is a fake copy or scanned forgery with correct account details and it is rejected by the issuing bank as such when it fails security checks or real account holder complains, in international terms this can take up to 6 weeks.
The issuing bank refuses to honour the fraudulent cheque .
Your bank then re-claims the "float loan" it gave you on the strength of this cheque clearing.
Whilst in the float period the buyer attempts to ask for a refund on the money, the victim thinking they have the funds obliges and is left out of pocket when the issuing bank refuses to honour the cheque.
The money is NEVER cleared until the issuing bank has honoured the cheque or card transaction .