Am I being scammed

HeadWrecked93

Trying to sell my car atm. Have it advertised on a few sites and got the following today.

Email sent saying "I'm interested in your car"

Me: in short "what would you like to know"

Reply from potential buyer " Thanks,i am a military man in camp presently and i wont be able to see this myself as am buying it as a special and surprise birthday gift for my son but i will arrange for a  mover that will come for the pick up once the payment has been made and completed so do get back to me with this details.


1) Are you the first owner?
2) Pick up Location?
3) what is The final Price.
4) Present condition of the car
5) Your paypal email id for the payment."


I could be just being very skeptical but I smell a fish in this! Advice?

Eircom_Sucks

HeadWrecked93 wrote: »

Trying to sell my car atm. Have it advertised on a few sites and got the following today.

Email sent saying "I'm interested in your car"

Me: in short "what would you like to know"

Reply from potential buyer " Thanks,i am a military man in camp presently and i wont be able to see this myself as am buying it as a special and surprise birthday gift for my son but i will arrange for a  mover that will come for the pick up once the payment has been made and completed so do get back to me with this details.


1) Are you the first owner?
2) Pick up Location?
3) what is The final Price.
4) Present condition of the car
5) Your paypal email id for the payment."


I could be just being very skeptical but I smell a fish in this! Advice?

100 % scam

Supergurrier

Scammy McScammerson

Cork981

Ya, well known scam

HeadWrecked93

Though it was too good to be true

bazz26

Ancient scam at this stage.

brembo26

Eircom_Sucks wrote: »

100 % scam

Yup, scam.

and still ricky villa

I have to ask,
How does the scam play out?

grogi

HeadWrecked93 wrote: »

I could be just being very skeptical but I smell a fish in this! Advice?

Locate the abort button. Keep pressing...

HeadWrecked93

and still ricky villa wrote:

I have to ask, How does the scam play out?

Ceasing all contact right now but I am wonder this too??

0ph0rce0

and still ricky villa wrote: »

I have to ask,
How does the scam play out?

PayPal money is sent to your account, You hand over the car, They then start a dispute with PayPal and say they never got the car or some ****e and get the money back from PayPal then you owe PayPal all the money and have no car.


Here's a real life example

Yestarday I've sold my iPhone on eBay and the guy paid me £500 through PayPal. I've transfered the money to my bank account and balance on PayPal was £0. The money hasn't gone in my bank account and the buyer opened a dispute as unauthorised payment an hour after picking up the iPhone. What the **bleep**? Now my balance is -£500 i have no money in the bank account and no iphone. Paypal closed the dispute in his favour. ???? I'm thinking of taking Paypal to the small claims court as this is a scam!

sjb25

HeadWrecked93 wrote: »

Ceasing all contact right now but I am wonder this too??

...

Atlantic Dawn

Seriously?

and still ricky villa

Makes that Nigerian Prince seem like a master criminal

Special Circumstances

Got as far as military man at camp.

I'm out.

Seth Brundle

and still ricky villa wrote: »

Makes that Nigerian Prince seem like a master criminal

j4vier

Rule of thumb.anyone that wants to buy a car without even seeing it, is a scammer

Atlantic Dawn

j4vier wrote: »

Rule of thumb.anyone that wants to buy a car without even seeing it, is a scammer

And in addition anyone placing blind bids over the phone on a car they have not seen is not worth paying any attention to either.

grogi

j4vier wrote: »

Rule of thumb.anyone that wants to buy a car without even seeing it, is a scammer

I actually bought a car once without seeing it...

4068ac1elhodqr

This months scam seems to be along the lines of...

"Selling their car privately having returned to Sweden after long term working in Ireland/N.Ireland and no longer wishing to own a right hand drive car"

j4vier

grogi wrote: »

I actually bought a car once without seeing it...

you must have trusted the seller well or the car was of low value then!

CiniO

grogi wrote: »

I actually bought a car once without seeing it...

Me too.
Last year off one of the boards members
No tax, no NCT, car abroad for couple years.
All arranged over email. He delivered a car to the place I asked and there he got the cash for it.

Couldn't work out better.

Esel

0ph0rce0 wrote: »

PayPal money is sent to your account, You hand over the car, They then start a dispute with PayPal and say they never got the car or some ****e and get the money back from PayPal then you owe PayPal all the money and have no car.

The normal scam here is they send a fake bank draft for too much money, and ask you to Western Union the excess back to them. Later, the draft bounces. They have zero interest in the car.

Kildare787

If you would like to know the answer to this please feel free to pop me a pm with your bank account details.......

Jesus's Christ you can't be for real????

clogher71

grogi wrote: »

I actually bought a car once without seeing it...

Me three!! I think eBay started most of it off.... Vast majority of 'trade' sales are without seen, all those ex UK cars that are on forecourts would not have been seen until they arrive at the garage....

For expensive items these type of scammers agree on full price and after toing and froing eventually send you a fake "paypal" email stating that there is a pending transfer for price of the car plus shipping costs. Just send the extra to the shipping company "to free the paypal funds".
I kept a scammer like that busy for some weeks recently when I advertised for a bike and got a text from "Linda Toni". I registered a fake gmail and paypal accounts specifically for this purpose. They "sent me" the full asking price plus 480 and wanted me to send 480 via Western union to the "shipping company" to free the funds. They eventually ran out of steam and stopped emailing me but not after I had asked them lots of questions, generally wasting their time.

Oral Surgeon

And wasting your own time too...! I hit delete and move on...

samih wrote: »

For expensive items these type of scammers agree on full price and after toing and froing eventually send you a fake "paypal" email stating that there is a pending transfer for price of the car plus shipping costs. Just send the extra to the shipping company "to free the paypal funds".
I kept a scammer like that busy for some weeks recently when I advertised for a bike and got a text from "Linda Toni". I registered a fake gmail and paypal accounts specifically for this purpose. They "sent me" the full asking price plus 480 and wanted me to send 480 via Western union to the "shipping company" to free the funds. They eventually ran out of steam and stopped emailing me but not after I had asked them lots of questions, generally wasting their time.

anewme

Friend was selling their car and got these and lots of other scams also. Another one to look out for was a crowd that mailed and wanted to buy the car without seeing it. They said they were coming from Galway. No offence, but why would you drive to Dublin from galway for a black 1.6tdi Golf. There must have been loads of them online. Anyway after a few mails, they said they woukd be up Wednesday. No dispute on price or haggling. They wanted my friend to scan a copy of the VLC so they could "check it out" before they came. More like had a ringer lined up no doubt and could have changed ownership online with the VLC.

My friend found an emoji online to send to all scammers. There us a 'finger emoji" the Nigeran prince had one sent in a slightly darker colour to suit him too.

twin_beacon

100% a scam, however if it was me, I'd play along, and arrange to meet at a garage in the arse end of nowhere, and leave him hanging. At the end of the day, all that person is, is a thief.

HeadWrecked93

twin_beacon wrote:

100% a scam, however if it was me, I'd play along, and arrange to meet at a garage in the arse end of nowhere, and leave him hanging. At the end of the day, all that person is, is a thief.

Wouldn't waste my time...delete and forgot

fancy pigeon

grogi wrote: »

I actually bought a car once without seeing it...

And me. Many times!

H3llR4iser

0ph0rce0 wrote: »

PayPal money is sent to your account, You hand over the car, They then start a dispute with PayPal and say they never got the car or some ****e and get the money back from PayPal then you owe PayPal all the money and have no car.


Here's a real life example

Yestarday I've sold my iPhone on eBay and the guy paid me £500 through PayPal. I've transfered the money to my bank account and balance on PayPal was £0. The money hasn't gone in my bank account and the buyer opened a dispute as unauthorised payment an hour after picking up the iPhone. What the **bleep**? Now my balance is -£500 i have no money in the bank account and no iphone. Paypal closed the dispute in his favour. ???? I'm thinking of taking Paypal to the small claims court as this is a scam!

Surely PayPal can't make the seller "owe" money they he never had in the first place - I would perfectly understand the "-500£" balance if the cash had reached the seller's bank account, but in this case looks like PayPal canceled the transaction with the bank AND asked to get back some money they never paid. Technically, this guy is being scammed by PayPal themselves

Sam Russell

H3llR4iser wrote: »

Surely PayPal can't make the seller "owe" money they he never had in the first place - I would perfectly understand the "-500£" balance if the cash had reached the seller's bank account, but in this case looks like PayPal canceled the transaction with the bank AND asked to get back some money they never paid. Technically, this guy is being scammed by PayPal themselves

The way it works is that there are three people involved with the theif in the middle. Seller (A) advertises item for sale. Thief buys item and says he will send money by Paypal. Thief advertises an item at the same price but is much cheaper than it should be. Purchase buys thief's advertised item and sends money to Paypal of seller A. Seller, satified money has arrived, sends item to Thief B.

Purchaser C complains to Paypal for non delivery.

Paypal looks to recover money from Seller A, and deducts it from their bank account.

Thief B has item but did not pay for it, seller A has lost the product and the money. Purchaser C gets their money back. Paypal denies any comeback for Seller A and refers to their T&Cs.

It only is worth doing for high value items like iPhones and the like.

9935452

Another way the scam can work is they send you a link to a fake paypal site showing that they paid you.
Then they send someone to collect the car. It's hours later you realise the site was fake.

Sam Russell

9935452 wrote: »

Another way the scam can work is they send you a link to a fake paypal site showing that they paid you.
Then they send someone to collect the car. It's hours later you realise the site was fake.

I do not think a fake paypal account would work because you log into your own account to check money has arrived.

grogi

Sam Russell wrote: »

I do not think a fake paypal account would work because you log into your own account to check money has arrived.

Apparently you have never heart of phishing...

fryup

if western union is mentioned... run a mile

btw - isn't about time western union got their act together ..do they not realise there facilitating these crooks

Atlantic Dawn

fryup wrote: »

if western union is mentioned... run a mile

btw - isn't about time western union got their act together ..do they not realise there facilitating these crooks

They get their commission from the transaction and don't care.

twin_beacon

LIGHTNING wrote: »

You have to remember that despite it trying to sell itself as a bank PayPal is not regulated in any way. There are plenty of stories of peoples accounts being frozen/disabled without any warning and its a giant pain in the neck to reverse the process. A bank can't do that without some sort of notice or following a specific rule.

exactly, paypal is not a bank. I sell lots of items on ebay, so I have had lots of experiences with paypal. The buyer is in a much stronger position than the seller. Just because you have the money in your paypal account, doesn't mean they wont take it back again!

9935452

twin_beacon wrote: »

exactly, paypal is not a bank. I sell lots of items on ebay, so I have had lots of experiences with paypal. The buyer is in a much stronger position than the seller. Just because you have the money in your paypal account, doesn't mean they wont take it back again!

Thats the reason i love buying stuff with paypal. if there is a problem you open a dispute with paypal and with in 10 days you get your money back.
Its also the reason i dont sell stuff on ebay.

twin_beacon

9935452 wrote: »

Thats the reason i love buying stuff with paypal. if there is a problem you open a dispute with paypal and with in 10 days you get your money back.
Its also the reason i dont sell stuff on ebay.

Not to mention the 10% commission ebay takes of the overall sale + shipping, and the 2.9% + 30 cent paypal takes per transaction! I find that 95% of buyers are grand, but there is that 5% that are a pain and cause trouble.

With all that being said, thats the cost of doing business! Ebay allows me to sell items world wide, so I cant really complain.