Car Buying Scam

thomasanchovie

I was looking at cars on ebay when I noticed this one for sale -

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Volkswagen-Golf-1-9-GT-TDi-150_W0QQitemZ330098386031QQcategoryZ9873QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

At first I thought there might be a mistake in the price or the mileage. but decided to email the seller to confirm, this is what I got back -

Hello, thank you for your interest in my car.

I am currently in Paris, France.

I had a work contract in UK and I needed a car so I bought this one. I
have to sell it because I have moved back to France and it's quite hard to
drive a car with the steering weel on the right side, in france.

The car is now in Paris and in excellent condition, no accidents, no
scratches, no dents, no need for additional repairs and I have all the
necessary documents to make the sale. This is a garage kept car, very well
maintained.

I am the fist owner and I can assure you about the history of the car. I
bought it myself from a Dealer.

The last price is Pounds 1300.

I agree to let you test the car for a few days, under certain conditions.
- the car comes with a clean history log and the certificate of
registration.

- being registered in UK, it will be no problem to cancel it's registration
and transfer it to you. If you are really interested in buying it here is
how we can easily start this transaction.

About delivery I have already contracted a shipping company and the car is
in their custody with all the papers and documents needed.

I will support all the fees required by the shipping company.

Please let me know if you're interested and I will send you more
information.
My cell phone number: 0044 703 182 1140

This has scam written all over it, can anyone confirm and if it is, whats the best way to get a classified advert pulled, the only way I can see is the fact the item location says Oxford when he then says its in Paris.

frivolous_fay

That's item location misrepresentation. Click on the report this item button at the bottom of the listing.

I'm quite slow today so I can't immediately see the scam, although it definitely looks suss. No doubt it will come to me soon

kriss_boy

With cars Id always pay for an RAC vehicle check.

Costs 24 quid for the full test but its worth it as it tells you what you need to know as well as providing a form of insurance up to 10K (i think) if they get it wrong and it is stolen.

When I bought my beamer the guy came all the way from glasgow with it... and drove it to my house without tax (nor insurance i suspect).... and he hadnt properly filled in the documents to state we was an owner.... so i stalled him and got a check over the fone before buying it.

thomasanchovie

The scams not really noticeable in his ad, its the emails which tell you its not actually in Oxford its in Paris and you need to pay the £1300 to the "shipping company" who will then deliver the (ridiculously under-priced) car to you and release the money to him when you accept the car.
I presume it'll be a western union type scam, but because its listed as a classified ad it just looks like a very good deal on a car until you contact him.

At least I hope thats what it is otherwise I've just missed out on a really good deal on a car!

frivolous_fay

thomasanchovie wrote: »

The scams not really noticeable in his ad, its the emails which tell you ... you need to pay the £1300 to the "shipping company" who will then deliver the ... car to you and release the money to him when you accept the car.

It doesn't say that though - have you had more than one email?

pennylane99

its for sale here..at £8495

http://www.buyyourcar.co.uk/Spec/Volkswagen/Golf/Code/AWB1159849.aspx

thomasanchovie

frivolous_fay wrote: »

It doesn't say that though - have you had more than one email?

Yes, I should have mentioned, hes sent me 5 in total saying I pay the £1300 and they release the money to him once I'm satisfied, if not they return the car to him.

If I was selling my car for £1300 I wouldn't be offering to ship it over for viewings to to someone in Paris to see if they liked it!

Fritha_2

pennylane99 wrote: »

its for sale here..at £8495

http://www.buyyourcar.co.uk/Spec/Volkswagen/Golf/Code/AWB1159849.aspx

After seeing this I'm almost certain it's a scam. I briefly worked for Autotrader (I get about a bit me!) and one of the things we were told to look out for were cars at suspisously low prices, they're almost always dodgy. In fact, truth be told, just going off the ad on ebay I have my suspicions about it.

As this car is for sale somewhere else it would seem likely that he has nicked the photos and description and shoved it up on ebay.

I would recommend NOT buying the car, reporting it to ebay and also to the website linked above.

Basically, as is said many times, if it seem too good to be true, it probably is!

aj3001

Curious, very curious

That car is definatly not based in Paris, or those pictures are not of Paris, but I wouldn't go near it!

soolin

It's a common scam and is more common through the small ads than on ebay. Put car scam and overseas into Google and you'll get pages of warnings like this one:

http://forums.roadfly.com/alerts/5822151-1.html

aj3001

So basically a standard scam "you send money, I will send product" product never arrives