Scam Alert

[+Steve]

Please note most of you should have had an alert of a possible scammer trying to scam members by PMing members stating he is interested in buying your car.

I suspect this following type of scam

One typical scam to beware of;

You get an initial enquiry

They say they are interested and will pay you a few thousand more than the car is worth. This overpayment will either be for shipping or they have made a mistake and sent the wrong cheque (because they are such busy importers!)

You get a UK bankers draft through a courier (TNT etc)

They urge you to pay the cheque in asap & forward the excess to the courier.

You present the cheque to the bank

You may even ask to bank to verify the cheque - this will show as valid, that someone ordered a bankers draft from bank x in wherever.

The scammer (wanting to buy your car) will put pressure on you to forward the excess funds from your savings etc to the shipping agent, because they want a speedy transaction & his client wants his car.

What you do not know is that the bankers draft gets cancelled 2 days after you have presented it to the bank. Meaning the cheque bounces and you are out of pocket if you've sent your own money to them.

Moral of the story is DO NOT SEND ANY MONEY VIA WESTERN UNION! If they want to buy your car get them to wire money to your western union! DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR BANK ACCOUNT DETAILS DO NOT SELL YOUR CAR TO SOMEONE THAT HAS NEVER SEEN IT.

[samt33]

:censor: people. nice one

[dudeone]

Hi,

This is so well spread now.

Ive had the said email from 4 different people all saying the same thing, the ones ive had are asking there from Holland.

They come on with me or me and my wife have seen your add what is the last sale value, then we have a business partner in the UK who owes us £xxx, we will get then to make a cheque in your name, and get the car picked up and will you (launder) send on the rest of the money to us.

One person said he was owed £9450 and when I told him to sling his hook he said he would pay £12K into my account and all i had to do was send a small amount of this money back to him.

I really feel sorry for the people who fall for this as there are trusting if not gullible people out there, ive read that at least one person recently fell for it they lost there car and had to pay back the bank the total amount and the police where not amused I think they got warning.

Be vigilant and as the saying goes if it looks too good to be true then it probably is.

Dave.

[copie]

i had this whe i sold a car that was worth no more than £900, they said they would send a cheque for 4k, i told them to send it but it never turned up.

[daktari]

Not really up on bankers drafts etc. But, If you took it to your bank can you pay to have it cleared & cashed there and then like you could a normal cheque? I suspect not otherwise someone would`ve cottoned on by now.

[Avensis wagon]

Not really up on bankers drafts etc. But, If you took it to your bank can you pay to have it cleared & cashed there and then like you could a normal cheque? I suspect not otherwise someone would`ve cottoned on by now. 

←

A bankers draft is in some ways like cash because the bank honours it immediately when it's presented -- and unlike real money it has the added safety that the 'cash' is in someone's name, i.e. not just anyone can cash it in. Oh yeah, and they generally look quite pretty.

BUT they can be post dated, and it seems these scammers may rely on the fact that you don't get to find out in time if the draft can be honoured, or that even if it isn't post dated you don't get to the bank in time to find out.

Always in business or any transaction, confirm that payment has been made to your account/hands before handing over the goods. Always. You see, if you took the money (always in a documented way -- not actual cash) and didn't hand over the car, it's easy to proove that something's amiss because a stranger wouldn't pay a load of money into you account without reason. But if you hand over the car and don't get paid, who's to say you weren't paid cash. The best way is to go to the bank with the buyer and do things together -- you see that payment is made and the buyer gets the registration documents, keys and car. It's a very reasonable proposition and should be reassuring to both buyer and seller.

Never get involved in dodgy dealings such as laundering or tax evasion, because when it all goes wrong you'll be on the wrong side of the law and it won't protect you.