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Not only do buyers have to be careful, sellers do to. This is one crime I had to deal with.
Mr ****** advertised his car through Auto Trader, the ad was put in the magazine and also on line.
Mr ***** received an e-mail offering the full purchase price but stated they needed the car shipping abroad. Mr***** would need to pay the shipping costs initially on behalf of the buyer. Mr ******* would have to send the shipping cots via Western Union money transfer then the buyer would repay them by including the amount in the cheque which would be sent to pay for the car. Once Mr ******* sent the shipping fees via Western Union, the cheque for the car and shipping fees would be sent to Mr *****
Mr ******* paid the £2500 or so shipping fees. He then received a cheque for the £2500 plus money for the car and was advised as to when the car would be collected.
About 10 days after his cheque had apparently cleared, and he had spent most of the money he received a call from his bank to say the cheque had bounced.
The bank told him that he would have to repay the money as he was now overdrawn. Fortunately I noticed a discrepancy with the cheque which the bank staff should have spotted. Had they done so they would not have allowed the cheque to go through. Mr ****** was very lucky.
There are so many scams out there and criminals are working new ones all the time.
Chris
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I had a problem a couple of years ago when trying to sell my little car.... on E-bay and on Autotrader.... i ended up paying out a lot of money to Autotrader and all I had were scamming enquiriies.
They all wanted me to hand over the car to a representative who would arrange shipment... and the variety of excuses were wonderful... the best one? Now please bear in mind I have (never did sell it, lol) a Polo...
It went along the lines of
*I am looking forward to driving in my new car with my triplets. The doctor is telling me not to fly frem Gursey in case them triplets fall out of my womb which is why my uncle will take the keys from you and will give you a bankers note to pay. I will pay the full pay because I like very much the yellowness, and my triplets will too.*
I believed her of course........... ;¬)) I politely refused informing her that on safety grounds I couldn't possibly sell her my car as there isn't enough room for three car seats in the back.
I politely hoped that her triplets did not fall out of her womb and wished her well, lolol...... some things are so audacious that they stick in the memory.....
Love
Daff xxxx
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We had a story on this on one of out Current Affairs Programs.They were doing it here in Aus as well.
My advice would be until you physically see the car &, paperwork and meet the owner DON"T part with any money.
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WHEN ************** wanted to buy a new car he thought he could save time and money by doing it online.
But after a black Range Rover Sport caught his eye, he says he found himself on the receiving end of an elaborate sting that almost cost him £20,000.
The ********** ** *********, emailed the owner about the private sale, which was listed in Auto Trader magazine.
He was told the car would be delivered to his home if he deposited the sum via internet auction website eBay.
He was about to enter his bank details when he spotted the owner's address was in Madrid rather than in Scotland, where the car had been listed in the magazine.
On querying the anomaly in another email to the owner, he was assured the transaction had to go through an agent in Spain.
Now certain something was amiss, *** inspected the web page more closely.
He believes it was an intricate eBay imitation page, designed to appear exactly the same as the online trading site and he stopped the transaction.
"I couldn't believe how close I came to losing all that money," he said. "It was a really slick, professional operation.
"Everything appeared exactly as it should have been and for a while I was totally taken in. I thought I was getting a good deal."
When Mr ******* announced he was pulling out of the purchase he was called by a man claiming to be an agent, who tried to persuade him everything was above board.
But he contacted police, who told him the their fraud team would investigate the matter further.
He added: "This was obviously part of a wider operation because there were so many people involved, from the person posing as a seller to the contact in Spain and the guy who rang pretending to be an agent. I would urge anyone considering buying online to make absolutely sure their money is going where they think it is.
"These crooks are out there targeting people and they are very, very plausible."
Both Auto T*****and eBay said the dealers had nothing to do with their organisations, claiming they took all possible measures to stop fraudulent sellers using their websites. A police spokesman urged internet shoppers to do all they could to protect themselves from becoming victims of crime.
He said: "The arrival of the internet has presented fraudsters with new ways of committing fraud as well as enabling them to commit crime that crosses international borders."
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