Scam - car buyers put oil in coolant

Pov06

Just noticed this Facebook post:
https://www.facebook.com/nick.newman.731/posts/10152955250237401

Car buyers put oil in the coolant reservoir and claimed the HG was gone so they could buy the car for half price.

Does it sound like a believable story?

They say they filled it up then took it for a test drive and then the guy showed him the oil in the coolant. Would the coolant not turn into a mayonnaise like substance?

CiniO

Pov06 wrote: »

Just noticed this Facebook post:
https://www.facebook.com/nick.newman.731/posts/10152955250237401

Car buyers put oil in the coolant reservoir and claimed the HG was gone so they could buy the car for half price.

And at that stage any reasonable seller tells them to feck off.

SCOOP 64

Could well believe it, they relied on intimidation to get people to sell cheap, will always be some one who will fall for it.

bazz26

It's on faceless book so it must be true!

endacl

bazz26 wrote: »

It's on faceless book so it must be true!

I hear they arrived to buy the car in a white van full of stolen children. Driven by Kony.

Pov06

Well at least this conversation is a bit more mature.

The one on Facebook didn't go so well :pac:

"fcukin foreners send them out"
"deport the fcukers"

No mentions about "hey seller, didn't you see the oil container that they had in their hands?"

Kenny Logins

Four people coming to view the car would have put me right off. Abort.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

endacl

Patww79 wrote: »

Worth knowing on the off chance it's true.

Facebook. Must be.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

the_syco

Kenny Logins wrote: »

Four people coming to view the car would have put me right off. Abort.

This.

coylemj

Pov06 wrote: »

Does it sound like a believable story?

Eh, no.

Most Facebook posts or e-mails which encourage you to post it on or 'send this to all your friends' is a hoax virus.

But.... in this case it's clearly a publicity stunt to get people to visit his FB page to see the 'for sale' ad for his car.

Fair play to him, he even got someone to start a thread on boards so we'd all look at the ad!

the_syco

coylemj wrote: »

But.... in this case it's clearly a publicity stunt to get people to visit his FB page to see the 'for sale' ad for his car.

The funny thing is; who would after his car got messed with? :pac:

Kenny Logins

coylemj wrote: »

Eh, no.

Most Facebook posts or e-mails which encourage you to post it on or 'send this to all your friends' is a hoax virus.

But.... in this case it's clearly a publicity stunt to get people to visit his FB page to see the 'for sale' ad for his car.

Fair play to him, he even got someone to start a thread on boards so we'd all look at the ad!

Why is it so unbelievable? Purely because it was on Facebook? If it was on here, it would be gospel...?

ohnonotgmail

this may be just old age playing tricks with my memory but i do remember a thread about this many years ago here on boards. not this specific instance obviously but buyers putting oil in the coolant.

Kenny Logins

Kenny Logins wrote: »

Four people coming to view the car would have put me right off. Abort.

I cant stand that ****.
I was once selling a motorbike and 4 lads showed up.
Fairly intimidating when your by yourself.

Thargor

BrownFinger wrote: »

I cant stand that ****.
I was once selling a motorbike and 4 lads showed up.
Fairly intimidating when your by yourself.

I remember you posted a pic of it at the time over in Arcade and Retro:

PrettyBoy

What's so unbelievable about this story? Some people won't have a bar of it because it's on Facebook? Should he have taken out a full page ad in The Irish Times to caution others about this scam that's seemingly happening in his area?

Pov06

PrettyBoy wrote: »

Should he have taken out a full page ad in The Irish Times to caution others about this scam that's seemingly happening in his area?

Ah now.. he'd have to be fairly generous to take out an ad for the Irish people when he's based in the UK himself

To me it doesn't seem believable. Did he really think 4 lads would come to view a car and one of them would struggle to take out the spare wheel??? And the seller doesn't even notice the oil container in one of the guy's hands?

Kenny Logins

Kenny Logins wrote: »

Four people coming to view the car would have put me right off. Abort.

Ah now when i sold my first car a 98 micra, 4 Caribbean lads turned up, couldn't of been nicer, they had a look around and a chat and we agreed a price and a deal was done, they jumped in and headed off down the road like the Jamaican bobsled team.

Wild Garlic

cisk wrote: »

Ah now when i sold my first car a 98 micra, 4 Caribbean lads turned up, couldn't of been nicer, they had a look around and a chat and we agreed a price and a deal was done, they jumped in and headed off down the road like the Jamaican bobsled team.

There's a lot of micras like that. One lad steering and the other three pushing it

Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime

The unbelievable thing about this story is no way am i letting anyone feck around with my engine or top anything up before selling.

Once i have cash and log book sent they can do whatever the feck they want then.

Pov06

LIGHTNING wrote: »

I did know a guy that had his car stolen on a test drive. Two lads, one hit him in the face and threw him out of the car. Was a nice motor too :mad:

I remember years ago there was a story of someone test driving a Mini Cooper in Howth and they drove it into the water with the owner still in the car :rolleyes:

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

Kenny Logins

Pov06 wrote: »

I remember years ago there was a story of someone test driving a Mini Cooper in Howth and they drove it into the water with the owner still in the car :rolleyes:

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/passenger-did-not-suspect-suicide-mission-inquest-told-26614966.html

Pov06

Kenny Logins wrote: »

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/passenger-did-not-suspect-suicide-mission-inquest-told-26614966.html

That's the one!

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

PrettyBoy

LIGHTNING wrote: »

I did know a guy that had his car stolen on a test drive. Two lads, one hit him in the face and threw him out of the car. Was a nice motor too :mad:

Pov06 wrote: »

I remember years ago there was a story of someone test driving a Mini Cooper in Howth and they drove it into the water with the owner still in the car :rolleyes:

Both happened in Dublin fairly recently and both were much publicised.

Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime wrote: »

The unbelievable thing about this story is no way am i letting anyone feck around with my engine or top anything up before selling.

Do you really think the seller was aware that one of the lads was filling his coolant tank with oil? The most unbelievable thing is that some people are flat out refusing to believe a story about a fairly simple, believable and probably common scam simply due to the fact that it was reported about on Facebook.

ba_barabus

I don't know about people putting oil in coolant but I have heard of people doing similar tricks to drive down the price of a car. Generally it has involved fiddling with the electrics to stop the car from starting or to make it run rough.

For anyone who doubts this there was a guy running a scam around Dublin doing it to VW Golfs and then getting paid by the owners for "fixing" it.

I've also had fellas do other strange stuff to drive down a price including one cnut who broke an electric window switch.

enricoh

What's so unbelievable, was a thing on Joe Duffy a while ago about people ringing the cash for scrap car stickers. The owner of the motor is promised say 150 for his scrap car , grand job.

A hape of members of the travelling community come to collect it , a few of them go poking about the garden, big row about the price and half the time the owner is rattled n gives it to them for nothing

enricoh

Kenny Logins wrote: »

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/passenger-did-not-suspect-suicide-mission-inquest-told-26614966.html

Jesus, that's a rough day at the office!

CiniO

In 2008 I was buying a car. 01 Fiat Bravo 1.2 with 80k miles.
Seller was a lady.
I looked properly at the car, test drove it and expressed my opinion.
I told suspension was not great and it will probably fail next NCT in my opinion.
There was a tiny drop of power steering fluid under power steering pump so I showed it to her, and said that it's leaking.
I asked when was the clutch changed, to which she replied probably never, so I said that at this mileage it will go anytime now.
I said that engine is making strange noise IMO and generally car is not great.
And I proposed price which was only about 60% of asking price.
And to my huge surprise she agreed without even trying to haggle.

In fact suspension was grand, there was no leak from power steering pump and still isn't. Clutch was changed 6 months before I bought it (she gave me receipts during transaction which showed that fact). In general car has done over 100k kms since then and still running perfect.

But I don't feel it was a scam. I just tried to point out bad things about the car, which is fairly normal when buying, and not all of them necesserily were bad things. But both me and her didn't know that.

Pov06

CiniO wrote: »

In 2008 I was buying a car. 01 Fiat Bravo 1.2 with 80k miles.
Seller was a lady.
I looked properly at the car, test drove it and expressed by opinion.
I told suspension was not great and it will probably fail next NCT in my opinion.
There was a tiny drop of power steering fluid under power steering pump so I showed it to her, and said that it's leaking.
I asked when was the clutch changed, to which she replied probably never, so I said that at this mileage it will go anytime now.
I said that engine is making strange noise IMO and generally car is not great.
And I proposed price which was only about 60% of asking price.
And to my huge surprise she agreed without even trying to haggle.

In fact suspension was grand, there was no leak from power steering pump and still isn't. Clutch was changed 6 months before I bought it (she gave me receipts during transaction which showed that fact). In general car has done over 100k kms since then and still running perfect.

But I don't feel it was a scam. I just tried to point out bad things about the car, which is fairly normal when buying, and not all of them necesserily were bad things. But both me and her didn't know that.

Well there is nothing wrong with haggling the price when you meet the seller.

The OP is a different story where the buyers actually put oil into the coolant reservoir (allegedly). That is definitely a scam.

Dunmucky

Hi,
Just registered here to warn about a scam.

I am selling a Mercedes 220 Cdi on done deal.

Got a call from a guy wanting to see it. Arranged yesterday evening, kept calling to say he was delayed, eventually arrived at 10 pm.

3 guys arrived in a NI or U.K. reg car. 2 got out, introduced ourselves, I asked where they were from, they said Spain. Then I noticed they weren't speaking Spanish, so I asked why, and they said they were half Spanish. They looked and sounded eastern european or Russian.

One was checking the engine compartment and the other guy called me to the boot to ask about the spare tyre.

Took it for a test drive, all going well, got back and one guy said he could hear a tapping in the engine.

He removed the oil filler cap to "relieve pressure " then the coolant cap. Immediately he noticed it was full of engine oil !

I apologised and said I wasn't aware as the car was driving perfectly. He said it needed a new gasket, 2 days work, split the engine, skim etc, said the car was scrap only useful for parts. Offered half what I was looking for. Wanted me to call my mechanic there and then, I refused and said I would call in the morning.

Anyway, checked out this morning, absolutely nothing wrong with car except someone put burnt engine oil in the coolant tank!

They use an 089 number.

Alanstrainor

This is an old thread, but I think leaving it open to make people aware is a good thing. Just don't be responding to posts made over 2 years ago.

Henry Ford III

CiniO wrote: »

In 2008 I was buying a car. 01 Fiat Bravo 1.2 with 80k miles.
Seller was a lady.
I looked properly at the car, test drove it and expressed my opinion.
I told suspension was not great and it will probably fail next NCT in my opinion.
There was a tiny drop of power steering fluid under power steering pump so I showed it to her, and said that it's leaking.
I asked when was the clutch changed, to which she replied probably never, so I said that at this mileage it will go anytime now.
I said that engine is making strange noise IMO and generally car is not great.
And I proposed price which was only about 60% of asking price.
And to my huge surprise she agreed without even trying to haggle.

In fact suspension was grand, there was no leak from power steering pump and still isn't. Clutch was changed 6 months before I bought it (she gave me receipts during transaction which showed that fact). In general car has done over 100k kms since then and still running perfect.

But I don't feel it was a scam. I just tried to point out bad things about the car, which is fairly normal when buying, and not all of them necesserily were bad things. But both me and her didn't know that.

Sounds like you conned the poor lady. You said the suspension was crocked and it wasn't. You said there was a power steering leak and there wasn't. You said the clutch could go anytime and it turns out it was recently replaced.

You misrepresented details of the cars condition.

PrettyBoy

Henry Ford III wrote: »

Sounds like you conned the poor lady. You said the suspension was crocked and it wasn't. You said there was a power steering leak and there wasn't. You said the clutch could go anytime and it turns out it was recently replaced.

You misrepresented details of the cars condition.

For **** sake, come off it. You're two years late anyway.

mloc123

Dunmucky wrote: »

Hi,
Just registered here to warn about a scam.

I am selling a Mercedes 220 Cdi on done deal.

Got a call from a guy wanting to see it. Arranged yesterday evening, kept calling to say he was delayed, eventually arrived at 10 pm.

3 guys arrived in a NI or U.K. reg car. 2 got out, introduced ourselves, I asked where they were from, they said Spain. Then I noticed they weren't speaking Spanish, so I asked why, and they said they were half Spanish. They looked and sounded eastern european or Russian.

One was checking the engine compartment and the other guy called me to the boot to ask about the spare tyre.

Took it for a test drive, all going well, got back and one guy said he could hear a tapping in the engine.

He removed the oil filler cap to "relieve pressure " then the coolant cap. Immediately he noticed it was full of engine oil !

I apologised and said I wasn't aware as the car was driving perfectly. He said it needed a new gasket, 2 days work, split the engine, skim etc, said the car was scrap only useful for parts. Offered half what I was looking for. Wanted me to call my mechanic there and then, I refused and said I would call in the morning.

Anyway, checked out this morning, absolutely nothing wrong with car except someone put burnt engine oil in the coolant tank!

They use an 089 number.

This line made me laugh. Sounds like an extract from Alan Partridge.

pcardin

This scam unfortunately is true. Happened to myself this June. Long story but there u go for those who is interested...

I got a temp car for commuting after I sold my BMW and while I was waiting on my new car. Apart from age marks and some electric gremlins (it was a Peugeot ) mechanically car was sound. Got the new car and put this Peugeot on sale. 

Some guy texted me asking about the car, questions were quite appropriate, definitely didn't come along as typical time waster. It was all texts, he never rang me though. So we agreed time, and he texted later saying he's on the way. Arrived 2 hours late, also like 10pm or so, 4 of them in the car, none of them spoke proper English. Romanian gypsies if that's important to anyone. 
The guy who was a "buyer" had a leg in the cast. He kept me asking questions about the car, while other 3 were inspecting car. Said he had the similar car before, loves them, etc. Buyer then asked if his brother can take it for a test drive since himself has a broken leg and can't drive. Since I live in a housing estate, I said, fair enough, so off they go. Came back less than 5 min later , said car is low on power. Engine must be fcuked, turbo fcuked, etc. All started to intimidate me, saying that I'm a liar (since earlier I said car was good condition - and it really was), they came long way from Longford, I must be giving them now money for fuel and so on. 
Despite car being "supposedly" fcuked they were still interested to buy for a fraction of what I advertised it for (turbos are expensive, engines too). I refused and asked them to leave. 

After they left I was trying to understand how car could go from good to bad in such a little time as I drove that car back from work before they came and it was fine. Opened the bonnet and started to look around carefully. Have heard some stories before of buyer scams by trying to disconnect something to make car not run or run rough. And there it was, a little tinny pipe has been disconnected from a bigger pipe. Put the pipe back, turned on the engine and car runs perfectly fine. 
I was mad about this but happy at the same time that I didn't fall for it.

Car back on sale, few days later another texter, would like to come and see car. Again 4 Romanian gypsies arrived in a most rusty W210 I ever seen. All get out so I ask - where you from - guess what? Longford they say. I got a bit nervous but ok, let them to see the car. This time keeping an eye on all of them. All check the car, walk around, kick the tyres, rev the sh1t out of engine, try every button, you know, all the usual. All god so far. A supposed buyer (a guy in fancy shirt and line of golden teeth) wants to go for test drive, This time I said, fine but only you and myself. Went for test drive, all fine, car drives very well, yet he keeps telling me he thinks its not powerful enough. 

We arrive back, he asks me more questions, is happy to buy but as a last check he suddenly goes into boot to inspect spare tyre. Asks me to come and see that spare tyre is not brand new and point out on some scuffs on the alloy of the spare tyre. meanwhile bonnet is open and other guy is doing his final check on engine. I walk over, he suddenly decides to open coolant cup, puts his finger in and pulls out all black. 

And again the whole story, gasket is gone, engine is fcuked, why did I lie, etc. Yet happy to offer me 400e for this car as it might be suitable for parts. I asked them to leave as I quickly realized I'm being scammed. AGAIN! They have added some burned oil to coolant and it happened so quickly that I didn't even notice. Was so pissed about this whole thing, was cursing a car for being such a magnet for scammers, cursing them for leaving me with car that now needed a change of coolant. I was even cursing Longford for being a home base for all these scammers. 

Got that car sold luckily a week later, but was left with an experience I wasn't looking for. So yes,, this type of scam is real and does happen.

mikeecho

This article (with video)
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2045078/moment-romanian-scammers-pour-oil-into-coolant-system-of-bmw-before-test-drive-then-ask-for-knock-down-price-when-it-sounded-faulty/

is almost a carbon copy of what the OP said .. yeah yeah.. i know i'm two years late.

But i recall something lately where the potential buyer, sprayed engine oil into the exhaust , and then on the test drive, when the car heated up, it was blowing smoke. . They then haggled for the car at half the advertised rate.

Just an FYI for anyone with cars for sale.

ShadowHearth

mikeecho wrote: »

This article (with video)
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2045078/moment-romanian-scammers-pour-oil-into-coolant-system-of-bmw-before-test-drive-then-ask-for-knock-down-price-when-it-sounded-faulty/

is almost a carbon copy of what the OP said .. yeah yeah.. i know i'm two years late.

But i recall something lately where the potential buyer, sprayed engine oil into the exhaust , and then on the test drive, when the car heated up, it was blowing smoke. . They then haggled for the car at half the advertised rate.

Just an FYI for anyone with cars for sale.

I dont understand why they blacked out scumbags faces in photo. They clearly scaming bastards. Faces should be properly shown.

CiniO

Henry Ford III wrote: »

Sounds like you conned the poor lady.

Are you completely out of your mind?

Are you accusing me of conning the poor lady?

You said the suspension was crocked and it wasn't.

I said that in my opinion it wasn't great and probably would fail NCT.
There's a difference between that and saying it's crocked...
Also remember that car wasn't used for couple month prior to my viewing, so suspension feel could have been different than usual.
But yes - I was wrong - it passed NCT.
Still - 3 years later I had to change it completely including shocks, springs, wishbones, antirollbar links, track rod ends, etc...

You said there was a power steering leak and there wasn't.

I said that there was a drop of oil under powersteering pump which was a fact and I showed it to her.
IMO that's a great indication that there is a leak.
But indeed - I was wrong again.

You said the clutch could go anytime and it turns out it was recently replaced.

I said that on 7 year old Fiat with 80k miles clutch could go anytime if it wasn't changed.
Is it really my fault that clutch was changed, for which she paid a year before and didn't know that?

You misrepresented details of the cars condition.

You are being absolutely ridiculous.
You wrote that purely because you have something against me.
And you wrote that against MOD Warning not to respond to old posts....

You are absolute disgrace with such behaviour.

elperello

In a properly ordered society scam merchants as described would get a tap on the shoulder. Everything checked out licences, insurance, nct,. At home tv licence, dog licence, social welfare etc. Let them know they are under suspicion.

Unfortunately most people don't even bother reporting this type of incident. Interfering with someones car is a crime, so is intimidation.
We need these incidents to be taken seriously by the authorities.

honda boi

F**k that.
When I'm selling I'll be making sure no one is by the engine bay alone!

LordSutch

Pov06 wrote: »

Just noticed this Facebook post:
https://www.facebook.com/nick.newman.731/posts/10152955250237401

Car buyers put oil in the coolant reservoir and claimed the HG was gone so they could buy the car for half price.

Does it sound like a believable story?

They say they filled it up then took it for a test drive and then the guy showed him the oil in the coolant. Would the coolant not turn into a mayonnaise like substance?

Does it sound like a believable story?
Yes it does - unfortunately.