Was it a scam or have I made a boo-boo?

spadoosh

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

From reading your Opening Post, I think you have done the right thing. All this blokes story was missing was a little old lady going to church!

She would but cant remember where it is!

pendulum

Fair enough to reject the bank transfer if you had suspicions, but he then offered cash, so I'd have given him the chance to pay cash. If your selling privately your going to have to accept payment somehow and cash is as good as it gets. He may well have organised things and you've just messed him around. The second eBay account bid could be because he still genuinely wants the car as he's made all the arrangements.

LovelyLeeds

I would say you were 100% right to cancel any arrangements. All this meeting half way stuff is wrong. The buyer comes to you - end of (not quite end of - WITH CASH!).

Strider590

Seriously, its a classic sob story scam....

vax2002

this scam works by using international money transfer payments,
They mention cash to pull you in, then it changes to transfer, as good as cash yeh ? the buyer pays up, then something terrible happens with the cook and bull story, poor old guys has a heart attack and his sick widow needs the money to bury him, Cue violins..

They ask for a partial refund offering you a generous payment for your trouble, very tempting !
then You refund and then they cancel the transfer as it is under international money transfer rules which can be reclaimed in some extreme cases up to 90 days.
The banks have agreements to allow money to be drawn so it shows up as cleared payment .
The bank then snatches back the payment balance and you are left out of pocket to the value of the refund.
Another point Beware they are people on here and many other forums involved in the scams positing fake success stories.

Another beware is some have tried to play along and ended up with £120 worth of letters from the bank and a frozen account...

ice.blade

possibility that, you were not expecting to part with your car so quickly and that's why the anxiety....

Sometime it happens to me when I sell something(precious) on ebay....

but I think, he is sending someone to pick up the car and hand over the cash, then it is as good as normal transaction.... only thing is it happened too fast....

pendulum

Sometimes guessing what is going to happen can get you in trouble...

Many scams may offer cash to lure you in, then the person will try and change it to bank transfer... but this guy went from bank transfer to cash, and we do not know he would have tried going back on the cash offer, because we do not know he was a scammer. If he's offering cash, offer to take it; if he THEN tries to go back on that offer, that's when to walk away. There was no evidence of a scam IMO. I've been in situations where things have looked dodgy but turned out perfectly ok!

jaydeeuk1

There was a thread on here the other week about some bloke wanting to buy a car off the OP to export to europe or somewhere, and offered a generous amount. Everyone screamed scam (I thought so too to be fair!) but surprisingly turned out to be legit!

If he's offering cash, and hes willing to go to the bank with you whilst you pay in, I don't see the problem.

tsb

jaydeeuk1 wrote: »

There was a thread on here the other week about some bloke wanting to buy a car off the OP to export to europe or somewhere, and offered a generous amount. Everyone screamed scam (I thought so too to be fair!) but surprisingly turned out to be legit!

If he's offering cash, and hes willing to go to the bank with you whilst you pay in, I don't see the problem.

I know where you are coming from, hence the worry afterwards whether I made the right decision or not. The thing is he only offered cash after I queried the offer of bank transfer upfront (when things seem too good to be true and all that plus this car isn't rare or anything). When that didn't pacify me altogether he said the driver would even take me to the bank. Fine, but realistically is that going to happen on the day.. maybe not. When I'm still not being convinced by all this wouldn't you, if you weren't a scammer of any sort ask me the question what I would need from him to convince me and allow the deal to happen. If you are genuine and nothing to hide wouldn't some personal details for me to check out and verify be offered ?

s_b

i get this
london callers making appointments wanting to buy
asking me to save it
im coming on de train now they say
i then get lots of phone calls that they are on their way
i let them get to the nearest train station and say im in hospital and the car i was coming to pick them up in has been in a major accident maybe it will be on the news

i sold a car to that london a few years back and not soon after i had a solicitors letter saying my car not the sold one so they had written number plates and make down had been involved in an accident in the very area i sold the car to and i had failed to furnish details to the other party


scam scam scam

ive heard em all


he would turn up after bank hours and bluster you to taking some form of dodgy payment
if these people put all the effort into helping the world rather than thinking up scams the world would be a better place but just like thieves who nick stuff they dont need
coz its there
its not going to happen is it

ebay for car? no thanks
autotrader for cars yes please because you can tart them along see while you laught at them