What is the scam likely to be ?

jacool

Hope this is OK in Motors, if not then Mods please move !
Contacted this guy yesterday who is selling this car for £7000 STG !!
Says he's back off to Italy. Here's the e-bay link

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330031284750&sspagename=ADME:B:AAQ:UK:1

but when I put the car details into www.ros.ie for a VRT quote this car doesn't exist ??

Wondering if anyone knew what scam he could be pulling ?
I presume of you see car then you can run HPI checks against it ?

thanks, Jacool

Anan1

It's a well known scam, the car doesn't exist. The seller will ask you to pay by Western Union, promising to ship the car to you. They get the money, you get nothing.

garyh3

Ill start

No feedback on ebay
Opened up the ebay account 8th August 06
Credit car only as payments


Unless you can take the car for a test drive and he has all the registration docs then walk away

If it's too good to be true then it is'nt !!!

Garyh3

Owen

First of all, the car doesn't exist on ros.ie because it would be impossible for them to put every type of car in there. They put the most popular options, and you phone for specialised quotes.

Secondly, he's a new user on eBay. Caution is warranted, he hasn't bought or sold anything. He ended the auction yesterday without a bid on the vehicle, probably realised he didn't set the auction up correctly. He's not selling the vehicle for £7000, it's an opening bid. If he's willing to deal off Auction for 7k then it's as dodgy as Mary Hearney in a Live at 3 Keep Fit Session.

Buyer beware I guess! It's not a million miles off the Money. I was in London last month, and early Boxsters are retailing for 12k. If he was to start an auction at 7k and leave it run for a week or two, he'd easily exceed that - and he could always reserve the right to end the auction early if a private buyer came along.

Anan1

By the way, a lot of these scammers hack the eBay accounts of others, so they can appear to have very good feedback stretching over years. Two things they all seem to have in common are a ridiculously low buy-it-now price and a contact email address in the ad along with some story about why they can't be contacted through the eBay ask seller a question feature. As garyh3 says, if it looks too good to be true then it is'nt.

Heraldoffreeent

I won an alfa gtv on ebay some months ago, when I went to contact the seller I got the "i'm in ITALY at the moment can you just wire me the money on western union and you can pick up the car in UK,i'll send you all the details blah blah blah" as they say in the sunday world, make your excuses and leave!!!

smash

I found a guy n ebay, 128 sales, 100% feedback selling a 03 Celica T-Sport for £2,800 - he said he'd moved to holland and due to high import tax he's selling it now in the UK... Sound's like his account has been hacked.

Eoin

steve06 wrote:

I found a guy n ebay, 128 sales, 100% feedback selling a 03 Celica T-Sport for £2,800 - he said he'd moved to holland and due to high import tax he's selling it now in the UK... Sound's like his account has been hacked.

Probably hacked, but another way to improve the feedback rating is to sell loads of $1 items properly and get good feedback. After a while eBay removes the item so you can't see what type of items s/he was selling before, so they leave the account dormant until then.

BnA

As someone said above, the one big tell tale sign of a scam is a user who wishes to be contacted via e-mail instead of directly through e-Bay.

Also, look out for the Feedback. Just because someone has feedback of 20 doesn't mean they are trust worthy sellers. If you look at the details of the feedback they will often build up a good feedback score by buying a couple of cheap yokes for a few pennies. If you are buying a car off someone with decent feedback then try and make sure that this feedback is actually earned

I am looking on eBay for a laptop at the moment and it's shocking the amount of these that you come accross. e.g. User in France with a feedback of maybe 10. Look into the feedback and it's all earned from buying bits and pieces of things for a few cents. Then all of a sudden, they have 20 laptops for sale...!!!!

jacool

Thanks to all for your sound advice.
Steering a wide berth as this was "too good to be true"

cheers,
Jacool

fletch

Got this mail enquiring about my car for sale

Chris Cartar
Motor Vehicle Department
20 Glenview Court
Blessington
Co.Wicklow

Thanks for the email. Please I have a client who is very much interested in buying your vehicle. He happened to budget for a car last time and unfortunately it was sold. I have discussed with him and he has agreed that he will be willing to have the vehicle shipped to him In belgium upon reaching an agreement with you.

Please I have Some Questions to Ask:

1) Is the engine in perfect condition?

2) How often do you service the Vehicle?

3) How many miles on the Vehicle now?

4) Are you the owner?

5) If yes, for how long did you use Vehicle?

6)Finally At what price are you willing to sell this Vehicle ...Bottom price.


Below is my clients information.

Schneider Adams
Antwerp Office
Haven 725
Scheldelaan 200
2040 Antwerpen

thanks
chris

And here is my response, interesting to see if he is still interested! (Oh he got my details from carsireland.ie

Hi Chris

This all sounds very promising indeed! I am very excited at the prospect of shipping my car to Belgium. Do you need my credit card for a booking deposit, if so that is no problem! In response to your mail, please find my answers inline. I look forward to a swift and efficient transaction. Let me know I should proceed from here.

Thanks

1) Is the engine in perfect condition?

When you enquire about the engine, are you referring to the first, second or third engine? The first engine blew its head gasket after 40k miles and needed to be replaced. The second engine only managed 50k miles before the timing belt snapped destroying the innards of the engine compartment while the third engine is not in much better shape to be honest. At this stage it is in need of a complete overhaul as it has had the living daylights driven out of it. A new engine should only cost in the region of €500 and the same again to get it fitted.



2) How often do you service the Vehicle?

The vehicle has not been serviced since new.


3) How many miles on the Vehicle now?

Again, the current engine has only covered about 60k miles, however the vehicle itself has covered nearly 300k miles, about 20k of which it was being towed by pick-up trucks.


4) Are you the owner?

No I sold the car to my 5 year old niece for tax-evasion purposes.


5) If yes, for how long did you use Vehicle?



6)Finally At what price are you willing to sell this

Vehicle ...Bottom price.

My bottom price is €2,400 as stated in the ad. This car has not been looked after since the day I got it and I think that is reflected in the price.

overdriver

You're a natural baiter. you should check out the forums at www.419eater.com!


I bet a tenner he'll want to "buy" it anyway!


Classic scammer names often feature two Western surnames - Shneider Adams Ahern Harney, etc.


Enjoy playing with him.

fletch

overdriver wrote:

You're a natural baiter. you should check out the forums at www.419eater.com!


I bet a tenner he'll want to "buy" it anyway!


Classic scammer names often feature two Western surnames - Shneider Adams Ahern Harney, etc.


Enjoy playing with him.

I can't wait to read his response alright! I'm so gona have fun with this.

overdriver

If he asks for Bank details, just make them up.
The cheque he will send you will be fake, so don't lodge it. But better not to give your real address out at all.

You could also drop an email to Dutch police and see where it gets you.

Idleater

overdriver wrote:

You could also drop an email to Dutch police and see where it gets you.

Probably about as far as contacting the police in Outer Mongolia.

Antwerpen is in Belgium.

L.

unkel

Good luck, fletch

overdriver wrote:

Classic scammer names often feature two Western surnames - Shneider Adams Ahern Harney, etc.

Yeah I noticed that before as well. This is a possible explanation:

Nigerian criminals are confused by Western names. This is probably because the tradional Nigerian order of surname and first name is the opposite of English usage (something they have in common with Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai and many other cultures). Maybe as a result some of the writers are not sure what is supposed to be a first name or a surname. Especially confusing to them are Western surnames derived from first names by appending an 's' (originally meaning "so-and-so's son"), which they mistake for first names. Instead of composing names from first names and surnames, they often will construct a fake name consisting of two first names or two surnames or they get them back to front

overdriver

Martins Davis is a common one, for example. I used to spend a bit of my spare time baiting these scum, and even had 12 of them arrested. If you run into trouble, drop me a pm.

As for where Antwerp is, thanks for the correction. I'm sure you didn't mean to come across like a smartarse.

unkel

overdriver wrote:

I used to spend a bit of my spare time baiting these scum, and even had 12 of them arrested

Fair play to you!

My favourite is still the "Church of Fish and Bread"

Anan1

I don't want to dissappoint here, but wouldn't you think that this is all water off a duck's back to the professional scammer? I would assume him to have hundreds of such scams on at the same time - some work, some don't. I can see no benefit to anyone here in wasting their own valuable time trying to waste the time of an anonymous scammer thousands of miles away.

fletch

Anan1 wrote:

I don't want to dissappoint here, but wouldn't you think that this is all water off a duck's back to the professional scammer? I would assume him to have hundreds of such scams on at the same time - some work, some don't. I can see no benefit to anyone here in wasting their own valuable time trying to waste the time of an anonymous scammer thousands of miles away.

Well by wasting his time, it might ensure that he scams one less person.....either way..its fun!

Anan1

fletch wrote:

Well by wasting his time, it might ensure that he scams one less person.....either way..its fun!

Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favour of people making life harder for scammers. I just wouldn't be bothered wasting my own time composing and writing them letters, that's all. It would involve work for me, and I don't think they care. Anyone who thinks that they are really winding a scammer up is in my opinion sadly deluded. Scammers are knocking out those letters on an industrial scale, dead leads are soon forgotten.

fletch

Anan1 wrote:

Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favour of people making life harder for scammers. I just wouldn't be bothered wasting my own time composing and writing them letters, that's all. It would involve work for me, and I don't think they care. Anyone who thinks that they are really winding a scammer up is in my opinion sadly deluded. Scammers are knocking out those letters on an industrial scale, dead leads are soon forgotten.

Maybe....but my guess is that his english is bad he probably won't even realise that I was winding him up and will ask for more details....which of course I am going to go along with for a while....I don't mind taking a few minutes out of my day and having a bit of a laugh.

overdriver

Anan1 wrote:

Anyone who thinks that they are really winding a scammer up is in my opinion sadly deluded. Scammers are knocking out those letters on an industrial scale, dead leads are soon forgotten.

The scammer does not think it's a dead lead, Anan. The more time he invests in you, the more he seems to think he has to follow through to get a result, strangely.

Also, they very rarely have PC's of their own, so use internet cafe's. Therefore the more of his time you waste, the better. It's better again if you can get him to call your K7 number and waste his money etc etc

unkel

Anan1 wrote:

Anyone who thinks that they are really winding a scammer up is in my opinion sadly deluded

Have another look at the 419 site I linked to. Several of the scammers went through a lot of trouble and even ended up paying money to progress their scam which of course lead to nothing. Beaten at their own game

And the baiters provide some nice entertainment to onlookers like myself...

fletch

Here's the latest

Hello,
Sequel to our first contact and having given the affirmation that the vehicle is in perfect order, my client have instructed me to carry on with the transaction.

I will be forwarding you a certified cashier’s cheque of ($4,400) which my client issued before traveling abroad for his honeymoon. This will cover the cost of the car, shipping duties, because I totaled everything for him and miscellaneous charges.

On receipt of the check, you are to deduct the money for the cost of the vehicle (€ 2,400) and forward (€ 2,000) to our shipping agent, to cover his expenses so that he will come over to inspect the car, signing of title paper and put the finishing touches before driving to the wharf for shipment. Believing that by this gesture, we will conquer time factor and have the car parked in my clients’ garage in belgium, before he returns.
Probably this will boost our reputation for efficiency in rendering service.

Please try your possible best to facilitate this transaction to be successful as quick as possible. By so doing, I believe we are opening up a conducive environment for further business transactions.

So I would like you to provide...

Your full name……

Contact Address…..

Phone number…….

In other for the cheque to be sent to you via courier services.



Thanks
chris Cartar

And here's my response

Hi Chris,



I am delighted that everything seems to be moving so fast! I was apprehensive at first after receiving your initial mail but the quality of English, syntactic ability and overall grammatical accuracy of the mail below really leaves me in no doubt that this transaction is going to be dealt with in the most professional manner possible. However, I may have negated to mention in my first mail, but the pictures posted on carsireland were not very recent, so I have taken the liberty of taking a few new pictures for your perusal, pic1, pic2, pic3 & pic4



As requested, please find below my contact details



Daniel O’Donnell,

23 Getuptheyard Road,

Ballywherever,

Donegal,

Republic Of Ireland.



Phone No: 00 353 43 7513 4523 154 (125)



Regards

Daniel O’Donnell

fletch

Well I'm having a great time of it trying to sell my car.....got the standard issue call from Vehicle Centre/Vehicle Match Services who now seem to be operating under the name VCU. Had a great time winding her up leading her on, pretending I'm interested. I told her that I didn't have my credit card with me but will bring it into work tomorrow (gives me time to think of some devious little joke to play on her )

unkel

fletch wrote:

I told her that I didn't have my credit card with me but will bring it into work tomorrow (gives me time to think of some devious little joke to play on her )

Best of luck, give it your best

overdriver

Nice work!

You been to the eater yet? I can get someone to mentor you if you like - you're a born baiter!

fletch

overdriver wrote:

Nice work!

You been to the eater yet? I can get someone to mentor you if you like - you're a born baiter!

Yeh I've seen that site a few times.....great if yer bored and want a good read.
I've already put her on hold for a few minutes. Its amazin how she didn't even listen to what I was saying. First I told, oh there's a knock at the door, then later I told her that I'm in work and I'd forgotten my credit card. She asked was there anyone at home that could get the number off the card so I gave her a big long story about how my parents are on holidays and both my sisters have moved out of home and told them where they were living and what they were working at!
She asked when would be suitable for people to view the car, I told her midnight any night this week, she didn't bat an eyelid.
Oh I have her direct line phone number

unkel

fletch wrote:

She asked when would be suitable for people to view the car, I told her midnight any night this week

Class!

Keep us updated

fletch

unkel wrote:

Class!

Keep us updated

Well I've been messing my friend Emily about for the last week or so each time she rings saying it's an unsuitable time and asking her to ring me back at some ridiculous time. Today she rang out of the blue so I decided to have a bit of fun and told her that I had a wee accident in the car on the way home the other night. I told her I had the damage assessed and I got a quote of €1,600 for a repair(remember the car is only worth €2k!, and is sold now ). She didn't seem to think that would bother the clients interested in the car once I got it repaired. Well anyway I've told her that I can't afford the GBP£100 she needs to release my details to her "clients" and asked her to ring me back next week when I should hopefully be able to