PayPal scam for my car

[sjm]

Hi all - just a heads up that I've had an email from someone calling himself Aiello David enquiring about buying my car. I'm not sure of he saw the advert on here, or if it was from Classic Driver where the car is also advertised. Here is his latest email - I've not bothered replying but just sharing this in case someone gets something similar:

"Hi there, Thank you for getting back to me.Can you assure me that it's in good state and that i will not be disappointed with it..I'm ready to pay your asking price and to be honest, I wanted to buy this for my son who is race in Mississippi , but the issue is i am an oceanographer and i do have a contract to go for which starts tomorrow and am leaving any moment from now.The contract is strictly no call due to the lack of reception on the sea area.But I'm able to access email anytime as we will make use of laptop so my only quickest payment option is PayPal as i can send money via PayPal anytime.Since I'm requesting this transaction to be done via PayPal,I will be responsible for all the paypal fee/charges on this transaction and if you don't have an account with paypal, its pretty easy, safe and secured to open one. Just log on to www.paypal.com. I hope we can make the purchase as fast as possible? I have a mover that will come for it once payment clears and they will get it to my son's location safely.

If my mode of payment is accepted kindly email me with the information below to proceed with the payment.

1) The pictures
2) Are you the Original Owner?
3) Your PayPal Email Address
4) Your Picked Up Location Address

Get back to me with your address so i can forward to the shipping company to schedule an appointment with you for pick up. I have a private pick up agent that will come for the pick up after pay."

Numpty

[Jonny Hart]

Scamming for Dummies page 67:

Legitimate reasons for not having a telephone:

1. Political Prisoner.
2. Nigerian Astronaut.
3. Antartic Expedition.
4. Ocenographer.

[KS]

Please post his contact details so we can all bomb him with offers...

[inaglasshouse]

How exactly does the scam work, in the case of a buyer (as opposed to a seller with non-existent car) perpetrating it.
He pays via Paypal, you see the funds before releasing the car. You have the cash and all is well, seemingly.
Is it to do with Paypal transaction cancellation policy - he can easily roll back after you've released the car?

[Barry]

Yes, Paypal have put so much buyer protection in place, they can simply claim they never got the item (car), the agent that turned up was nothing to do with them etc. Paypal reverse the charge and that's that. Item has gone, if you can trace the person that collected (unlikely), they just claim they were working on instructions from someone), the 'buyer' of course has long gone. Obviously trying to then get justice with help of Paypal is impossible (have you ever tried to get through the small-print?).

Only way IMHO is a simple, free and instantaneous BACS bank transfer. Both parties are protected in that each can prove or disprove where funds did, or didn't go, and it's non-reversible, once it's done, it's done. Only downside is you have to give a stranger your bank details, but I run a second account just for funding Paypal and receiving BACS from people I don't know. There's never any significant funds left in it. At least if there should be an issue, you have a U.K. bank with phone numbers, banking codes and guarantees.

If they can get access to Paypal and have the funds, they can get access to their bank account just as easily.

[Barry]

https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/Acc ... uage=en-gb

Seems another angle is they say they'll Paypal you, then follow that with fake e-mails saying your Paypal account has been credited etc.

So many angles, so many opportunities .

The sheer number of replies to above thread shows the depth of the problem.

[inaglasshouse]

Thanks Barry.

[sjm]

Indeed - thanks all. Funnily enough I've now had someone else contact me. He's not suggesting PayPal but the guy has a US number and I just can't believe someone would offer to pay that much money without wanting a lot more info from me about the car. There are no horror stories on my side, I've been honest about the car, just surprised someone would part with £70k on the basis of photos only. I'd want to send someone out to inspect the car etc.

"Hi Simon,
our people in London would contact you for banking information.
but first we would need your phone number so our people would contact you more easily and faster. There would be the fund transfer direct to your account, but first he would need to make a deposit on advance payment and then would follow by the full fund transfer in one day later."

I'm not sure...

[Nige]

So he's asked for you paypal address, home address and phone number.

Just sounds like someone out to fraud you in my opinion.

[Nick Moss]

I would consider any approach from the USA or Europe unlikely as it's a RHD car. Both approaches above would ring bells and get me pressing the delete button.

[Barry]

But here's the problem:

Example one. Last year a friend sold a Triumph TR6 on EBay. He knows nothing about cars, trading, eBay or scams. He had it on an auction, and was pleased when his restoration project went £1k or so above the price he'd paid only months earlier. It took a while for the 'buyer' to approach him, and when he did, he wanted to pay by Paypal. He could be reached by phone at that point. I suggested it was a scam, the 'buyer' kept saying he didn't know the seller was genuine and wanted the protection of Paypal as he thought the seller (my friend) could just as easily been a scammer.

Eventually the two made phone contact, they each explained the other's position. Vince (my friend) pointed out that he had no way of knowing what the buyer was about, whereas the buyer could either come along in person, or send someone and either pay with cash, or via transfer.

Long and short was, improbable as it seemed, the buyer was in fact genuine, they did the deal on a transfer while the buyer waited around drinking coffee (and no doubt eating excellent cakes). Up onto the trailer, and job was a good'un.

Example Two, recently I sold a 944 on eBay (I say sold, more 'gave away' it turns out ). I got a few messages from a chap on an oil rig in the North Sea. Yeah, sure, wa'evah Mate I thought. But no, he said he would phone the next day when he was allowed by work. And he did, and by chance he knew where my cousins live, and had relatives nearby. He told me enough to convince me he was real. The twist is that actually, someone beat him to it, and sniped it from underneath him. I had no doubt he was genuine though, he was even happy for me to have his home number and address, and I was welcome to phone his wife to verify his story.

Long and short is, actually the one big decider is being able to talk to someone direct. If you can, you have a very good chance of accurately deciding what's what. Any sensible buyer will want to talk to you for their own peace of mind (would you buy a car via grammatically poor e-mails alone? Of course not, you'd want to know the seller wasn't the scammer). A reasonable buyer will be able to see your point of view, and offer alternative payment arrangements.

[Barry]

I would consider any approach from the USA or Europe unlikely as it's a RHD car. Both approaches above would ring bells and get me pressing the delete button.

Good point .

[sjm]

Yep, totally agree Nick. It's been an eye opener for sure!

[sjm]

Yep - very true Barry. I feel almost rude writing back to a couple of these ones that look suspicious, but I'd rather risk that and keep the car!

[Barry]

Too right, ultimately if there's doubt after you've either made, or attempted to make phone contact, there is no doubt. Play it safe and move on to a better quality enquiry.

Good luck with the sale