Can anyone please help me. I am selling a car - Its only £400 and I have had two email enquiries about it from 2 different people. They are both foreigners who want to buy it and basically said they would buy it just from my description without even seeing it. The following is an email I have just received. I cant help thinking there is some kinda scam going on here. They want to know my name address and phone number. Does this sound a bit dodgy to anyone else?
The Email:
Hello,
Thanks for your mail response, i am okay with the condition and am okay with
the price of the 1991 VOLKSWAGEN POLO GT 3dr (£400), A client of mine is owning
me some funds in United Kingdom (£4000), I will instruct him to issue a cheque
for you, and as soon asthe cheque clear.
You will deduct the cost 1991 VOLKSWAGEN POLO GT 3dr (£400),and the remaining
balance will be Send to My Shipper via Western Union Money Tranfer for
immediately Shippng Arrangment of the 1991 VOLKSWAGEN POLO GT 3dr from your
location.
Do get back to me If this is okay by you with your information (Full Name,
Contact Address, Phone Number), so that i can forward it to my Client to issue
the cheque for you ASAP. Hope to hear from you
soonest.
This guy hasnt even seen it. Something aint quite right here.
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" Something aint quite right here."
Pretty well everything in fact. Forget it.
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Short of him saying
"please change the plates so that they are untracable, file off the VIN and launder the money through my Cayman Island Account"
he sounds as dodgy as pro motoring speech from NW ;-)
--
Adam
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You get a 4 grand cheque and wait for it clear OK.
You send the balance to the shipper.
You wave goodbye to 3500 quid when the bank asks for it's money back when the cheque is discovered to be a forgery.
You find sending money by Western Union is irrevocable.
A hugely common scam.
Martin
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Funny the way he has just kinda copied and pasted my advert titel straight into several locations within the text. It is obvious from reading it that he could put any product in there. What can they do with just your name, address and phone number?
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This is the second guys enail to me:
Hello,
Thanks for the mail,I am sorry for the late response,am still interested in
buying from you,I am ok with the price,I will like you to withdraw the advert on
net cause i am buying from you, as i said I will be paying with a cashier check
in uk pounds,Is that ok by you,As for the shippement my shipper will be coming
for the pick-up.
I will be needing the following information for sending you the cheque
------------------------------------------------------------.1 Your full name
and address
.2 Your postal code
.3 Your phone number.
hope you have understand all have said please reply me back as soon as
possible. regards
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This is a well known scam with variations on the same plot
www.autotrader.co.uk/CARS/sell/cc/fr-1.jsp
I have heard of a story where the seller turns the table on the nigerian and gets him to send money first
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Agreed, howsa about something like this : www.theregister.co.uk/2003/02/06/forged_cheque_sca.../
or
www.theregister.co.uk/2003/11/24/nigerian_fraudste.../
Leave well alone !
P
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I had this when I was trying to sell a car on Find It, a free ads website.
I simply e mailed back saying that the terms were cash on collection only. That gets rid of them for good.
Agreed, leave well alone, don't even entertain it even if you're desperate to sell your car. Believe me no one's that desperate to risk loosing all their cash!
Hugo
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Just went on to the Find it Freeads website and got this link full of useful info and other links.
www.findit.co.uk/scams.htm
Hugo
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There you go - pracically word for word.
Quite useful that Hugo
--
Adam
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Can you arrange to meet him with the local police present?
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Did you hear on the radio about a chap who had a £2,000 cheque cleared by the bank only for them to revoke the clearance later? I had never heard of this but apparently a cheque is not really cleared for months! Next time I sell a car privately it will be coin of the realm only thankyou.
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Edited at 18:15 thanks to Borasport pointing out a little problem with my original post. Cheers Borasport! ND
Go to www.geocities.com/harryblumpkin/ if you want a) the low down and b) a laugh at how this guy deals with the scammers.
As noted by Adski, it does have some offensive language so it\'s not posted as a link. Simply cut and paste the URL into your browser if you are happy to proceed.
ND
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You really shouldn't have had to ask if this "offer" is above board or not...:-)
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That is the funniest site I have ever seen. I like how the name of one person changed 3 times.
Those who are easily offended are probably best not looking on the site - hilarious as it is.
--
Adam
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you want a laugh about these charecters try
www.ebolamoneyman.com
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In my experience changing names is endemic amongst certain of our West African friends. I was at college with a large number of very charming WA's (mainly from Nigeria and Ghana) who all seemed to have official documentation in several variations of their names. For those of a dodgy disposition I suppose it helps to avoid being traced and allows multiple transactions if you know what I mean.
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Have a look at the Brad Christensen Galleries at www.quatloos.com if you want to know how to deal with Nigerian fraudsters - it's good for a laugh.
There is a Met. Police site at www.met.police.uk to forward these things to.
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By pure chance I was talking to my brother in law last night when he just happened to ask if I knew anything about Western Union.
Yes - he had got someone from France interested in buying some parts for his MR2 - and you've guessed - he had money owed from a business associate which he would deposit in the BiL account, take the money owed from that cheque and send the rest on to him via Western Union.
I said to him why would he trust someone he had never met with three grand of his money?
B i L ( and his missis ) were so adamant that it was above board and no way could they lose money that it took a visit to this thread to convince him otherwise.
That very nice chap in France was aiming to con him out of a couple of thousand pounds.
Thanks are due to all concerned for making people aware of this scam and it was only the detailed comments ref Western Union that rang the warning bell.
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I sincerely hope there is nobody in the BR, or indeed on the planet, gullible enough to fall for this meassage I received this afternoon -
Dear Sir/Madam,
You have got this email because either you or one of your household member has credit/debit card account. As a unite work in between Co-operate Governments of different countries , we have developed a new System which will help all bank customers to protect their identity from theft and provides complete protection.
Governemnt Authority is kindly requesting to fill out the form completly and you will not have any privacy problems with your credit/debit card details in future. You will be free to shop anything anywhere you want without getting any problem of your identity and it will make your shopping safe and secure.
In case if you do not provide your billing information, you will not be applicable to our System as a kind of service to all bank customers. Kindly provide your information by following the link Click Here
We will be happy to hear from you. Providing the information will let you to shop instantly anywhere you want with total safety and security.
Sincerely,
Co-operate Governments
Bank Security Services
9800 Savage Road, Suite 6740
Washington, DC, 20380
United States
www.mikes-walks.co.uk
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It may seem a bit harsh, but I think that people who fall 'victim' to these scams, especially the one immediately above, shouldn't be allowed to have control of their own money in the first place.
Who on earth would fall for it?
When I was selling my 406, I received a e-mail from a 'buyer' who wanted me to ship the car and residual money from his associate to Nigeria. As if.
DB
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Call me harsh but people falling for this deserve everything they get.
Come on, how could it possibly be anything but a scam? Why would somebody go to the hassle of exporting a 13 year old Polo out of the UK, buying it without even seeing it?
Add to that the apalling grammar and it's blatantly a scam.
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> Call me harsh but people falling for this deserve everything
> they get.
I think that is a bit harsh, to be honest. Being gullible doesn't make you fair game. Every one of us would fall for a scam of some sort - you may be harder to trick than me, I may be harder to trick than someone else, but eventually someone could come up with a scam which would fool you.
> Add to that the apalling grammar and it's blatantly a scam.
A lot of the genuine emails I read have worse grammar than that.
-Mark
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Now that grammar and spelling no longer seems to be taught at school I can see more people falling for this in the future - they won't be able to spot the mistakes.
(Motoring connection: I can spell VW)
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It may seem a bit harsh, but I think that people who fall 'victim' to these scams, especially the one immediately above, shouldn't be allowed to have control of their own money in the first place.
Strangely enough, that's what everybody at work said when I received it this afternoon !
www.mikes-walks.co.uk
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You're telling me this is a scam?
But I gave them all my bank details and was told that they'd contact me soon!
Help.
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Adam
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You're telling me this is a scam? But I gave them all my bank details
Yes you did. Now can you send me the details of someone with more money please?
;o)
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But I gave them all my bank details and was told that they'd contact me soon!
You might be in trouble, so you could just give all the money to me for safekeeping in the meantime ....
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Certainly - You sound honest enough!
Account 46273 PIN Number 095474
Take good care of it NW and don't be investing it in any community speed reduction ideas.
ND...treat yourself to a new car.....air freshener - it may max out after all that frivolous spending!
--
Adam
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Tell you what. I would easily send them bank account details. They cant draw it out faster than nicole!
Ok an old one I know!
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