Evening all,

As some of you may be aware i have decided to sell my coupe for something more insurance friendly and I have little need for such a car while in my last year at Uni... I have had 3 offers now for £3k dead on which i turned down two weeks ago when i was not really sure i wanted to sell up- annoyingly now i have found myself in a financial position where that £3000 would help about a great deal!

Anyways.... Today i have got an email from a random person in response to my advert on auto trader/ Pistonheads, but i think it is properly suspect, would i be wasting my time replying and possibly be falling into a trap?

Here is what has been said...

My name is Allan David,
Goodday sir/ma,i saw your used car ads and i will like to know if your car is still available for sale..i am okay with all informations posted with the ads..but i will like to know the followings..
1),the present condition of the Car?
2),your reason for selling it?
3),Your final asking price ?
and also e-mail me full details on the car?
I will like you to get back to me so that we can proceed with the transaction..i wait your reply soonest..
note: jayneallandav@hotmail.com
Regards.
Allan........


(MY REPLY)
hello mate

The car is in very good condition mechanically and visually. Please view it for yourself.
I am selling it because i am going to get a diesel car/smaller car to make my long journeys a little cheaper.
I am asking £3150 as it says in the advert. I am slightly negotiable but please dont offend me with a silly offer.

thanks

sam


(HIS REPLY- INSTANTANEOUS)
Hi Good Day,
Thanks so much for the mail and yea just to let u know that i am not in the position to make call right now cos my phone don't have the permit to make an international call.So u don't need to worry once we conclude on everything i will locate a local pay phone station to give u a call.But am really ok with the details i got from the web site and its really my taste.

Please i will want u to give me more details on the following. 1)Shock absorber? 2)Engine? 3)Radiator? 4)Tires condition? 5)Has it got a full history? 6)Have you got old MOT’s? 7)How much tax and mot are left? 8)When is the next service due? 9)Has the cambelt been changed? 10)Has it ever been crashed? 11)How long have you owned it? 13)How many miles has it done?13)Is there anything at all wrong with it (please include anything even trivial things).

Really just to let u know that as for the payment,i will be paying with a Certified Banker Draft drawn from a local bank in UK and as for the shipping i will handle that myself by contacting my international shipping agent to really handle that for me.Also can u help me send more pics of it if u can and if not u don't need to worry yourself about that am ok with this one.Really I based in Odessa here in Ukraine were i work as a Mechanical engineer but originally from Wales(Dad is from Wale and mum from Oslo Noway).As for the price i will want u to let me know the last price so that the payment can be sent.If u are ok with me then u can mail me back and let us conclude on everything today.
Thanks so much...
Regards.
Allan....


Please advise as i have never come across anything like this before, but alarm bells are ringing...

cheers, sam

Alarm bells should be ringing.

There are a few variations on a scam that operates in this way, always foreign buyers, always bank drafts or wired payment, always overpayment for the car saying it is for shipping (at some point you give the person shipping/collecting the car the overpaid amount in cash), they take your car, your bank contacts you to say that the draft is forged, the wired payment has been stopped, check bounced etc... - not only do you lose your car but also give them some cash to boot.

Who buys a car unseen, in a different country and for the money its advertised at without haggling? They rely on peoples desperation to sell and their greed for easy money.

This guy may be genuine but I wouldnt go anywhere near, dont answer emails, open links or give any other info - an instant reply to your email is suspect too imo.

Just my opinion but I would steer well clear!

not with a barge pole!

Scam, 100%.

Rule one; they want it, they come and collect it.
Rule two; they want it, they pay cash.
(because even a bankers draft can bounce usually some weeks/months later when it's discovered to be faked)
Rule three; money always goes from the buyer to you. Never the other way. Ever. I really really mean this.

Cough cough, scam, say no more

I agree with my learned colleague

Total scam I'm afraid.

Got to agree with Barnacle's comments above. If you want proof, try telling them it's a total write off that's been rebuilt - I bet they'll still want it.

The "My name is Allen David" would be as far as i got before recognising a typical 419 scammer

As always, Google is your friend: clicky!

He gets around!

Walk slowly away then leg it.

One minute he in Belgium, the next he's in the Ukraine. Allan sure gets around.

Scammers like this make my blood boil

Oh come on, don't be so dense!

See here for tips on how to handle this sort of thing

(JimO gold)

Get back in touch with the guys that offered you 3k dead as you didn't pay more than 2.6k you'd be laughing!

IIRC JimO (or some other old timer ) stringed one of these scammers along for a while when they enquired about a car??? Anyone else remember this or am I going mad?

Anyway, 100% a scam but that doesnt mean you cannot have some fun with them! Have a look at this story for an idea of what is possible clicky

If you've got lots of time, some of the stories on 419eater and thescambaiter are fantastic....

Ah, should have read Trappy's post....

I think i saw that thread where the scammer got scammed- i don't have the patience to do that though.
These sort of people are irritating though, I just got the same email he sent to begin with. Waste of time.

Tubearmy- i may just do that if i can find his number, he said to call him if i changed my mind.

I remember reading a thread on here saying that you will probably pay £1000 in your first year of coupe ownership, thats not far off the truth- its often such trivial things that pack up and need replacing. Although i have also had some major things to sort out, like the crank sensor- a bitch of a job to sort out, but its been 100% reliable since...touch wood.

I got that exact first email today via PistonHeads and instantly realised it was scam so didn't bother replying...then 10 mins later had an email from PistonHeads admin saying it WAS a scam

Hi Guys - My only reason for being on this site is beacuse i searched the email adress in google. i joined this site to look at this post. My sister recently posted a car for sale through trade-it. here is his first email first response -

My name is Allan David,
Goodday sir/ma,i saw your used car ads and i will like to know if your car is still available for sale..i am okay with all informations posted with the ads..but i will like to know the followings..
1),the present condition of the Car?
2),your reason for selling it?
3),Your final asking price ?
and also e-mail me full details on the car?
I will like you to get back to me so that we can proceed with the transaction..i wait your reply soonest..
note: jayneallandav@hotmail.com
Regards.
Allan...

second -

Hi ,

Thanks soo much for the mail and yea just to let you know that i am not in the position to make call right now cos my phone dont have the permit to make an international call.So you dont need to worry once we conclude on everything i will locate a local pay phone station to give you a call.But am really okay with the details i got from the web site and its really my taste.


Really just to let you know that as for the payment,i will be paying with a Certified Bank Draft drawn from a local bank in the United Kingdom,regards shippment i'll handle that myself by contacting my international shipping agent so that they can handle that for me.


We are based in Lanzarote here in Spain and i speak spanish were work in the construction business as a dispatcher but originally from Wales (Dad if from Wales and mum from Lanzarote Spain).As for the price i will want you to let me know the last price so that the payment can be sent,i'm really eager and wanting to buy it from you because my wife has been dying to get one ever since i sold my old one.



If you are okay with me,then you can mail me back and let us conclude on everything today.

Thanks soo much.

Allan...

Look Familier - My Partner is currently on the phone to this person - and we are p******** ourselfs with laughter knowing he will never get a penny from us! Plus he reckons he's welsh - he sounds asian to us??? plus when my partner asked him where in lanzarote he lives - he suddenly became very unitelligeble.

this is the oldest scam in history - basically over - sending a payment my sisters car is again about 3k - but he's sending 7k - thats 3 k for the car and 4 k for the shipping costs - i thought shipping was a bit expensive - so i researched the cost - no more than £1,000 pounds tops.

basically u cash cheque it clears - u send car and payment to shipping companie - the car is collected the cheque although cleared then bounces two weeks later - the crim has your car and probably 3k of your cash.

i'm keeping this guy hanging on, i will post his details to the police and i will keep you all updated!

Mmmm... I have my sisters old Fiesta up for sale for €1,750. I got a call today from some foreign guy with a similar payment plan. I led him on a bit and then said I'd get back to him.

Checked the number on my call list afterwards. The call had the international dialling code for Greece!!!

My m8 had a similar scam tried on him, only it was for a baby's push chair about £400 worth, They said something like "We send you money transfer for £1000, then you send £600 to us and you can keep / resell the push chair under a different name otherwise they realise we paid but not received."

Needless to say I told him "steer well clear m8, no way this is going to end well.

At least these guys were "slightly" more honest about it. Seemed at the time to be a money laundering thing, but now knowing that bank transfers can be cancelled weeks after the money has gone in the bank and you end up paying it all back in, it was deffinately a 419 type scam. This was through eBay about a year ago mind.

yip am the same mate was selling my Vtec CRX couple of months ago an got the same email although i knew this was well dodgy i played along with it and he wanted to send a 6000 cheque and me send him back 3500 as i was selling car for 2500 so he sent a few emails back and forward and hay the cheque arrived a couple of weeks later with a french stamped envelope and i oppened it and there was the name of the company it came from originally and so i contacted them and the knew nothing about this person or this transaction like i expected of course. so i sent the guy an email saying interpoll were on to them and that i knew this was fraud and i sent the cheque to the company it was registered at. so be very carefull

One more "me too" post - I had a variation on this scam pop up several times while I was selling my old Saab 9000 a couple of years back - it's been around a while!

Fun to see people have played them at their own game, but personally I didn't have the time or patience, besides which I'd be wary of getting on the radar of organised criminals... that can turn nasty

In case anyone on here didn't already know about snopes.com it can be very handy for checking this kind of thing when your gut says scam but you're unsure.

I hate these scam too, but I bought my car with a bank draft from Ireland, though I had been emailing /Pm'ing on Fcccuk and talking on the phone with the owner, haggled the price and flew over to view, then buy the car.

Probably going through here and on the phone made the difference.

another 'me too', i got this when selling my plus a couple of years back, what annoys me is that it should be the likes of autotraders / pistonheads to warn people about these types of scams when you advertise, as some people no doubt get caught out...I also got loads of calls from companies wanting sell it on my behalf, despite the add saying no canvessers etc...I got very mad at autotrader at the time, they didnt wana know !

I got my Coupe from a fccuk member back in April and brought it back to Ireland. I had to pay in cash as the owner preferred not to have a sterling draft in case it/I was dodgy.

He was very polite about it though and I could see why he asked for it.

Sound fellow too who worked in PowerFIAT and a darn nice LE too