Possible scam on carsales

S3SR · 02-12-2009, 08:18 AM

I posted my XR8 for sale as im no longer able to support it financially

so anyways a few thousand views and 100 clicks on my ad and some guy asks "Is there anything else i should know that isnt in the ad?"

i didnt think anything of it, just answer No, thats it ,etc

they tell me they need my email address to pay via paypal (which i think is fine minus the fees and it would be awesome), etc, etc

i honestly dont care where the money comes from as long as its bankable

this morning i get an email saying "oh forget to tell you my agent sent me an email and said he wont come to pick it up unless he pays him his agent pickup commission of x amount "

- this part is fine, but im thinking its got nothing to do with me

- next part of the email is its a UK company and he is going to send me $2k more and if i can help him by western unioning it to them via the post office
(again Fine, im happy to still do this, but WHAT does it have to do with me)

so heres the info so far
communication is via email only, no phone calls
payment method is i guess all online, im taking the hold up waiting for something to clear, cheque or personal loan
the UK agent bit is what puts me off

the question is this

- lets play with these cards, what can i be stung for if i continue playing?
(beside paypal fees) can paypal payments be easily withdrawn after payment is made.... ie he pays me, i cash it out (takes half a year to do so) he takes it back making some story up??

- transferring via westernunion, as long as it can actually be done at a postoffice i dont care, but is there anything that can bite me on the bum?

- does anyone know if this is a scam........... and what is the outcome they are trying to achieve?

- do i need to change my email password?

thanks

ROLLI · 02-12-2009, 08:32 AM

My brother had something like this happen to him when he was selling his car.

Somebody emailed him said they want the car for there agent or some crap said they dont wanna look at it just buy it and offered $4000 more than what it was advertised for same deal by pay pal. He emailed him back and gave him his phone number and said give me a call never heard from them again.

So i think it is a scam so be careful I wonder if carsales are aware of this....

Jack91 · 02-12-2009, 08:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ROLLI

My brother had something like this happen to him when he was selling his car.

Somebody emailed him said they want the car for there agent or some crap said they dont wanna look at it just buy it and offered $4000 more than what it was advertised for same deal by pay pal. He emailed him back and gave him his phone number and said give me a call never heard from them again.

So i think it is a scam so be careful I wonder if carsales are aware of this....

Exact same thing happened to me and my car about a week ago. Emailed them told them to call never heard back.

1TUFFUTE · 04-12-2009, 03:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DAVO_XR

Exact same thing happened to me and my car about a week ago. Emailed them told them to call never heard back.

same happened too me selling my dirtbike aswell on bikesales...dodgy stuff i say

David222 · 04-12-2009, 04:24 PM

I was getting 3 or 4 of these scammers e-mailing everyday most supplying no phone number or one which doesn't work. So even the ones with a half baked grasp of the english language were easily identified as fake from the invalid phone number supplied. These days you cant even buy a prepaid Sim card without some form of ID so it's fairly hard to have a phone number and no one know who you are at least inside Australia as such they are not interested in using a phone as they could be identified or traced.

Personally I doubt at any stage with any of the scammers that were e-mailing me that they would actually be interested in physically taking your car with an agent. That would be much higher risk and the police would have a lot better chance catching the scammers than they do against anonymous buyers using stolen or fraudulent unidentified e-mail accounts from god knows where. Taking it to the stage of actually taking the car would mean they would have to be very organized and I think they are more "Opportunist" Scammers than criminal masterminds.

I think the scam is purely aimed at getting you to pay an "Agent" with something like western union which is unrecoverable and untraceable. Once you make this payment they would just disappear with your money and any paypal payment or other method of uncleared payment they have sent you would inevitably be frozen or returned to the holder of the credit card they have stolen, you would never see any money for the car, no one would be turning up to pick it up, you would be still stuck trying to sell it, just your wallet would be lighter after being fleeced paying a scammers imaginary agent.

While there is probably not much law enforcement can do about these clowns, in my case it was disappointing that it took Carsales 3 days to reply to an E-mail I sent them questioning the E-mails as a scam. 3 days is not really good enough anyone who took their bait would have lost their money long before 3 days, and I think the turn around on questions regarding fraudulent activity should be answered a lot quicker than they are by these websites staff. Which I think is something Carsales and other sales websites in general could and should address if there is nothing that can be done about the scammers.

S3SR · 02-12-2009, 08:37 AM

WHAT? i wasnt offered $4k more than posted price, what a rip!

ive let carsales know everything via email, they cant do anything but inform everyone about it

i just sent him an email asking him to call me, lets see what happens

ROLLI · 02-12-2009, 08:40 AM

It doesnt matter what you offered you wont get it anyway lol

GS608 · 02-12-2009, 08:46 AM

same thing happened to my mate, they offered him an extra 4k to get it shipped to south africa through his agent they were paying by pay pal as well.

Thornie · 02-12-2009, 08:55 AM

Western union was mentioned = scam

Whitey Ford · 02-12-2009, 08:56 AM

If it involves western union in any way what-so-ever it is a scam.

No question.

Your password/account is safe.

The general idea is that your bank puts the money in your account before it clears, you withdraw $2000 and give it to them, then the money doesn't clear and it is pulled by the bank from your account. You lose $2000.

XRFutura · 02-12-2009, 08:57 AM

A good mate of mine had that happen to him, but it was on ebay.

BAFalconXT · 02-12-2009, 09:27 AM

I am selling my girlfriends car at the moment. I have it on eBay among other places. I had her email address on the ad, and I was getting 2 - 3 emails a day with people wanting to pay with PayPal, so I removed the email address and havent had any more requests.

Even if they pay through PayPal, you sign over the car, they ship it overseas, they can cancel the payment and tell PayPal it is not as described, blah blah, and you will somehow have to prove who picked it up, condition etc etc. You would never get the money. It is like excepting a cheque and signing over the car before it clears, they can cancel the cheque and you are left in a bad position.

Nappa · 02-12-2009, 12:38 PM

we've had similar things here at our dealership.

We recieved a general enquiry on the sales email

some guy wanted to buy an Escape for his son as a wedding gift.
He asked for the price so he could pay us and get the vehicle.
The first thing that seemed odd was his english seemed off. His emails
didnt make sense. Obvously english is a second language for many people but
with this guy he would say things and contradict himself.

Any way i smelled a rat and asked for a phone number to call him on to discuss. He kept wanting us toc charge a $5000 deposit to his credit card.
However without speraking to him in person or on the phone i wasnt going to run his deposit.

Anyway after numerous emails back and forth. me asking for a phone number, he wanting to organise his agent to come and handle shipping the car.
I basicly accused him of being dodgy and i never heard from him again.

Later we learned that people do this scam to some how launder money.

Director · 02-12-2009, 12:22 PM

Its a scam for sure, I had a similar email when selling my Wifes car, he just wanted my email for paypal, my brother is selling his car as well and has a similar thing, different story but wanting email for paypal. Let carsales know, it only takes a minute and I'm sure they they will confirm this.

BA Baracus · 02-12-2009, 06:51 PM

It's a scam using stolen credit card details, they make payment and it appears in your account then you send them their 2k, the charge then gets canceled by true owner of credit card or bank and payment frozen/reversed. You get nothing but you've already sent money. Western Union is used because they can walk in off the street to receive payment with a number, question and answer. Once they walk out there's no more trail of the money and you've bought someone a lot of Nigerian goats or a trip to 'Arrods.

As an extra bonus Paypal then may freeze your account under 'suspicion of fraud' even though you are the victim. They can freeze funds for an extremely long time under their terms of service on this basis (months and months) so any other unrelated money you may have in paypal is untouchable. This frozen money then sitting in paypals big paypal account would be an nice big earner for the company.

S3SR · 02-12-2009, 07:00 PM

maybe not.....

:(

Bucknaked · 02-12-2009, 07:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by S3SR

ok

HOLY SH^^&&(#$@*&&#@

PAYPAL - you have received $25k
paid me the $2k for agent fees, that i will pay at post office tomorrow and extra $80 for westernunion fees

hmmmm....... i actually dont know what to believe right now

when that money is in my account, i will........

im actually sort of stunned right now, didnt think this would happen

good thing i didnt jump to conclusions hey

It is a scam. I am getting them now for my bike I am selling. 2 different people

1st person and here are the emails

Quote:

PayPal Only...

--- On Sun, 11/29/09, Dwayne Woodhouse <dwaynewoodhouse@ozemail.com.au> wrote:

From: Dwayne Woodhouse <dwaynewoodhouse@ozemail.com.au>
Subject: RE: KAWASAKI ER5 - $5000
To: "'James Eddy'" <jameseddy18@yahoo.com>
Date: Sunday, November 29, 2009, 8:57 AM

Thanks James.. But when your agent comes to collect the bike, he can bring cash with him. Cash transactions only, and cash on Pickup.

Regards

Dwayne

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: James Eddy [mailto:jameseddy18@yahoo.com]
Sent: Sunday, 29 November 2009 7:46 PM
To: Dwayne Woodhouse
Subject: RE: KAWASAKI ER5 - $5000

Thanks for the response,i am more than happy to see you write back...I am at the sea at the moment.i am a sailor and i really want to make this purchase.I insisted on PayPal because i don't have access to my bank account online as i dont have internet banking, but i can pay from my PayPal account as i have my bank a/c attached to it.I will need you to give me your PayPal email address so i can make the payments asap....pls if you dont have PayPal account yet, it is very easy to set up, go to www.paypal.com and get it set up...after you have set it up i will only need the e-mail address you use for registration with PayPal so as to put the money through.

As for the pick up,my pick up agent will be accessing that and they will also be coming for the pick up immediately the payments have been made to you..Please send me your address so that my pick up agent can figure it out and come for the pick up and other necessary things after the payments have been made,they will also be coming with all the information needed,my details and transferring the name of ownership to me will be done by the pick up agent so you don't have to worry about that.Send me your registered email address with PayPal so i can pay in

Thanks for been nice and considerate

--- On Sun, 11/29/09, Dwayne Woodhouse < dwaynewoodhouse@ozemail.com..au > wrote:

From: Dwayne Woodhouse < dwaynewoodhouse@ozemail.com.au >
Subject: RE: KAWASAKI ER5 - $5000
To: "'James Eddy'" <jameseddy18@yahoo.com>
Date: Sunday, November 29, 2009, 8:35 AM

Thanks James for your email.

But it will be cash on pickup.

If you wish to discuss it further, please let me know.

Thanks

Dwayne

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: James Eddy [mailto:jameseddy18@yahoo.com]
Sent: Sunday, 29 November 2009 7:30 PM
To: dwaynewoodhouse@ozemail.com.au
Subject: KAWASAKI ER5 - $5000

Just viewed your listing and will like to purchase it. I am willing to offer you $5,300 for it,pls let me know if you accept my offer,payment will be through paypal and the pick up will be arranged

Person 2

Quote:

Hi troy

That sounds great. Are you travelleing with James Eddy. This is the email James sent me

Quote:

Thanks for the response,i am more than happy to see you write back...I am at the sea at the moment.i am a sailor and i really want to make this purchase.I insisted on PayPal because i don't have access to my bank account online as i dont have internet banking, but i can pay from my PayPal account as i have my bank a/c attached to it.I will need you to give me your PayPal email address so i can make the payments asap....pls if you dont have PayPal account yet, it is very easy to set up, go to www.paypal.com and get it set up...after you have set it up i will only need the e-mail address you use for registration with PayPal so as to put the money through.

As for the pick up,my pick up agent will be accessing that and they will also be coming for the pick up immediately the payments have been made to you..Please send me your address so that my pick up agent can figure it out and come for the pick up and other necessary things after the payments have been made,they will also be coming with all the information needed,my details and transferring the name of ownership to me will be done by the pick up agent so you don't have to worry about that.Send me your registered email address with PayPal so i can pay in

Thanks for been nice and considerate

Is he your mate?

Nice try mate. Your scams won’t work round here.

From: Troy Clifford [mailto:troy.clifford@aussiemail.com.au]
Sent: Tuesday, 1 December 2009 10:14 PM
To: Dwayne Woodhouse
Subject: RE: About your KAWASAKI ER5

Thanks for the email ,do let me know how much you
are willing to sell to me . I will be paying with my paypal
account which is the safest online payment mode.so please do reply me
asap with your paypal account or send me a payment
request from your paypal account so i can effect payment to you
rightaway. You can easily open an account with paypal if you don't
have one at www.paypal.com.au its safe,simple and reliable also do get
back to me so we can arrange for pick up as i will like it to be
picked by my pick up agent due to the fact that i am out of the
country now on job duties, so no shipping included I await your reply.

Hope to hear from you soon.
Regards

--- dwaynewoodhouse@ozemail.com.au wrote:

From: "Dwayne Woodhouse" <dwaynewoodhouse@ozemail.com.au>
To: "'troy-clifford'" <troy.clifford@aussiemail.com.au>
Subject: RE: About your KAWASAKI ER5
Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2009 19:11:03 +1100

Hi Troy

At this stage, she’s still for sale

Cheers

Dwayne

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: mail@nexo.com [mailto:mail@nexo.com] On Behalf Of troy-clifford
Sent: Tuesday, 1 December 2009 6:45 PM
To: dwaynewoodhouse@ozemail.com.au
Subject: About your KAWASAKI ER5

G'day

Is the bike still up for sale?

Cheers
Troy

Do a search on google. There will be info on what happens with the scam. I'm getting them from Allclassifieds. They are using dodgy emails.

Remember the old saying, if it's too good to be true, then it probabbly is.

bangm001 · 02-12-2009, 07:08 PM

Yeah I wouldnt even waste my time replying to them via email..

VioletGT · 02-12-2009, 07:16 PM

Scam Scam Scam and what the hell is the go with emails??? Have people forgotten how to use a land line?

Bucknaked · 02-12-2009, 07:23 PM

Theres a thread on our local Motorcycle Forum in Canberra. Theres a few floating around

http://canberrariders.org.au/forum/v...103105#p103105

One member has been exchanging emails. These are the posts

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrnamjama

It's worth it.

I think he's caught on to it now, no response after my last email :/

Quote: