Car scam lost 4k

curly_em_2

Hubby has fallen foul to a car scam lost 4k
Looked on Auto trader for a new car found one and sent email to seller basically asking questions etc seller said they had moved to Norway wife had a promotion through work now got a company car so needed to sell her car. My hubby sent many emails to the seller even checked the car details out online all matched etc so the way they was doing it was through a logistics distribution company that shipped the car back to Uk hubby would have the car for 10 days to get it checked by mechanic and see if he liked the car. But he had to pay upfront and pay £200 for the shipping so the logistics company contacted my hubby and with basically a contract and he made a bank transfer to the company.
As you can now guess the car hasn't arrived the seller as said the car is on a broken down ferry! The logistics company doesn't exist hubby drove to the address to find out where the car was..........we need advice we know now it was daft to do a bank transfer but it all seemed legit all the emails from the shipping company looked so good and we never thought this would happen.
Hubby has been to police they have opened a case but that's it really want to warn others about this scam how many people is this happening to :mad:

spacey2012

Have you worked out that there is no car yet ?

Rover_Driver

spacey2012 wrote: »

Have you worked out that there is no car yet ?

The OP has worked out it is a scam, the post is a warning, which unfortunately for her, most of us are aware of.

fivetide

Rover_Driver wrote: »

The OP has worked out it is a scam, the post is a warning, which unfortunately for her, most of us are aware of.

True. It isn't a new scam at all OP but always worth flagging just in case it does stop someone else being duped.

Any story which involves the car suddenly being abroad and it is you that has to pick up the bill, as well as pay in advance for a car you haven't seen is just asking for trouble.

Unless it is something uber rare, there will be another one down the road/round the corner you can touch, feel, drive before handing over the hard earned.

Sorry to hear you were sucked in.

photome

Why oh why do people send money...especially £4000 to someone they dont know that are not in the Uk and for a car they havent seen.

arcon5

You have my sympathy op, unfortunately you'll never see this money again and have learnt a very valuable lesson.

spacey2012

This has to be a wind up.

GAZ237

These scams rely on the buyers greed.

They think the car is under priced and are getting a bargain.

The old saying If it seems to good to be true, it normally is.

curly_em_2

Omg why are some of you so vile I now know its a scam I am 40 years old and ok maybe I should known better,the shipping company was told was based in Manchester so didn't think i was sending money abroad.
I have never heard of this before otherwise I would of thought twice about doing it, I only came on hear to highlight the dangers of others falling for the same scam

fivetide

curly_em wrote: »

I only came on hear to highlight the dangers of others falling for the same scam

which is exactly what Rover Driver and I said.

All I did was point out some of the tell tale signs for others to look for.

thenudeone

There are fake car selling sites, car buying sites, fake car shipping sites, and fake escrow sites, sometimes presumably all set up by the same people in order to create a veneer of legitimacy.

It has been going on for years. This BBC report was in 2009: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8090559.stm

To help warn others, please list all the sites involved here. At least this thread might appear in search results and stop anyone else being scammed.