Car sale scam

freewing

Hi all
This may have been covered before but just in case.
I recently placed a car for sale on the web and within a couple of days got a call from a UK based car sales company and would you believe it, they have a host of Irish buyers interested in my specific car ( what luck!).
All I have to do is send them an admin fee by credit card and they will give the interested parties my location ( funny that cos on the web I mentioned my location )anyway I smell a rat and after the third pushy phone call I declined their offer.
Anybody else had this one pulled on them?
E

fletch

Well known scam alright.

Dades

Keep putting them on hold for 5 mins at a time until they feck off.

I had the same bastards call me this year.

jhegarty

Yep , scam ... been going on for years.... ask them to hold for 10 minutes, then try to pay with your dunnes stores value card number.....

fletch

I also had fun with one agent last year (Emily was her name), had her ringing back for about a month, each time I'd have some other cock n bull story why I didn't have my credit card on me. Even told her that I crashed the car one night and did over €2,000 worth of damage to it but was looking at getting it fixed on the cheap, strangely enough she still thought her buyers would be very interested in the car (a '98 Escort which I was selling for 2 grand anyway). She kept asking when would be suitable for her to ring, I kept telling her 2am on a Sunday morning as I work nights. lol When she'd ring, I'd spend the first 10mins telling her how I was, what I did at the weekend, my cat's name etc etc etc. By the end I kinda looked forward to her calls lol I made sure I told her on the last call that I knew from the very beginning that it was a scam and really enjoyed wasting her time and politely said "Now go FCUK yourself!"

Saruman

Try and convert them to some religion. Or try and sell your services to them.
Nice one fletch, good story. You should have recorded the calls so you could post them on boards

cantdecide

This is one of the most persistant and well organized scams I've ever heard of and it should be stickied IMO

unkel

This is what bluehair did

cantdecide

Saruman wrote: »

Try and convert them to some religion. Or try and sell your services to them.
Nice one fletch, good story. You should have recorded the calls so you could post them on boards

Tell them you need someone to talk to and start pouring you heart out.

louie

is going on for more than a year now and it seems that is working for them.

Put them on hold as mentioned above and go for lunch...

fletch

Yeh quite recently some guy came on here after having giving them his credit card details and never heard from them again (can't find the thread right now). Seems they are doing nothing illegal and the credit card company don't seem to be able to reverse the transaction.

louie

I don't know about the credit card company, but due to "Customer Not Present" authorization type, he should be able to get his money back.

BnA

unkel wrote: »

This is what bluehair did

That was very funny. Well worth another read.

I used to get a good few calls myself. I had 2 or 3 numbers saved on my phone so I would recognise them coming up. I remember one day, one crowd rang me over 20 times. Sometimes I would answer and just leave it there and sometimes I wouldn't answer at all, but they kept on ringing.

I remember I got a call from them one morning. I was down in Cork and out for a stroll to change the parking disks on my car. It was a few days before Christmas and I was full of the joys. I had a great ol' chat with yer man for about 15 minutes. I let him do all his speel and I asked him a few questions. I didn't lead him on at all. I was straight with him. I told him that everyone know's it is a scam. He wouldn't give up.

So I asked him....

"Ok.... How did your customers reach you. I am into cars and I have never see any of your ads"

"We advertise on Television sir"

"You are joking me. Again, I watch a whole lot of TV and I have never ever seen you advertise on TV. What channel do you advertise on ?"

"We advertise on Sky sir"

"I watch a lot of Sky and I have never seen your Ads ?"

"We advertise on Sky Teletext"

So I put it to him, that I found it utterly astounding that he has 8 customers in the Cork area for a VW corrado (which I was selling at the time) who had seen his ad on Sky teletext. When I had only got one or two phonecalls after advertising in Carzone, Buy and Sell and The Echo Free ads...?

But he would not give up. He was still utterly insistant that it was a genuine business. I was talking away to him asking him what kind of re-assurances he could give me that he wouldn't just feck off with my money.

Anyway... after about 15 minutes, he changed his tone completely, got very rude, called me some nasty names, and hung up on me.

I was a bit shocked as I had been perfectly straight with him from the start. I told him from the outset I knew it was a scam.

Marcus.Aurelius

We should really, really put this up as a sticky. Its getting more and more common

thebiggestjim

maoleary wrote: »

We should really, really put this up as a sticky. Its getting more and more common

I agree, I have not heard of this scam before until this thread

vengeance52

maoleary wrote: »

We should really, really put this up as a sticky. Its getting more and more common

good idea. i think it should be a sticky warning all people selling motors on the net, and put in adverts.ie too. save the people of the boards losing out to these muppets, plus we can then have fun putting them on hold, or doing a three way call with the local takeaway.

upsfan

louie wrote: »

I don't know about the credit card company, but due to "Customer Not Present" authorization type, he should be able to get his money back.

Unfortunately this isn't the case. As it is a service, rather than goods, and they define this service as a listing in their "directory", which they do immediately, you can't get money back for non-performance. They tend to send you T&Cs by email that vary from what they promise on the phone- you are paying only to be listed in their directory and they make no promise to sell your car.

Even if you persuade your cc company to do a chargeback (which you will effectively only get if you lie when asked "did you authorise the charge?") they will fight the chargeback hand over fist.

EDIT: They know exactly how the system works and are very clever at manipulating it so as to scam money out of people- just technically on the right side of the law. It also helps them that they are operating out of a different jurisdiction.

cantdecide

http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=879874

Helping Pop sell this- got the call. Had them on the phone for an hour:D

louie

Fair Play to you.

mike65

Just buy a whistle. Or start talking durty, either it'll be fun or they'll ring off pronto!

Mike.

cantdecide

It really was fun actually:D I surprised myself at how sincere I was- I remembered to ask all the naive questions n'all...

WHITE_P

When you receive calls from these muppets, ask them are they interested in buying the car and when they reply No, ask them why are they ringing you, this usually pisses them off and they hang up. One of these companies appears to be based in Cyrpus going by the phone no. (+35725817008)

I was selling a car for my mother and I left my direct dial in work as the contact number.

I got a few of these calls and all I did when they came in was transfer them to the speaking clock (1191)

Sizzler

cantdecide wrote: »

http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=879874

Helping Pop sell this- got the call. Had them on the phone for an hour:D

LOL! What did you talk to them about

WHITE_P

ronoc wrote: »

I was selling a car for my mother and I left my direct dial in work as the contact number.

I got a few of these calls and all I did when they came in was transfer them to the speaking clock (1191)

Nice one.!!!