Selling car privately, scam?

MrDerek

I'm selling my car privately and I have one person contact me who seem a bit suspicious. He's told me he's on vacation in Germany and he's wanting to buy it for a friends birthday, then the below message, what do you think?

I just want to know more about the item to make sure its in good condition before i proceed with the payment,so can you assure me i will not be disappointed???And also I need to inform you about this,I just received an email from my pick up agent headquarter in London...Am most sure i did not include that in my previous email,And they said they won't be coming to pick up unless we pay the agent commission fee first in order to be able to schedule a pick up time,I am so busy and can not pay the agent fees from here as they Requested that i pay them with western union So what i will do here is that i will send the payment in the total amount of £3,350.00. So once you receive the confirmation of the payment,you will deduct the promised amount for the item which is £2,800.00 and the remaining £500.00 will be send down to the agent By western union the extra £50 is main for the Western Union charges..

I've sent him my paypal details since and I'm thinking if he sends me the money there's not much that could go wrong? Only thing I can think of is if he uses a stolen paypal account to buy my car, in which case I could verify it by getting him to send me a picture of ID or something?

I also have a template contract for the buyer to sign (sold as seen), unsure how I could protect myself with it in this situation where the buyer is remote and not actually seeing it.

The car itself is currently SORN with it's MOT due to run out in the next week.

Other than the suspicious request above, only other thing that raises suspicion is he signed his initial email with "Andrew" but the email is from a "Paul".

Any thoughts?

paddyandstumpy

It's a scam.

BeenThroughItAll

Scam. Google will show plenty of examples.

MrDerek

paddyandstumpy wrote: »

It's a scam.

How so? care to elaborate?

soolin

MrDerek wrote: »

How so? care to elaborate?

No need, these have been doing the rounds for decades now, just do a google search and you'll see how it all works. These are very very common, they have to be as the chances of the scumbag scammers finding someone who believes it is now so remote.

It is obvious when you read their email how the scam works- but as above, find an example on google and you'll get a full explanation.

BeenThroughItAll

MrDerek wrote: »

How so? care to elaborate?

Google it and you'll save someone else the time explaining it to you.

Nobbie1967

MrDerek wrote: »

How so? care to elaborate?

The email confirmation from paypal will be a fake. They are asking for Western Union payment as it is untraceable. Buying a car without viewing is a sure sign of a con. All the signs are there.

MrDerek

Thanks for all your great insight, it's so clear.

force_ten

it is a con and you could lose out big time, if he says he has payed via paypal it will be a fake e mail don't follow any links in the e mail

log into your paypal account and you wont find the payment

if they pay via a hacked paypal account the payment shows and you hand the car over to the shipping agent and then the payment is reversed as a fake payment so your car has gone along with your money

tell him to do one

Hoof_Hearted

Mr Derek, you shouldn't have to ask. Somebody abroad wants to buy your car unseen. Western Union is another clue. Cease all contact.

System

MrDerek wrote: »

How so? care to elaborate?

"Requested that i pay them with western union So what i will do here is that i will send the payment in the total amount of £3,350.00. So once you receive the confirmation of the payment,you will deduct the promised amount for the item which is £2,800.00 and the remaining £500.00 will be send down to the agent By western union the extra £50 is main for the Western Union charges.."

So the scammers offering to pay you more than the £2800 car. They transfer £3350 to your Paypal account. You then send £550 via Western Union to a third party as agreed "to pay for the fees" which is actually the scammers. They pocket that £550. Then one of their gang purporting to be their agent comes and picks up your car. You're happy, you've got your money, the fees to the agent are paid, all is good in the world.

Except its not. The Paypal payment was made with stolen credit cards or a hacked account. Several weeks later Paypal reverse the payment. You're now £3350 out of pocket and you've also lost your car.

For them at worst they end up with £550, at best they end up with £550 and your car.