Selling car - what is the scam here?

eoin262

I have put my car up for sale via carzone and have gotten an inquiry that has my spidey senses tingling. After an initial back and forth I have received this:

"Hi ... Am very much impressed with its condition and the price is ok compare to similar others hence any need for mechanical, electrical or cosmetics repairs, we can take care of it.

Am xxxxxx (UK Dealer) negotiating for a client relocation from here per his request, so am corresponding our discussions as part of our customer relationship trust policy.

Payment is via cashiers check so I'll be needing
full Name:
Address:
Phone number:

Upon check receipt, which will include car price and carrier's logistics included, deposited and funds cleared your account, the carrier will call you to schedule time, when and where to proceed for papers works and other logistics (pick up,services,upgrades and delivery).

I hope you understood, consider it sold while I await the requested information. Thanks and have a blissful day

Regards,
xxxxxx"

To me this seems to scream of a scam, but the bit that seems odd is "..deposited and funds cleared your account" I won't be handing over the keys to anyone until the funds are in my account and can be drawn down. Or is that just the hook to get me in?

My gut tells me that it's either a phishing for personal information or it's the typical scam of sending too much money via check and asking for me to pay back the difference.

Or am I just being paranoid?

RoyalMarine

Run a mile

neris

Looks dodgy to me. A cashiers check from uk to ireland being the biggest warning. Have you googled the dealers name and email address thats corresponding with you? Also they say they,ll deal with any repairs or mechanical and electrical issues.

punisher5112

Nothing more dodgy then this. Run run quite fast

eoin262

Thanks. I have googled them and came up with nothing. It screams scam, but what are they hoping to get out of this?

punisher5112

eoin262 wrote: »

Thanks. I have googled them and came up with nothing. It screams scam, but what are they hoping to get out of this?

That they send you money and pay too much and you give difference is one way. They send on stolen account or withdraw

They do this selling also and you pay for car and shipping you never receive car and money is gone.

Alun

The use of the American spelling of cheque (check) is as much of a giveaway as anything considering they say they're a UK dealer! That and some obviously non-native grammar / language usage errors such as "papers works" and "have a blissful day"

Frynge

You receive a cheque for the amount of the car plus the cost of delivery to where ever. The cheque will be from overseas and take more than one week to bounce but under EU law the bank must give you access to cheque funds within a week.

So you think you have gotten all the money and happily pay the delivery guy when he comes to collect the car as well as signing all the paperwork, the car is long gone and out of the country when the bank phones and tells you they are taking back the money from the cheque because it was fake.

bennyc

ASAIK the scam is, they will overpay you for the shipping and you will get a quote and they will suggest you split the extras, you withdraw the amount for them and sent it back , the cheque or draft bounces and you are out a few hundred, it was something like that before I think, in the UK a dodgy cheuqe will lodge into your account and you will see funds , it will get called back after a few days , does not work here though , it just wont clear . I think ...

Rubberchikken

ignore it. i'll admit to knowing very little about these things, but the whole wording screams someone who's trying too hard.
and introduce me to any car dealer that will use the expression 'blissful'.

when you get a seller, insist in them accompanying you to the bank. they pay in cash and you lodge to your account. only sure way imho.

Hyzepher

I got the same email - I ran, I suggest you do too.

inforfun

What is your record on the 100m sprint?

Break that record when running away from this.

Cee-Jay-Cee

bennyc wrote: »

ASAIK the scam is, they will overpay you for the shipping and you will get a quote and they will suggest you split the extras, you withdraw the amount for them and sent it back , the cheque or draft bounces and you are out a few hundred, it was something like that before I think, in the UK a dodgy cheuqe will lodge into your account and you will see funds , it will get called back after a few days , does not work here though , it just wont clear . I think ...

This is most likely version. No one will collect your car or cone and see it. They overpay and request you send the difference back (possibly through PayPal or western union as their client is overseas)

Just ignore it or play them along like I did and send them your work address to send the cheque to. Then after a few days email him and tell him you have the funds but that you will give the shipping agent the over payment money. They will plead with you to send it to them but just keep telling them you don't trust banks or western union and send them a picture of a wad of notes saying 'here's your money, I'll put it in the glove box for the new owner'

Ask lots of questions about the buyer and what the weather is like and other nonsense. Tell them loads about the car. I went in to silly details like the time I couldn't set the clock and was always being late for work and losing a pen down the back of the seat but that the new owner can consider it a gift of they can find it.

I kept it going for 3 weeks till he finally got threatening and told me that he knew the governor of my country and would report me to the FBI. I told him I was the governors son and I'd tell my father I was doing business with his friend. He eventually just left me alone but I had great craic stringing him along.

AnthonyOD1987

Maybe just take his cheque and lodge it and not bother replying back!!

If it was a UK Dealer that was legitimately interested, I'm sure they'd just ring you.

bazz26

That dealer has an amazing business model - agrees to buy and collect a car that he hasn't seen or test drove, based purely on photos from the advert, and is more than happy to pay the full asking price. He would go far on The Apprentice.

Atlantic Dawn

These scammers really need a local person in each country to degob****ise their scam letters to make them look more real for each country. They must buy the original templates from someone in their village who hasn't updatted them for years.

vandriver

It's called a bank draft in UK,not cashiers check.

check_six

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

These scammers really need a local person in each country to degob****ise their scam letters to make them look more real for each country. They must buy the original templates from someone in their village who hasn't updatted them for years.

Apparently, the mixed up grammar and spelling is intentional. The regular punter will see that and smell a rat straight away. The scamster is looking for the kind of victim/chump who will overlook the gobbledegook in the original message because they will be a much easier person to scam. It's a kind of early filter to weed out everyone smart enough to not be fooled by them. It only leaves the purest poor eejits responding to them. Quite cruelly cunning really.

Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime

Cash is king on small private sales.

Anything over 3K i reckon the buyer and seller walk into the bank branch and lodge the money there and then.

That way the seller isn't walking around with money waiting for something to happen.

But this is a total scam. They just forgot to say their client is a spanish sailor

Marcusm

eoin262 wrote: »

I have put my car up for sale via carzone and have gotten an inquiry that has my spidey senses tingling. After an initial back and forth I have received this:

"Hi ... Am very much impressed with its condition and the price is ok compare to similar others hence any need for mechanical, electrical or cosmetics repairs, we can take care of it.

Am xxxxxx (UK Dealer) negotiating for a client relocation from here per his request, so am corresponding our discussions as part of our customer relationship trust policy.

Payment is via cashiers check so I'll be needing
full Name:
Address:
Phone number:

Upon check receipt, which will include car price and carrier's logistics included, deposited and funds cleared your account, the carrier will call you to schedule time, when and where to proceed for papers works and other logistics (pick up,services,upgrades and delivery).

I hope you understood, consider it sold while I await the requested information. Thanks and have a blissful day

Regards,
xxxxxx"

To me this seems to scream of a scam, but the bit that seems odd is "..deposited and funds cleared your account" I won't be handing over the keys to anyone until the funds are in my account and can be drawn down. Or is that just the hook to get me in?

My gut tells me that it's either a phishing for personal information or it's the typical scam of sending too much money via check and asking foyr me to pay back the difference.

Or am I just being paranoid?

Complete scam; no one in the UK would use the phrase cashiers check and if they did they would still spell it cheque!

maximum12

AnthonyOD1987 wrote: »

Maybe just take his cheque and lodge it and not bother replying back!!

Because 1) OP will probably be hit with a hefty processing fee by his bank when it is bounced and 2) why bother, it's not going to cash.

Does anyone else read these emails in a Nigerian accent ?

corks finest

eoin262 wrote: »

I have put my car up for sale via carzone and have gotten an inquiry that has my spidey senses tingling. After an initial back and forth I have received this:

"Hi ... Am very much impressed with its condition and the price is ok compare to similar others hence any need for mechanical, electrical or cosmetics repairs, we can take care of it.

Am xxxxxx (UK Dealer) negotiating for a client relocation from here per his request, so am corresponding our discussions as part of our customer relationship trust policy.

Payment is via cashiers check so I'll be needing
full Name:
Address:
Phone number:

Upon check receipt, which will include car price and carrier's logistics included, deposited and funds cleared your account, the carrier will call you to schedule time, when and where to proceed for papers works and other logistics (pick up,services,upgrades and delivery).

I hope you understood, consider it sold while I await the requested information. Thanks and have a blissful day

Regards,
xxxxxx"

To me this seems to scream of a scam, but the bit that seems odd is "..deposited and funds cleared your account" I won't be handing over the keys to anyone until the funds are in my account and can be drawn down. Or is that just the hook to get me in?

My gut tells me that it's either a phishing for personal information or it's the typical scam of sending too much money via check and asking for me to pay back the difference.

Or am I just being paranoid?

had similar yrs ago,done deal,nigerian chappies,road runner job,beep,beep

TigerTim

I've just had the same e-mail as I've a table/chairs for sale on Donedeal. I've strung him along for a while. He's now agreed to buy a €150 table & chairs for €2500 & has looked for my paypal address. I've just dumped him but curious as to what they do with the Paypal account. I'm familiar with the bank draft scam but anyone know about the Paypal one. Do they just lodge extra money to your account & then look for you to return the overpayment.

T.

Atlantic Dawn

TigerTim wrote: »

I've just had the same e-mail as I've a table/chairs for sale on Donedeal. I've strung him along for a while. He's now agreed to buy a €150 table & chairs for €2500 & has looked for my paypal address. I've just dumped him but curious as to what they do with the Paypal account. I'm familiar with the bank draft scam but anyone know about the Paypal one. Do they just lodge extra money to your account & then look for you to return the overpayment.

T.

It's usually a hacked Paypal account.

lotmc

Do people fall for these scams? There is someone sending out thousands of these emails and hoping that there is one (or more) eejit out there who will fall for it.

This is a pretty poor quality effort, with poor spelling, phrasing etc. By the way no UK dealer would ever buy a car from an Irish website - the traffic is completely the other way, due to price differentials.

punisher5112

lotmc wrote: »

Do people fall for these scams? There is someone sending out thousands of these emails and hoping that there is one (or more) eejit out there who will fall for it.

This is a pretty poor quality effort, with poor spelling, phrasing etc. By the way no UK dealer would ever buy a car from an Irish website - the traffic is completely the other way, due to price differentials.

They hope by spelling badly that one would believe they couldn't be smart enough to be a con

Atlantic Dawn

punisher5112 wrote: »

They hope by spelling badly that one would believe they couldn't be smart enough to be a con

Anyone falling for these scams should have all their finances restricted to having a maximum amount of money they can control of €300 a month for a year until they cop the fook on from being a clown.

check_six

lotmc wrote: »

Do people fall for these scams? There is someone sending out thousands of these emails and hoping that there is one (or more) eejit out there who will fall for it.

This is a pretty poor quality effort, with poor spelling, phrasing etc. By the way no UK dealer would ever buy a car from an Irish website - the traffic is completely the other way, due to price differentials.

As mentioned earlier, the spelling and grammar is intentionally bad. Imagine if you wrote out a really convincing plausible story and mailed it to thousands of people who had cars for sale.

You might get hundreds of replies. Bingo, you think. I'm going to scam a lot of people now.

However, it takes time and effort to seal the deal on one of these scams. How do you pick out the ones that are going to leap blindly at whatever you tell them next? You've still got a lot of people who are smart enough to twig that something fishy is going on. They take time to process.

How do you weed out the smart people? Write a jumbled up nonsense message to start off with. No one clever enough to spot the scam will reply in the first place, and you end up with a small list of poor gullible fools who will now start falling for your evil schemes.