Carzone and Scammers

LolaDub

I think we've all either seen a scam ourselves, been contacted by a scammer or heard from someone who has. I listed a car on carzone over a week ago and was contacted by e mail 28 times, 18 were all you send car i send bank draft scammers. Now while i think they're all fairly stupid scams shouldn't carzone have some duty to protect its customers? In the case of random people contacting you i know carzone has nothing to do with them but several times i've replied to a car ad to get the ole 'i'm living in nigeria germany and its too hard to drive a rhd car its already in a shipping co put your money into 'escrow' and i'll send the car' answer. I saw an article in the metro or evening herald saying gardai were warning people about these scams as they had worked. When you place an add on carzone you have to give a credit or debit card for the 30 euro payment. I'm sure these are probably stolen details but shouldn't the information be given to the gardai when they know its a scam?

Last week i saw a private sale ad for a car i had viewed and knew to be in a garage in Dublin, the photos were the same as their own ad of the car with reg showing in their garage. I reported the ad to carzone and it was changed to sold, then the next day it was for sale again-the exact same ad. Then i sent an e mail to the garage letting them know and the ad got taken down. The garage paid to have their ad up there, of course carzone can't predict what photos will be stolen but when its been reported and its the exact same ad should they not consider an obligation to the garage, their customer? Possibly i'm on a bit of a rant but i've come across so many of these and i feel carzone should be doing more to weed out the scammers and look after their customers and people using their service.

Anyhow a little entertainment! Here is an exhange of emails between one of the scammers and myself-


Hi
Car is for sale,beautiful condition perfect no accidents,no fault not a scratch, always garaged. Price is 12000. 85% thread on tires, fsh. I want a fast sale.
thanks andy


Hi Andy,
When would be a convenient time to view the car?
Kind Regards,
Lola

Hi
i moved to germany where my mother is after very messy divorce,i had no intention to sell it but its difficult to driver here and a garage wont give much for car.
thanks andy

Hi Andy
Thats great! My work has three offices in Germany which i regularly visit so i'm sure we can arrange a suitable time to view the car. What part of Germany are you located?
Kind Regards,
Lola

thats great indeed,how soon can you get here?i live in sindelfingen.i have to warn you i recieve a lot of offers and if you dont move soon with you offer another will take car.
andy

Hi Andy
Your town is close to Stuttgart i see which is perfect i will be there next Thurs and Fri. I would appreciate if you sell the car befor ei get there that you would let me know as i don't want to waste my time. As you are receiving so many offers can you tell me what price you want as it sounds like you're waiting for a bit more than your asking which i can't afford?
Kind Regards
Lola

you are right,is close of stuttgart. i am looking for asking price no more.i have proposal for you because i am sure car will be sold before you get here that i ship car to you. i already had man take car but he couldn't pay so car is in frighter at shipping company.we use escrow service like illox where you put money i put car and if you like in 10 days i take money. at the moment i travel in work and in austria, car is still in germany.
andy

Hi Andy,

I'm afraid i find your message hard to understand, are you telling me you won't be in Germany next week?I want to find out how much it would cost to change the colour of the seats as they really are awful. My max is 12000 so i will have to deduct the price of the seats from the 12000. I don't like using escrow as i had a bad experience, can i pay you with a bank draft? As you would be waiting 10 days anyway for my payment it will be easier for us both for me to view the car and for us to exchange car and payment on the day. Can you send me the reg and chassis number of the car for my mechanic to do the usual security checks? For the bank draft i will need your name, address, bank account number, sort code, and address of bank. I look forward to meeting you and see the car.
Kind Regards,
Lola

i change seat colour, what color you want and you pay me 12000. i no want bank draft i want escrow payment. to secure view of car you put payment in escrow when you come see car you dont like you take payment back ok.andy

Hi Andy,
Sorry am i speaking to the same person, you're becoming much harder to understand! Can you send me a number and i'll call you. What fsh does it have?
Kind Regards,
Lola

no have working numbero now not in germany.car does no have fish.what for you want fish.price doesnt include fish,i send you fish.andy

Hi Andy,
I was asking for the full service history that you mentioned earlier in your emails, not a fish. I have no need for a fish for my car. Do Germans always drive with fish? What service history does it come with?
Kind Regards,
Lola

yes germans we have fish in car,very fashion and popular.sorry for missunderstanding.ford service history all full and complete.andy

Hi Andy,
The car is a mazda why does it have a ford service history? I think this sounds really strange and i probably won't come to Germany now as i think this will be a waste of my time. I don't like the idea of a fish living in my car, the smell would be awful! However if you want to continue with a transaction i will swap you my old car.
Kind Regards,
Lola

yes i take car,what is it,you give me payment to ok?car has mazda service history,sorry me mistake.you dont have to come to germany is ok i send car to you.fish is good in car.andy

Hi Andy,
My car is a 91 fiesta with 170000 miles.It was in an acident but nothing a bit of panel beating won't sort out and a few engines parts replaced. I won't pay any cash on top of this as it is a very desirable car. How did you make a mistake with mazda and ford?
Kind Regards,
Lola

yes i take car you send to uk and i pick it up there so you dont pay extra shipping.i make mistake with other car is ford not this one. i sell ford too you want this car?andy

Hi Andy,
I'll insure it and send it to Germany as its is such a fantastic car and would hate for it to get lost and end up in Nigeria or somewhere! The mazda will be fine for me thank you. Can you send it to Aras An Uactarain, Phoenix Park,Dublin7. You have a lot of cars to sell!
kind Regards,
Lola

ok car sent to address.will arrive in 3 days,can you send car to address in uk i take panels beating too. is nothign wrong for car in nigeria,is good life there better than ireland is more good place than stupid ireland. andy

Hi Andy,
Aren't you Irish? Why would you say something like that its very mean. I don't want to let you have my beautiful fiesta now, it means too much to me. When the car arrives here i'll send it back to your German address, maybe you should google my address?
Kind Regards,
Lola

you f*ckin b*tch,i know u a c*ck s*cking (etc) u waste my time and my car,lovely car much better than stupid iriah person or car.....


you get the idea!

jaxy999

LOL, the best laugh I've had all day!

audismelly

classic, fair play to ya:D

cjt156

Enjoyed that, nicely done.

LolaDub

Cheers, i usually wouldn't entertain these people but since i've been selling my car (whihc is sale agreed btw not pluggin for a sale) i've had so many of them that i was going beserk and thought i'd wreck their heads a bit. I really feel carzone should be taking more responsibility for people using their site.

bottletops

class

Eoin

car does no have fish.what for you want fish.price doesnt include fish,i send you fish.andy

My favourite part.

KTRIC

Theres no way that guy is German, Irish or any other European nationality. The way he structures his sentences is a dead give away.

Dubh Geannain

Nice one. LMAO

ChickCool

Thread of the year!think it deserves two though,one to discuss carzone having some responsibility and another to put up this hilarity! defo carzone should be taking steps to prevent this and that example of not deleting the ad is disgraceful if i was the garage id have a full freaker @them

daRobot

Classic stuff

bazz26

Made my afternoon.

I think this thread should be put up as a sticky.

Nice one OP.

PS. Looks like this scammer has some sort of fetish for fish.

topper75

not stupid irish thread.

Made my day. Thanks.

Yakult

Great thread

LolaDub

You're all welcome! I got the impression i was speaking to someone with decent english/fluency at first, probably they get someone to write it for them and then it totally changed.

What do you all feel about carzone when you see this kind of crap on the site or coming from their site? Do you feel they're doing enough/nothing at all or should be doing more to prevent this or regulate the people on the site?

Stevie Dakota

Brilliant, Lola for President!

victor1

LolaDub wrote: »

You're all welcome! I got the impression i was speaking to someone with decent english/fluency at first, probably they get someone to write it for them and then it totally changed.

What do you all feel about carzone when you see this kind of crap on the site or coming from their site? Do you feel they're doing enough/nothing at all or should be doing more to prevent this or regulate the people on the site?

This was class, and yes they dont seem to be doing anything about it, theres surely something that they can do

bazz26

Considering the large volume of these type adverts on carzone these days at €30 a month, you could probably understand why carzone are not too bothered about them.

nice1franko

I reported one (an 06 audi a4 for 5k, email seller only, 'u pay me escrow' etc) and never heard anything back from them and the ad was still up about 3 days later. don't think they give a rats so long as they get their 30 bobs.

copacetic

KTRIC wrote: »

Theres no way that guy is German, Irish or any other European nationality. The way he structures his sentences is a dead give away.

No shit, Sherlock.

L-M

Jesus that's gas, they really do take us for complete fools lol.

LolaDub

victor1 wrote: »

This was class, and yes they dont seem to be doing anything about it, theres surely something that they can do

nice1franko wrote: »

I reported one (an 06 audi a4 for 5k, email seller only, 'u pay me escrow' etc) and never heard anything back from them and the ad was still up about 3 days later. don't think they give a rats so long as they get their 30 bobs.

They're likely not to be getting the 30 euro in a legitamate way ie from a scammers actual credit card, more likely stolen cards. I think its awful that they don't seem to take the reports seriously. Considering possible identity theft, number plate theft (not sure if its valid number plate theft as its just in the pictures) and intent to fraud surely the gardai and carzone should be a bit more alert with this?

bazz26 wrote: »

Considering the large volume of these type adverts on carzone these days at €30 a month, you could probably understand why carzone are not too bothered about them.

I get your point but if i list my car there i pay my 30 to them as well, same as everyone else. Why isn't my custom and right to a decent service recognised? I got my car listed on cbg and cars ireland for a week for free. I didn't get one scam email or a uk advertiser looking for money from those sites only carzone. Admittedly carzone has a lot more traffic but i really think they should have much more of a duty of care for their customers and people using their service. They do fa about the scamming now and its becoming an absolute joke with carzone. They need to get their finger out and start giving a crap.

LolaDub

Stevie Dakota wrote: »

Brilliant, Lola for President!

LOL

My first act would be to spam the scammers, post up every scammer email you receive and get everyone to email them crap

BadCRC

That is the funniest post ever! It's good to see someone having fun at these guys expense.

I've recently sold a car an suffered the same spam of scammers and advertising agents trying to tell me people in the UK will buy my car.

In my opinion Carzone are going to loose their dominant position in the market unless they start to sort this out. They have become a haven for scammers and seem to lack any desire to tackle the problem.

lassykk

that was brilliant... gave me such a laugh

Cormic

very good. I am off to 419eater to have another laugh.

bazz26

LolaDub wrote: »

I get your point but if i list my car there i pay my 30 to them as well, same as everyone else. Why isn't my custom and right to a decent service recognised? I got my car listed on cbg and cars ireland for a week for free. I didn't get one scam email or a uk advertiser looking for money from those sites only carzone. Admittedly carzone has a lot more traffic but i really think they should have much more of a duty of care for their customers and people using their service. They do fa about the scamming now and its becoming an absolute joke with carzone. They need to get their finger out and start giving a crap.

I understand what you are saying, they probably could do a bit more but then where does the policing stop. What about clocked cars or cars with dodgy pasts. We cannot blame them for that either. At the end of the day the internet is vast just like the real world, full of dishonest people waiting to take advantage of you so the old reliable advice of "buyer beware" still applies. If something sounds too good to be true then most likely it is.

BTW I have no association with them.

Mylow

bazz26 wrote: »

Considering the large volume of these type adverts on carzone these days at €30 a month, you could probably understand why carzone are not too bothered about them.

Until they start get chargeback's on credit cards. You can guarantee these scammers are using someone elses card details.

LolaDub

Carzone do or seem to do absolutely nothing when it comes to the policing of ads. They're making a profit (probably from stolen cards) from the users of the site and their customers being spammed and potentially ripped off. They should really have more responsibility.

smash

have you seen the amount of cars on that site? there's no way in hell you could monitor every ad! and I've seen loads of people here put up links to scam ads and when I click in, they've been marked as sold so there is some monitoring going on.

Cormic

Stevie Dakota wrote: »

Brilliant, Lola for President!

If we elect her as President then the scammer will have her address