Car Buying Scam? Phising?

S

scallan

Registered User
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HI, I have a car for sale on various websites etc & have received an enquiry by email from a Rev. xxxx xxx. I replied out of curiousity & he says he will send over deposit etc without even looking at it. There were a few emails & i heard there is a scam where they look for your Bank Details so as to forward on deposit.

This guy is talkin about sending on a cheque for a deposit.

Has anyone had any similar experiences? Im of the opinion if its too good to be true then it normally is!! Maybe just too paranoid!
 
So did he look for your bank details? Where does he live? I think you know the answer yourself if he wants bank details to "lodge cheque" rather than posting it to you (after all, what are cheques for but to be "in the post"?!:D)......
 
Yeah, I've heard of a scam like this.

They say they will buy the car without seeing it and agree a price (usually slightly more than the asking price), then they send a cheque for a lot more than the agreed amount. They then contact you say it was a mistake and can you lodge the cheque and send back the extra money. All seems fine until a few weeks later the bank rings and tells you that the cheque was invalid and the money is taken back out of your account... so you have lost the amount of money that you sent back to the guy.

I've heard this scam is very common and a lot of people posting on car websites in Ireland are getting contacted by the scammers.
 
Tahnks for youre replies

To be honest i dont know where he lives. Im not really too convinced by someone willing to forward money for something they havent looked at. Just more curious than anything to see if there are similar scams out there!

No they didnt request bank details although a friend of mine in the Car game heard about a scam requesting Bank details.

I suppose a part of me was hoping it was genuine so that i could get it sold! Grasping at straws i reckon!
 
scallan said:
Im not really too convinced by someone willing to forward money for something they havent looked at.
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Yeah - that's why they are most likely not going to do this but rather forward a bogus cheque instead.
No they didnt request bank details although a friend of mine in the Car game heard about a scam requesting Bank details.
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They don't need to.
I suppose a part of me was hoping it was genuine so that i could get it sold! Grasping at straws i reckon!
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Very likely.
 
they were on about this exact type of scam on radio a few weeks ago, one thing they were doing was sending over a cheque, for more that what it was being sold, and then getting you to send back the difference, while their cheque bounced....
 
Would you not lodge the cheque and wait for it to clear....

seems the most sensible thing.. if it bounces, then tell him it bounced..

If there's a chance you can make more money than you possible might be able to... why not..
 
GA001 - why not ? Did you read the posts above ? This is a known scam. That's enough of a reason not to go with this offer.

z
 
zag said:
GA001 - why not ? Did you read the posts above ? This is a known scam. That's enough of a reason not to go with this offer.

z
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Alot is hearsay, "I heard this was a scam", .. by accepting a cheque he is hardly going to be 'going with the offer'.. I'd take the cheque (in no circumstances would I give the car over).. and do some investigating as to whether the cheque is valid..
 
It takes foreign cheques several weeks to clear. Don't accept one. If you do and get conned it's your own fault.
 
RS2K - correct - as you point out by the time you find out the cheque is a dud you are down money.

Assume (just for the sake of it) someone does go down this route and accept the cheque with no intention of handing over the car until the money 100% clears. What will happen is that next week Fr XXX YYY will get in touch again and say that something terrible has happened and he needs the money back (to feed the poor, fix the church roof, whatever . . .) and would you mind sending the cheque back, no harm done, etc . . .

Of course you don't have the cheque any more - the bank does. Pop quiz - what do you do ? Leave the people starving, let the rain come in, or send the person (who you trusted enough to accept a cheque from for a product that was being bought sight-unseen) money back as they requested ?

Send them the money and you've just been suckered.

Don't send the money and you will have this terrible guilty feeling that you should be sending the money to relieve the problem on the other end. Eventually give in, believing that just because the bank haven't told you the cheque has bounced it's gotta be good, send them the money, see above you've just been suckered.

z
 
It doesn't matter how long it takes the cheque to 'clear' - if it is fake then eventually the bank will reclaim the money from you. More details ....
 
Look here: [broken link removed]
and read the "Scam Alert" section

Look here: http://books.google.com/books?id=MDziocPjoz0C&pg=PA217&lpg=PA217&dq=scam+car+%22for+sale%22&source=web&ots=WYxyC_VL42&sig=o4uahhUA3X1uYq36xI4w4rKuqXU#PPA217,M1
Go to page 217 (Chapter 28. Overpayment Scams)

Have a look at this thread on our very own askaboutmoney boards: http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=26744 where a poster actually got done. In this case it was a wedding dress, but the scam remains the same whether it's a dress, a car, a horse, whatever.

I found these sites in about 10 seconds of Googling, hopefully you have been convinced by now to stay clear.
 
well heres an update. Received a cheque this morning to my work address & believe it or not it is for €4500 above the asking price.....
 
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