Car Sale scam??

Mick L

Don't know if this is widely known or not, a search didn't turn anything up.

I'm selling my car and placed an ad in car buyers guide. I got recently got an email from an English based company called vehiclematch.org, followed by a phone call. They claim to have 5 clients who want to see the car and are willing to pay over the asking price. They promise to send on the details once I pay their adminitrative fees of £99.00

This to me is obviously a scam, having checked out the company on google there are numerous reports of people falling for this and never hearing anything from any prospective buyers.

So a word to the wise, the scammers are branching out to Irish sellers.

BoozyBabe

When you place an ad with Carzone, they tell you about the whole thing.

Very good of them, I think.

Moanin

Scam avoid like the plague.They have been ringing around before!

Mick L

BoozyBabe wrote:

When you place an ad with Carzone, they tell you about the whole thing.

Very good of them, I think.

That is good, I checked on cbg but didn't see any obvious place to post info like this.

bennyx_o

I got a phone call from these aswell. Guy on the phone said if my car wasn't sold, I'd get the €100 back. Asked him to email me their terms so I could check them out, he did it. Never heard back from them. I still have the email if anyone wants to see it.

EDIT: The call I got was from vehiclecentre.org

jhegarty

scumbag scam aritsts... hang and don't talk to them....

TheWaterboy

they stung me 2 years ago..exact same sales pitch..i was naieve and desperate to sell the car. Took my 99.00 and never heard a word from them again..I hope they call me back again someday for a chat!

I wish there was someway to get them back

John R

TheWaterboy wrote:

they stung me 2 years ago..exact same sales pitch..i was naieve and desperate to sell the car. Took my 99.00 and never heard a word from them again..I hope they call me back again someday for a chat!

I wish there was someway to get them back

Set up a premium rate phoneline, advertise cars with ridiculously high prices so no genuine callers will ring and keep the scammers on the line for 30 minutes.

franksm

I got the same thing when selling the Triumph the other week - same people, claiming to have a dozen punters in Co. Meath who were wanting to buy a 1975 Triumph Stag.

Er... really ?

djeclips

Have these guys ringing me daily,from motorhelp to vehiclematch etc.Never entertain them too much.

What a job eh??

Sizzler

TheWaterboy wrote:

they stung me 2 years ago..exact same sales pitch..i was naieve and desperate to sell the car. Took my 99.00 and never heard a word from them again..I hope they call me back again someday for a chat!

I wish there was someway to get them back

Did you pay by visa? If so, all you had to do is ring up your bank and say it was an unauthorised deduction from your card and your bank would have refunded you. Telephone authorisation for credit cards is no authorisation, the power is with the card owner

bogman44

I've my car up for sale on Carzone and i've had an inquiry from some guy.
It seems a bit strange. He asked me for photos and other details, all of which were on the site. I may be a bit paranoid but this is a recent email from him.
I gave him my phone number but he hasn't phoned.

---

Thanks for the mail, i just view the car from the site and it looks good and i ask my mechanic to view the car too so i will be waiting to hear from him, at the moment i will like you give me your contact Address, NAME, ADDRESS, TELEPHONE, so i can give to my mechanic to come and view the car, and regarding the price i will offer you 5,700 euros, please do get back to me with the address.

Thanks and regards to your Family.

Henry.

FULL NAME,,,,,,,,,,,,??

ADDRESS,,,,,,,,,,,,,??

CITY,,,,,,,,,,,??

STATE,,,,,,,,,,??

TEL,,,,,,,,,,??

---

pete4130

bogman44 wrote: »

I've my car up for sale on Carzone and i've had an inquiry from some guy.
It seems a bit strange. He asked me for photos and other details, all of which were on the site. I may be a bit paranoid but this is a recent email from him.
I gave him my phone number but he hasn't phoned.

---

Thanks for the mail, i just view the car from the site and it looks good and i ask my mechanic to view the car too so i will be waiting to hear from him, at the moment i will like you give me your contact Address, NAME, ADDRESS, TELEPHONE, so i can give to my mechanic to come and view the car, and regarding the price i will offer you 5,700 euros, please do get back to me with the address.

Thanks and regards to your Family.

Henry.

FULL NAME,,,,,,,,,,,,??

ADDRESS,,,,,,,,,,,,,??

CITY,,,,,,,,,,,??

STATE,,,,,,,,,,??

TEL,,,,,,,,,,??

---

This one is a scam as well. The grammar in his sentence structure is poor and the words don't sit right together.....plus the fact I got 5 of these in one day from FIVE people who "work" in Canada with operations in Greece and wanted to ship the car over to Canada.....some bullsh!t story like that. It followed the same format with the name, address, city, state etc.....

Most people will only send an email to enquire about something small on the car, if the advert isn't clear. Genuine people will call the number and ask the more serious questions and arrange a viewing.

As a rule people looking to buy your car won't want want you to give them money.

kluivert

pete4130 wrote: »

This one is a scam as well. The grammar in his sentence structure is poor and the words don't sit right together.....plus the fact I got 5 of these in one day from FIVE people who "work" in Canada with operations in Greece and wanted to ship the car over to Canada.....some bullsh!t story like that. It followed the same format with the name, address, city, state etc.....

Most people will only send an email to enquire about something small on the car, if the advert isn't clear. Genuine people will call the number and ask the more serious questions and arrange a viewing.

As a rule people looking to buy your car won't want want you to give them money.

They will ask you to pay the shipping deposit to gaurantee that the container will be reserved for them or something like that.

I have GF's car up within hours on Carzone and I got a call from a lady called Anne working for Motorfind and she was based in Cyprus.

bogman44

pete4130 wrote: »

This one is a scam as well. The grammar in his sentence structure is poor and the words don't sit right together.....plus the fact I got 5 of these in one day from FIVE people who "work" in Canada with operations in Greece and wanted to ship the car over to Canada.....some bullsh!t story like that. It followed the same format with the name, address, city, state etc.....

Most people will only send an email to enquire about something small on the car, if the advert isn't clear. Genuine people will call the number and ask the more serious questions and arrange a viewing.

As a rule people looking to buy your car won't want want you to give them money.

He hadn't asked for money but i presume that was the next step.

Stephen

The UK authorities must be cracking down on these pricks now that they all seem to be moving to Cyprus!

Silent Partner

pete4130 wrote: »

This one is a scam as well. The grammar in his sentence structure is poor and the words don't sit right together.....plus the fact I got 5 of these in one day from FIVE people who "work" in Canada with operations in Greece and wanted to ship the car over to Canada.....some bullsh!t story like that. It followed the same format with the name, address, city, state etc.....

Most people will only send an email to enquire about something small on the car, if the advert isn't clear. Genuine people will call the number and ask the more serious questions and arrange a viewing.

As a rule people looking to buy your car won't want want you to give them money.

I've gotten many emails like the above. In my last job, I decided to keep responding to the emails to see how far it would go. They always ask for the "final selling price of the vehicle" and also always enquire about "you and your family" (How nice :rolleyes:). So in the heel of the hunt, they sent a cheque for $25,000 which was way over the price of the vehicle we were selling (even with exchange rates etc.). I passed the cheque to my boss and stopped replying to the emails. The emails got quite forceful and they said that they thought they'd sent more than the required amount so could I refund the difference to their bank (conveniently located abroad). The thing was, the cheque was very very obviously printed on a bog standard deskjet printer.
Anything that asks you for money is more than likely a scam.

bogman44

That's incredible.
Do people fall for this sort of thing.

niceirishfella

kluivert wrote: »

They will ask you to pay the shipping deposit to gaurantee that the container will be reserved for them or something like that.

I have GF's car up within hours on Carzone and I got a call from a lady called Anne working for Motorfind and she was based in Cyprus.

ohhhh.............her.:D

Silent Partner

bogman44 wrote: »

That's incredible.
Do people fall for this sort of thing.

Whenever I hear of scams, I always think the same thing. And you'd be amazed at the amount of people that do. In the heat of the moment, a quick second of indecision and thoughtlessness can do an awful lot of damage.

niceirishfella

Silent Partner wrote: »

I've gotten many emails like the above. In my last job, I decided to keep responding to the emails to see how far it would go. They always ask for the "final selling price of the vehicle" and also always enquire about "you and your family" (How nice :rolleyes:). So in the heel of the hunt, they sent a cheque for $25,000 which was way over the price of the vehicle we were selling (even with exchange rates etc.). I passed the cheque to my boss and stopped replying to the emails. The emails got quite forceful and they said that they thought they'd sent more than the required amount so could I refund the difference to their bank (conveniently located abroad). The thing was, the cheque was very very obviously printed on a bog standard deskjet printer.
Anything that asks you for money is more than likely a scam.

and its a great way to launder money for them........

Auto Consulting

I had a similar experience when I was working as a car salesman. A guy with very poor writing skills emailed me to offer way more than the asking price of a Renault Clio. He sent a bank draft which was quite obviously a fake and asked me to wire the change to him via Western Union. An elaborate scam, I can't imagine many have fallen for it.

The calls from the UK/Cyprus companies on the other hand could be easy to fall for. People get so excited when they think they have their car sold.

Auto Consulting

I had a similar experience when I was working as a car salesman. A guy with very poor writing skills emailed me to offer way more than the asking price of a Renault Clio. He sent a bank draft which was quite obviously a fake and asked me to wire the change to him via Western Union. An elaborate scam, I can't imagine many have fallen for it.

The calls from the UK/Cyprus companies on the other hand could be easy to fall for. People get so excited when they think they have their car sold.

Dades

Silent Partner wrote: »

IThe thing was, the cheque was very very obviously printed on a bog standard deskjet printer.

You should have sent them the change in monopoly money. Fair play for wasting their time!

osullm3

hi all,,

i'm in the middle of this scam now,,,a guy called adrian lewis in the UK is sending me a bank draft for my Punto on Carzone.ie,,,,he didnt look at the car or even send a mechanic,its just too good to be true,,,,as soon as i have the bank draft i'll go to the guards 1st,,,,,,i have e-mails if anyone wants to see them,

B00MSTICK

With all this scamming going on could someone who's a better morning person than me come up with a believeable way of stringing them along, wasting their time/money?

JohnCleary

osullm3 wrote: »

hi all,,

i'm in the middle of this scam now,,,a guy called adrian lewis in the UK is sending me a bank draft for my Punto on Carzone.ie,,,,he didnt look at the car or even send a mechanic,its just too good to be true,,,,as soon as i have the bank draft i'll go to the guards 1st,,,,,,i have e-mails if anyone wants to see them,

Scan the draft and give us a look

Cmar-Ireland

Just string them along for as long as possible.
There is a thread here about it somewhere.
But the jist of it was the guy on the line said to hold on while he got his card details, leaving the scammer waiting for ages...

Your not paying for the phone call so keep them on the line for as long as possible. Waste their time.

AntiVirus

http://www.419eater.com/
Check out "The Trophy Room"

and some baiting tips here
http://www.419eater.com/html/baiting.htm

the main thing is to have fun!

Check out the Mrs Robinson video in the video section for a laugh!
http://www.419eater.com/html/video.htm

CarList.ie

I'm also seeing messages like the following being sent to sellers on www.carlist.ie today:

Good Day How is family and friends i hope everybody is okay. Meanwhile, I saw your advert on the web for sale. and i will like you to get back to me with the following enquries. ---- The last asking price. ---- The present condition. ---- If any picture is available mail it . . I will be looking forward to hear from you soonest Thanks +4470111xxxxx

vibe666

put a notice up on your site carlist and warm people off these scammers.

i was selling my car a month ago and got no end of calls from various companies in the UK and other countries. I'm from the UK myself, but the second I heard an english voice my first question was always "are YOU personally ringing me from somewhere in Ireland so that YOU can buy my car for yourself?" when the answer was "no" then my reply was simply "then fcuk off!" followed by hanging up on them.

TychoCaine

osullm3 wrote: »

hi all,,

i'm in the middle of this scam now,,,a guy called adrian lewis in the UK is sending me a bank draft for my Punto on Carzone.ie,,,,he didnt look at the car or even send a mechanic,its just too good to be true,,,,as soon as i have the bank draft i'll go to the guards 1st,,,,,,i have e-mails if anyone wants to see them,

He'll accidentally give you a draft for a few grand more than you agreed. He'll ask you to send him back a bank draft for the difference and a few days later you'll find out the the original bank draft was a fake. He won't even take the car in the end.

AntiVirus

TychoCaine wrote: »

He'll accidentally give you a draft for a few grand more than you agreed. He'll ask you to send him back a bank draft for the difference and a few days later you'll find out the the original bank draft was a fake. He won't even take the car in the end.

Yeah but you send him one back, a really fake bank draft. One thats been drawn by a 5 year old with crayons should be good enough.

vibe666

no, they ask you to send it back via western union, with you thinking ah, western union are an honest bunch who check the ID of people using their services and log everything.

when the reality of it is, you should be suspecious of anyone using western union unless it's your granny.

actually, especially if it's your granny. they can't be trusted!

triple-M

Re: carsireland.ie ad
‏From:Menichetti Philippe (xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)
Sent:06 September 2008 12:26:39To: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Can you attach me some photos of the documents of the car (scanned )that can show me that you are the legal owner of the car ? If it's possible ofc ,
if you can show me this , then it will be no problem and this monday i come to buy it , as payment i will pay with money cash if you accept or preferably bankdraft

Thanks for your quick answer and for the pictures attached


hi all i got an email from a chap claiming to be interested in my car,unaware of any suspicious activity i sent him some more photos of my car ,he then sent me the email above and i got suspicious,scam?

peasant

Yes, definetly !

and an old thread to boot ...closed