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HELP NEEDED!! Scam or not?

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Hi everyone,

Quick overview, GF's car is for sale on autotrader, we've had one e-mail regarding payment using a bankers draft and straight away I thought..scam and told them cash only and we heard nothing back! Now we have another e-mail enquiring about the car from someone else, we tell them we would lower price slightly for cash in the next 7 days... here is the response.... and the question is Scam or Not?? I'm thinking scam but not 100% on the use of bankers drafts...PLEASE HELP!!

Hii ,

Good to hear the car is still available for sale and thanks for the
time taking for the details you've just provided about the car.

Am quite excited to hear from you the car is still in good
conditions.Please i want you to be sincere with me at this point i
should be convince this car is genuinely owned by you and i hope all
the relevant papers document is fully completed and available as well
just for safety sale assurance.

Honestly speaking am getting the car behalf of my wife whom i just got
married with two weeks ago.She is from uk in Scoltland.Presently she
is in Malmo Sweden my native country .

Am sure you will quite agree with me in uk they're use to right hand
drive (RHD) and over there in Sweden we are use to left hand drive
(LHD).She really find it soo difficult to drive my personal car which
i left for her due to the position of the steering and she wouldn't
want to risk her life to drive my car.Therefore she instructed me to
buy her a uk car in British design which she normally used to drive in
Scoltland.

My wife needed a car right now due to the distance from her working
place to house is about an hour drive.Am sure she will be excited have
got one for her in British design "right hand drive " and am counting
on you now to consider the car sold to me most especially for my wife
sake.

Without taking much time i should be arranging for the payment right
away hopefully before this week runs down.

Please with due respect i would like you to email me more pictures if
is still available both the exterior , interior and the engine.I would
really appreciate that so much because it would not be possible for me
to come for the viewing due to my course programme in wales am having
at present and as for the price i will offer you £3700 GBP because i
know the worth of the car and more so what you' ve stated about the
car details in the advert it really awaresome and convince me to
proceed with the sale and in additional including the advert charges
you've spent soo far .

Am quite delighted and satisfied what you've mention soo far about the
car and as for the shipping cost you have nothing to worry about ok!!
i will take care of that myself have already make an inquiry with a
private shipping cargo company who's going to handle it professionally
for me both the shipping cost and other necessary development
concerning the shipment of the car such as cost of insurance,bill of
lading and custom charges etc.The final destination of the vehicle is
Malmo Sweden.

However,as for the payment status the it will be endorse inform of a
united kingdom certified bankers draft(GBP) issue by local Bank in
Great Britain bank base which am going to instruct my business client
to send you a bankers draft via royal postal mail and it going to
clear in any bank in united kingdom my bank advised and it will take
maximum of 3 to 4 days working days to fully cleared .

Mind you am 100 percent agree with you the payment must fully matured
INTO YOUR BANK ACCOUNT FOR VERIFICATION BY YOUR BANK MANAGEMENTS
before i can legally own the vehicle and once you've conapers document
as well once they arrive your location. Am from Sweden but presently
located in UK Wales on course program mesfirm the payment clearance
and the money is finally available in your bank account the car should
be handed over to the shipping agent and p.

However,never mind my long mail from me but i just have to convince
you and express how much this vehicle is in need to my wife.

Thanks so much and i really appreciate your time taking to response to
my inquiry.Hopefully to hear back from you today in order to proceed
further with the payment and shipping arrangements as soon as
possible. I look forward to hear back from you today.

Cheers...

Thomason.

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Yes, it's a scam.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Mist wrote: »
    Yes, it's a scam.
    Hi, thanks for your response.

    Can you explain it by any chance? I've phoned the bank and they say a bankers draft is like cash and I would be able to take it to the bank to confirm it was a genuine bankers draft and once it cleared they couldn't take the money back off me.... maybe I'm missing something simple but if we didn't release the car before the moneys had fully cleared then where is the scam? :-) thanks for your help
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The nonsense information is always a big clue to scams. What do you care about his wife and all this other stuff? Nothing. It's irrelevance designed to draw you in.

    See stuff like this -
    http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?f=6&t=314778
    http://www.met.police.uk/fraudalert/section/cashback_fraud.htm

    The common threads are -

    Foreign buyer.
    Mention of "shipping agent"
    Paying over the odds
    Some daft story about the RHD.

    Etc.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Yeah, I'd agree it's a scam - when selling anything expensive (computers, etc) on ebay everyone single scam thing always had some BS story in it to explain why someone wasn't in the UK.

    You want to be certain - If this was the ebay you'd probably see a sudden jump in the number of purchased items of high values after the account was hacked.

    Don't assume you would actually get the draft, or that would be the end of it - pretty soon you'll see problems with it or reasons it has to go escrow rather be paid directly.

    Most importantly though - they've basically justified not being able to pay for the item in person, not having a UK number or address and haven't explained at all why they can't just pay the money directly to you or pay through paypal (I'm assuming you haven't excluded paypal as a payment option?)

    If you're having problems with this then it can be a pain, maybe try putting the ad up in multiple places? Something like Loot is probably far less likely to get hit by scammers (though I might be wrong)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The police article details how the scam works, in so far as drafts can be recinded even after they have supposedly cleared.

    Or, as Jim says, you wouldn't get the draft but you would have given over a lot of personal info.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    If he wants it that urgently tell him to come on Ryanair and collect it himself.

    I doubt you'll hear from him again.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    but just to point out- not all people wanting to pay with banker's drafts are scams. We paid in person with a banker's draft when buying a car.

    His however does sound dodgy!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Cheers everyone, think we will stick to our guns and demand cash on collection.
    Like what has been said... why would anyone buy a car without looking at it or driving it first, things just don't add up.
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