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My sister has gone overseas and has left her freelander here on my mums drive and up for sale at 13k. She got an e mail from a company stating they would pay the 'new'price...18k as they had an oversees buyer,however they would collect it from my mums, give her a bankers draft for 18k but ask for the difference in return on collection...........obviously a scam and more than likely has featured on here in the past.........anyone else heard of this?
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It IS a scam. Has been discussed extensively on here. Have nothing to do with Bankers Drafts and returning the excess. You will finish up with a demand from your bank to repay the whole lot.
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Does common sense go out of the window when people try to buy or sell cars?
A quick search here or a read of www.autotrader.co.uk/CARS/sell/cc/fr-1.jsp will put you in the picture!
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Colin. Well at least question is being asked before being stung.Not after..
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Steve
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A google for "419 scam" will tell you all you need to know
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We had this as well when we had the MX-5 advertised. Despite the words "NO CANVASSERS" in upper case in the ad.
Needless to say they were told in no uncertain terms to "go away".
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However they do make great efforts to contact people selling cars and, for a fee of about £79 will make an attempt to sell them. Luckily they have 9 Peugeot 206cc listed for sale and if I contact them on an 0870 Tel No(at 8p a min) I can be put in contact with a seller - but not, I understand, straight away. They have to ensure they have the seller on their books. Some of the adverts for a Peugeot 206cc seem to be worded like the adverts in Autotrader but without the contact details - isn't that a co-incidence? I think it would save them time if they included the contact details of the sellers on their website, but perhaps they haven't yet finalised details with the sellers.
Cardew, if I wanted to be highly cynical I'd say that sounds like they take your £79 to find you the car you want, then go through Autotrader to find someone selling such a car, ring them up and ask for £79 to find a buyer, then send you the seller's details. But I don't want to be, so I won't say it.
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At least one of these companies which follow up car adverts in magazines and local newspapers record their conversation with you and then edit it to make it appear that you have agreed to them acting on your behalf.
It's a long running scam and one that those in authority should have sorted out a long time ago.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Cardew, if I wanted to be highly cynical I'd say that sounds like they take your £79 to find you the car you want, then go through Autotrader to find someone selling such a car, ring them up and ask for £79 to find a buyer, then send you the seller's details. But I don't want to be, so I won't say it.
King Arthur,
What a thought!! That is terribly cynical.
Such a thought never entered my mind!!!!!
I have complete faith in the business ethics of all such firms!
C
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I don't understand it. Everything on this thread seems fine, and perfectly acceptable at face value, but my sarcasm-meter just exploded.
Must be faulty ;)
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What is it with people and scams ?
How many times do people need to be told;
Don't give out bank/card details on the phone.
Don't tell people passwords/PINs.
Don't hand over your car until money is cleared and confirmed.
Don't let somebody in your house without checking their ID
Nobody in Nigeria is going to give you 10% of £squadrillion
etc. etc. etc.
If it sounds too good to be true, it almost certainly is.
I am fast running out of sympathy.
Mark.
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Is this the wrong place to post my
"I got promised £678,000 for my N Reg Ford Fiesta and I haven't got the money yet?"
question?
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Adam
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And nor will you. It was a complete dog. The HG went, the brakes were shot, the floor pan was rotten, The spark plugs were welded into the head....
Get your £678,000? lucky I dont come round there and knee cap you!
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Woah - Easy there RF. How does a pint sound next time I see you?
::Hee hee - idiot doesn't realise I'll never see hi....whoops! POST THIS MESSAGE!
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Adam
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Sounds like naming and shaming to me.
Quite right.
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I am fast running out of sympathy. Mark.
The banks are too - they're starting to suggest that they won't refund people who don't exercise sufficient care with their confidential details.
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oh dear..........I posted the facts and said "obviously a scam".............however....
"does common sense go out of the window when people try to buy or sell cars?"...No, we got a e mail that we guessed was a scam!
"I got promised £678,000 for my N Reg Ford Fiesta and I haven't got the money yet?" ............muppet
I was actually more interested in the scam than sarcasm,thanks to the few who pointed out the posts...I can point the parents (in the 70's) towards these posts..........jesus
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Call me strange but I'm detecting a hint of unhappiness in that post doog. I have to say, part of your post has just gone whooosh - right over my head. In response to the other part - we're just one step up from a dictatorship which means the odd sarcastic post can get posted from time to time.
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Adam
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Also - because I like ranting, your post was added to this thread after those (rather humourous in my honest opinion ;-)) posts so please don't take offence to them.
ALSO (and I'm going to stop now) sorry if I've completely misinterpreted your post as I frequently do.
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Adam
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I actually posted it as a seperate post to the other and titled it "scam or not(2)"...it was obviously linked at some point.......obviously it is a complete scam but I wanted to get back to my mum whos got the damm thing stuck on her drive and just give her "hard evidence" from this board (as she can look herself)....also.Has anyone gone the distance and had the law in attendance when these people have turned up to take the vehicle and supplied the dodgy bankers draft.?
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Doog
Not sure I've missed something, but have you considered selling the car on your mum's behalf?
You're obviously concerned at her vulnerability.
Just a thought.
Hugo
PS what type of car is it BTW?
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its a Freelander,12 months old. My parents have it on the drive and are getting all the usual calls...the e mail was a first and obviously a con from the start ..however she used to work in a bank..so is struggling with concept of dodgy bankers drafts....likewise I used to work in a bank and am now involved in law.........so the technicalities of how they get round this is rather interesting to us both...can anyone explain the scam..there are still plenty of car dealers who will release a car on a bankers draft.
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The banker's draft scam is very simple.
A load of blank drafts get stolen or copied from a lerge bank, then the criminal just types them out on his computer just as the bank would, only they are not drawn on an account, they are worthless, so the fraud takes place when one of these is passed as payment for the vehicle.
The scam that is a development on that is when someone claims to include shipping costs or such other costs in the draft. This is potentially a double wammy. A car is priced at say £10K, the draft is £12K. The buyer asks you to accept the draft and pay an 'agent' £2k from your own funds for shipping. If you do this you will almost certainly lose the £2k plus the £10K for the car if it disappears before the draft is successfully cashed.
If anyone approaches you with this proposel, tell them to take a long walk of a short cliff!
BTW, what's the asking on the Freelander
Hugo
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Cheers....
its a 1.8 se registered Sept 03, 10 k on the clock..asking £12,900..
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Same applies to building society cheques, once considered as good as cash. Not now, too many stolen or forged now. Cash is also becoming a bit iffy, many forged 20's and 50's about, good ones too. Take your buyer and the cash to the bank, pay it in and get the bank staff to run a quick check on the notes as they do.
Cleared funds through the bank is the only safe way.
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Further to my last posts and the belief (amongst oldies )that a bankers draft is the bees bits..in June I purchased a newish Vectra..10k turned up, test drive,gave details, supplied deposit and was assured a bankers draft would do.............part ex'd it a Mazda dealer for a new 6 last week....paid £500 deposit,also told a bankers draft would do but in both instances paid by debit card........however... how on a Sat morning would they prove a bankers draft is genuine?..i trawled the net and got this on a forum:
"I have accepted bankers drafts for cars previously and never had a problem.
The bank will not issue a draft without firstly debiting the buyers account. They then credit the banks account with the accountees funds.
Thus issuing you a bankers draft from their branch account. They always clear because its the banks money, not the buyers account.
Just make sure its signed by an official person at the bank and is an official looking cheque with the logo on"
This is still a common perception and as stated the banks should make it clear its no different than a cheque....im guessing that a draft drawn on the Bank of Nairobi or similar would ring alarm bells though!
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A bankers draft is as good as cash.
A forged bankers draft is worth less than the paper it's printed on.
How do you tell the difference?
Ian
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Mark,
Your point is well made but you might want to consider that the majority of people who get caught out are the elderly who were brought up in a gentler age when 'my word is my bond' meant something.
PLUS those who are financially unaware believe that when a cheque 'clears' it has been paid and are nonplussed when they learn differently. The banks could publicise this more than they do.
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How do you tell the difference between a real bank draft or a forged one?
The only reason why dealer will accept a bank draft is he knows where you live. He has seen your old V5 and your insurance certificate. It's only buyers from private sellers who do not normally need to provide this info. So if the draft is dodgy the dealer simply locates the car and takes it back - surely???
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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Thommo
What is the difference between "clears" and been paid?
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Lucy,
The bank 'clearing' system in UK (and possibly overseas as well) is incredibly lax, possibly because in the past 99% of all transactions went through OK anyway.
A bank allows you to draw cash on a cheque you have deposited with it after 3/5 days. You assume that this means that they have collected the cash from the other party but they have not. The process takes longer than this. Maybe 10 days for a cheque drawn on a UK bank maybe a month plus for a cheque drawn on a foreign bank. What the bank are doing is allowing you to draw cash in advance and if the cheque is not honoured they will demand it back.
The scam therefore proceeds as follows. Item value say £10,000. They will pay you £15,000 by cheque but you pay £5,000 by Western Union (or other money transfer system) for shipping or whatever. The £5,000 by money transfer is immediate and absolutely irrevocable so you end up £5,000 out of pocket.
If in doubt ask the bank to confirm in WRITING that the cheque has been 'cleared for fate' once they have confirmed this in WRITING then you are home and dry. Even if it is not true the banking ombudsman will make them swallow it.
There are as many variations on this scam as sand on a beach but they all revolve around I pay you X+ and then you pay the + to someone else.
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As a former Aberdonian, I don't like paying money for anything. So any scam that involves me spending money when I'm selling something (apart from advertising spend of course) just knd of dies.
If more people adopted that simple principle then these scams would not work..Unfortuantely there is one born every minute:-(
madf
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Agree. Wasn't caught out myself - although annoyed that someone tried to do it and wasted my ebay listing and fee! (so much for the advertising fee being safe). Just wish this obviously rife scam (and others - I had them all at it - singapore shippers,western union scam, and professional dealers pretending to buy for daughters off screen etc etc) was more well known for protection of the more naive.
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