Mozzie

This is for the benefit of everyone - please take a second to read this....

I have just been approached by personal e-mail (not PM) regarding my WRX for sale. I have posted my personal e-mail address on only two sites, which means that the scammers are actively searching for potential scams in the 'cars for sale' sections on SIDC and Scoobynet (and probably others)

The scammers are e-mailing from abroad using Yahoo e-mail addresses (and possibly others) and not only made contact by e-mail initially but also rang us at home from a foreign phone number.

The jist of the situation is this: they want to buy the car and have a representative in the UK who will act on their behalf. They want to send a cheque for several thousand pounds more than the asking price of the car and want the seller (me in this instance) to send them a direct Western Union money transfer for the balance. This is all explained in the e-mail I received and I quote:

"You are to send the money to my shipper via western union money transfer. the money you are sending is for the shippment of the car,the shipper and the engineer to come over to your location, Although the value of the check is more than the asking price but i think i should be able to trust you with my balance."

The english is poor and grammar awful but you get the idea.

Obviously, the scam part is that their cheque will bounce and the money sent by Western Union money transfer will clear before you know their cheque has bounced. End result: you end up with no way of tracing the money and are several thousand pounds lighter. Luckily, I am not readily willing to part with any money at all and the scammers will be disappointed.

Has anyone else had this experience?

RON

But..... they must have at least a rough Idea of where you live, And that can't be good!!

Ian E

iTrader: (1)

Do a Search on 'Western Union' - plenty of others had similar experiences.

Cheers,

Ian.

Nick98

Mozzie

I had exactly the same thing happen to me for some spare rims I was selling for my rally car on the web site 'Rallyusedparts.co.uk'. I had somone offer to buy them for £200 and got a cheque through the post a few days later from the 'UK agent' for £3500. Then an e-mail saying it was a mistake and would I cash it and send the difference back via Western Union (am I stupid or what !!) Anyway clearly smelling a rat I managed to find the phone number of the person whose name was on the cheque via BT Directory Enquiries (as it was a company cheque with a Knightsbridge address). Transpired that the company was actually a small merchant bank who had a cheque book stolen in the post a few weeks earlier. I was the 11th cheque to be written by the fraudsters and they were all for motorsport, or car, parts.

The bank director had gone to the police who weren't interested - I did the same but again as 'no money had been stolen and no goods lost' they wouldn't do anything about it !!!

As a result there are some security warnings in the website listed above guarding against this activity but best to spread the word as much as possible.

Good luck (and lucky escape)

Nick

Nezz10

This happens a lot on Ebay as well, BEWARE!!!!

Darbo_wrx

i had the same one last friday on ebay with my RA
some t#sser form america(supposedly) won the car then proceded with this bull###t

end of the day every 1 knows that untill a cheque has cleared 100% your goods dont leave you
police dont have the time to catch them as there to buzy sending out speeding tickets for 3 mph over the limmit etc

The Fixer

I had the same yesterday for some parts here on SN. Seen this one several times before, if it seems dodgy tell them to pay by Paypal for the correct amount only and you will ship the goods when the funds have cleared into your bank account. Obviously they didnt come back to me after this reply

The Fixer

Oh! Got another this morning!

Jon_Murgie

And the shipper pick up will be 4 blokes in balaclavas with baseball bats

SCOOBYD00

Yep.... had the same.... 1st email 'Can you send pics & the bottom price?' .... then the cheque email.... they got me from the Autotrader 1st... then other enthusiast sites... quickly placed in the 'trash'

For any 'experienced' www user you get used to this kind if p1sh but the worry is that some will be taken in by it....

rb5 286

iTrader: (2)

saw this on the NASIOC:

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=666646


not sure if they're related

Scooby-Doo

From the banking code I believe cheques cannot be bounced after 6 months. Go ahead with the deal but state the cheque will take 6 months to clear

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Not sure how a cheque can clear, then go rubber a week later?


Surely, if the bank clear it, it's their loss?

Alcazar

Gills Fan

Yep his has been going on for a while now and peeps still fall for it. I'm currently having fun with a guy on Ebay (should I re-phrase that ?) who is one of these scammers and all I'm doing is leading him up the garden path.

Copy and paste this link for some great repsonses to these scammers.


http://www.fluke-motorsport.co.uk/temp/scammers.html

R1916v

Old new, this has been happening for years

JFB

You're right Alcazar, IF and only IF you can get your bank to confirm the funds have cleared in your account. Most cheques take 5 days to clear. Foreign cheques or drafts can take weeks to clear but having deposited the cheque in your account it is "presumed cleared" in good faith. I have seen an Italian Euro cheque bounce in a Euro deposit account after 6 weeks had passed.

The safest method is a Telegraphic Transfer or CHAPS payment which clears on the day the monies are transferred. The charge for that service is £10 or more. BACS is an electronic cheque which takes between 3 and 5 days to clear. Paper cheques require manual clearance and where insufficient funds are available to cover the cheque, it can take a further 3 days or so for that notification to come through to your bank.

If you ask your bank to "special clear" a cheque, that can speed up the process and as it's a chargeable service, their confirmation of its clearance should be a guarantee for your peace of mind.

HTH

Jerome

MattN

2 clearing stages

1 the funds clear to your account after the bank have used them for a number of days.
2 the funds from the vendor clears, at this point it does not and your bank take the money back as it was there's they credited your account with.

Something like that anyway.

exesspeed

yea happened to me from a guy saying he lived in spain called terry marc, send me £2500 bankers draught for good worth approx £300 wanted a chq back for the diff saying his secretary sent the wrong amount, wanted payment sending through wester union, this was last week, obviously did not send any goods and chq was a fraud

please beware, also had ebay acc hacked into ,

paulwrxboro

LOOK HERE http://www.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=18597

Mozzie

Worth keeping this one in circulation for a bit longer, I think...

Thanks to all you guys who have made me realise that I am not the first person in the world to experience this situation...

HI SOOB

yep. happened to me at the weekend. exact same style.
Told the guy to send me the exact cash and I would send the goods anywhere in the world for him.
Got no reply.
Just read this thread , so it all makes sense now.

Thanks everyone

Jamie

Mozzie

Bump