In the middle of a Scam

~Rebel~

Hey folks, as the title says, im the subject of a scam at the moment, and am just wondering about people's idea's for ideally catching the guy or at least making life uncomfortable for him.

I've been browsing for a while for any decent car deals which might become available on the net over autotrader when last weekend i came across an absolute deal - a 2004 Golf 2litre TDi with full sportline package for only 4,000euro's and its location was in Cork, which is where im living so was totally ideal. I emailed the chap anyway and within 2 days had a reply with his full shpeil. He said he bought the car under his name for his brother who was living in ireland. The car is taxed, reg'd and NCT'd in Ireland, but the brother had moved to England. Unfortunately the brother died, leaving the car there, unable to be sold to an English dealer, and proving cumbersome to sell back to Ireland. This chap claimed to be living abroad himself and just wanted to meet the prospective buyer in Liverpool to test drive the car, have it looked over by a VW dealer and then sign over the agreements before collecting the money with me from a western Union transfer.

Now, I was already sceptical at this point, but took a look at flights from Cork to Liverpool and found that i could get a return flight for only 20euro's Total with ryanair, so booked it as the loss was minimal and i even had a return flight in case it went pair shaped and the car deal fell through. So i got back onto the chap saying that was sorted and i was looking forward to doing the deal - sorted. He replied saying he wanted proof that i wasn't wasting his time and that I had the money available to make the sale so requested I make the western union transfer now to the full total of 4,000e to be collected by Me in Liverpool on the date of the 29th, and to scan and send him the docket to prove that i was definately coming, and that i had the funds. A bit odd, and i was still very much taking it with a pinch of salt, but he also sent me a scan of the cars certificate of registration, which checked out fully with a CarTell check i did, so I went ahead with the transfer. I sent him the scan on Friday, but only with the bare minimum of details - transfer code blocked, sender name blocked, my middle name blocked, type of ID required blocked etc etc, only showing the value, my first and surnames (which he knew already) and the receiving office's address. So he would have been unable to answer any of the security questions. I half expected this to be the last i heard from him, but low and behold he replies saying thats great and he will soon send me a scan of his flight ticket to prove he was coming too. Wonderful i thought, maybe i was being too cynical...

But within another 2 hours i had another email saying that he'd realised I could have just filled in a docket in the office without actually making the transfer so could I please fill in the online tracker on the western union website and copy and paste him the response. Now as soon as I saw the address the jig was up really, may as well have been www.fakeaddress.com, he sent me this link: http://westernuniontransfer.tk/WUCOMWEB/transferStatusAction.do/method=load/orderStatus.html
which is clearly a fake.EVen the 'links' at the end of the page are just typed unlinked words. I ignored the email and got 2 more in the next few hours, asking if i was serious and what the problem was. The page, I assume, sends any details i enter straight back to him, so this is where I started wondering about my next step. First thing i did was cancel the transfer, which Western Union were only too happy to do. Then i was thinking of what i could do next. I can enter false details and tell him thats done, as he wont know better and may try and use these fake details to try and receive the money, and thereby get caught - but he'll probably test my details in the actual tracker which ends it. Also I can send him the receipt with the main details blocked again, from the original transfer and just play dumb saying my browser told me the link he gave was insecure, but the receipt proves i made it, as well as sending my flight details and see what he does next. Im going to use my flights anyway, got a few buddies to come so we're just gonna go for a cheap night out over there instead. Wondering if i should be trying to get him to meet me at the airport in the hope of getting a photo of him, or having the police alerted to him already or something....

Any ideas, regardless how insane, or serious, would be much appreciated. Any way we can fuk with this scumbag?

Vain

Front headline in paper. Blood spilled over car sale:D

copacetic

just forget it man, why waste your time on it?

there are loads of examples of this exact scam in the scam thread on motors forum...

Quazzie

tl:dr but I'm fairly sure murder is your only option

~Rebel~

ha, fair enough, was just thinking that im gonna read something on here in the future about a clever way to stop this happening and think 'bugger - should'a done that'.

I did a bit of lookin alright and it does seem like this kind of thing is done pretty often.

some people just suck i guess.

Alanstrainor

The fact that you went along with it for so long is just crazy, how could you possibly believe you could get such a car for 4000, recession or no recession, you're never going to get a car like that for that money.

~Rebel~

Alanstrainor wrote: »

The fact that you went along with it for so long is just crazy, how could you possibly believe you could get such a car for 4000, recession or no recession, you're never going to get a car like that for that money.

well i always expected him to be lying so with that in mind i felt in no danger. It did make a slight amount of sense that it would be reduced price given that its an Irish Reg car in England and that everything he claimed is totally in accordance with the CarTell details, but still yes it would have been a ridiculous bargain (hence why I did play along for a while). IMO it was still worth checking out cautiously.

minidazzler

I filled out that webform of his for you.

Your name is now "Fcuk You"

His name is "You Cnut"

Caoimhín

Give him the car for free but hide Snyper in the boot. He will be delighted with his good fortune when all of a sudden, BAMB!! butz sex rape..

humanji

Would you not just tell the guards, or something? Nothing say revenge like having someone sent to prison.

AlmightyCushion

We really need a device that lets you stab people over the internet. That would sort you're little problem.

~Rebel~

humanji wrote: »

Would you not just tell the guards, or something? Nothing say revenge like having someone sent to prison.

Im doing this alright too, a friend of my auld fella's is an inspector, but i expect nothing to come of it.

dsmythy

~Rebel~ wrote: »

Im doing this alright too, a friend of my auld fella's is an inspector, but i expect nothing to come of it.

I don't see why not. You're basically handing a criminal over to them and protecting others in the future.

Blazer

Wasn't this posted already about 3 months ago on the motors section?
Seems like a regular scam now :d

FlutterinBantam

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

We really need a device that lets you stab people over the internet. That would sort you're little problem.

:eek:Who would mod this place then???

loobylou

You should get some good ideas for winding him up here http://www.419eater.com/

Sean Quagmire

im currently dragging my scamming friend 'rita' through the mind games of hell. im going to post the finished product here. its a great laugh.

AlmightyCushion

FlutterinBantam wrote: »

:eek:Who would mod this place then???

There would be no-one left to mod.

Tigger

send him a cheque for 4 grand then tell him you have changes your mind but he can keep half and ask for 2 grand back by western union

then send me the money i have to get my original investment in the nigerian emperors cousins angel factory if i get three more to sign up i'll make my money back and will be able to buy an affordable house for only 125% of retail

Overheal

Alanstrainor wrote: »

The fact that you went along with it for so long is just crazy, how could you possibly believe you could get such a car for 4000, recession or no recession, you're never going to get a car like that for that money.

Indeed. Even with 130k miles on it, it still has a blue book value of over 10,000 eur. You shouldnt expect to pay any less than 7k, and thats if its in poor condition.

http://kbb.com

dr.bollocko

Overheal wrote: »

Indeed. Even with 130k miles on it, it still has a blue book value of over 10,000 eur. You shouldnt expect to pay any less than 7k, and thats if its in poor condition.

http://kbb.com

Damn. I cant see it. Could it be the USABlock addon I installed for firefox?:D