Autotrader uk scam, story so far

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 28 Sep 2011 Posts: 13

my friend was looking at a car on the site which seemed too good to be true, i was suspicious as the contact details said do not contact by phone but use the email address which was embedded in the photo.

the advert also linked direct to a well known jaguar dealer which i believe to be totally unconnected.

anyway my curiosity was aroused

first response

Hello,

I still got the 2003 AUDI A4 1.9TDI for sale. The car is in excellent condition, garage kept and accident
free. The mileage is real and I never had any problems with the engine. The car looks and works just perfect. I
bought it from UK and it is still registered here. We live in the Northern part of United Kingdom, in a beautiful
sea-side city called Thurso.
We are a nice couple of pensioners (I have 64 and my beloved wife is 63 years old) and don't use the car so
often. We love to spend our time on the road but now we use to travel by plane, so a car is no more useful for
us. Also we sold our house and bought a big farm here in Thurso. If you are really interested we are ready to
make a trip to England and meet you personally. You can take the car for a test-drive and any kind of inspection.
Please tell us where do you live? I am sure that we will find a nice city in England to arrange a meeting, a
region acceptable for us and for you in the same time. We have the faith that this can be a good deal!

The last price it is : 1600GBP

P.S. I appreciate if we can continue our conversation by e-mail. The mobile signal is poor here, we have to walk
over 2 miles for a good phone call.

Thank you

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 28 Sep 2011 Posts: 13

Please tell us where do you live? I am sure that we will find a nice city in England to arrange a meeting, a
region acceptable for us and for you in the same time. We have the faith that this can be a good deal!

his email is [email protected]

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 28 Sep 2011 Posts: 13

Hello,

Thank you for prompt response. As I told you the car is in perfect condition and has no technical problems. There are no visible scratches and no rust (corrosion). I like to keep my car in excellent condition so I don't think you will find anything wrong with it.
The car is registered in UK and has valid plate numbers. It comes with MOT and Road Tax ( valid till 12/2011). I have all the original papers including full service history.
As I already announced you we are in Thurso now (the car is here as well). If you are interested in a test-drive and a full inspection I am ready to meet you.

We can meet you next week Friday or Saturday morning in Birmigham. Let me know if you agree so I can start looking for a Hotel in the area.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 28 Sep 2011 Posts: 13

me: Are you sure? You seem to be going to a lot of trouble for me,it is a long drive ti birmingham from thurso. i am interested and could be in birmingham on saturday. If i bring the cash how will you get home

him: OK i will email you after i book a hotel room

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 28 Sep 2011 Posts: 13

Hello,

I am glad to inform you about the place for our meeting, at Ibis Birmingham Centre( Ladywell Walk, B5 4ST Birmingham ). I will arrive there on Friday evening and we will have our meeting on Saturday morning.
Before we come to Birmingham , we want to be sure that you will be there and we will not drive for nothing. ... There is a risk which we want to avoid. I spoke with my wife about this and we have a proposal for you. If you accept our proposal, we can come to the meeting as we agreed...

My wife will go tomorrow to the the local Western Union. She will transfer £1600 to my name to UK, Birmingham . The transfer will be done by my wife to my name and I will take back the money from Western Union in Birmingham . As soon as the transfer is done, we will send you the transfer document. This will be our proof that we will come to Birmingham and meet you. We will have to take our money back, so we will have to come there.

The same thing we want from you. Your wife or a friend of yours can go to the Western Union in your city and transfer £1600 on your name to Birmingham using "Money in Minutes". This is a service in the Western Union where you do not need a bank account. It is a transfer from a person to a person. The transfer is instant. You will take back the money from the Western Union in Birmingham at the moment when we meet. When the transfer is done, you must send us the transfer document as proof that you will come to Birmingham ...

Please understand that I am not asking for an advance payment, the only one who can pick up the money from Birmingham is you.I do not have access to your money, I just want to see that you are the receiver in Birmingham .
This transfer will cost you about 30-50 pounds. As soon as we meet I will pay you back this money. It doesn't matter if you will decide to buy the car or not. This way you have nothing to lose.

We hope you understand our message and also we don't want to seem rude but it's a long way for a blind date. Please inform us about your decision.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 28 Sep 2011 Posts: 13

me: Is this safe? I have never heard of “western union”

him: Hello,

I am sorry but I think you don't understand my proposal. I am not asking you for a payment in advance on my name ! I will never ask you to send money to me before you will see the car! This is an exchange insurance for me and for you that our meeting will take place and we can leave relaxed our towns because we will be 100% sure that the other one will be there as we agreed!
As I told you, your wife or good friend must go to any Western Union in your town and ask to make a personal transfer ( Money in Minutes ) on YOUR NAME in Birmingham . So you will be the beneficiary of the money, not me! You will appear on the transfer paper as Receiver of the money and your wife or friend will be the Sender. We will take our money back when we will meet, we will go together to the Western Union in Birmingham .
This is just a proof of coming! After that, I will scan this document and send it to you attached on your email as my coming proof. And you must do the same thing, after you have done the transfer, email me the transfer document. This is my only condition and without this i will not come to Birmingham for this meeting, I am sorry. I believe a good deal is based of 100% safety for both sides and with this transfers i want to add a plus of security for me and for you as well that our meeting will take place. But before meeting this is my condition and i hope you will respect it, i will not negotiate.

Is this safe? I have never heard of “western union”

Wannabe Baiter Joined: 26 Aug 2011 Posts: 98

id be very carefull as soon as the word "beneficiary" or "consignment" pops up the two favorite scammer terms

Elite Baiter Joined: 16 Jan 2011 Posts: 1650

Can you send the link of the car in autotrader, i want a part of this scam sounds fun.

here · Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2011 8:17 am

shouts scam all over, this is not a natural English speaker and some real mistakes in there that nobody in the UK would make

his location is chosen to be as remote as possible so 'travel' is essential etc

main thing is - does this scammer have ANY hint of real life details from you? if so drop him like hot rock = i.e. cut it dead now

if not still never meet 'him' anywhere, if you are lucky the car will be stolen / a ringer etc. , unlucky would be much worse

if you are baiting safe him then sign up for a mentor here and learn how to waste his time

FWIW, hope it helps
BMH

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 28 Sep 2011 Posts: 13

playtime wrote:

Can you send the link of the car in autotrader, i want a part of this scam sounds fun.

link has been pulled but they turn up often before autotrader realises and pulls them.

if you do a search for any popular car you might find one, the giveaway is they always have an email address in the cars picture and say to email them as phone has poor signal or they are on the move, cars are always a real bargain and they normally have alink to a legit dealer

i have seen loads of them but never thought to contact them. i will search for them and post them on here so people can have some sport with them

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 28 Sep 2011 Posts: 13

[quote="

main thing is - does this scammer have ANY hint of real life details from you? if so drop him like hot rock = i.e. cut it dead now

BMH[/quote]

i will not be baiting this guy further as linked to my real address but will look out for more

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 28 Sep 2011 Posts: 13

his email is [email protected]

you could email him and ask if he still has the audi for sale to see what he does

Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2011 4:44 pm

Quote:

We live in the Northern part of United Kingdom, in a beautiful
sea-side city called Thurso.

Otherwise known as Scotland Rolling Eyes

Try not to triple post, you can edit updates into your posts if noone else has posted, just make a note 'ETA' (edited to add).

If its Ok with you, I'm moving this to Main, as you aren't really asking for hints & tips, and also so any potential victims Googling his email will find out its a scam.

Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2011 5:03 pm

It's possible that this car does exist/is stolen. You need to ask for photos of the car and ask for a photocopy of the log book. You also need to contact the police or autotrader as this could involve ITP's.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 28 Sep 2011 Posts: 13

This mornig my wife send the money i attach you the scan receipt i waiting yours.

{he has attached a pic of a reciept but how do i post it here?}

I replied

"Thanks, I would like to check the cars history on line, can you send me either the reference number on the front of the registration document (or just a scan of the front part of the document) or the serial number of the MOT certificate.
Thanks, will be going to western union in the morning"[/img]

Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2011 7:43 pm

^^^^ Use http://www.scamwarners.com/main/fak.php

That way you can mark it FAKE etc

Then the link you are given you can copy n paste in this thread - editing one of your posts if possible.

Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2011 8:25 am

My guess is the scam works like this.

Firstly there is no car and nobody in Thurso or anywhere else in the UK

They put up a small WU payment to convince you they are genuine. You (victim) put up 1600 into WU and send them the WU paperwork with all the information necessary for the scammer to receive it so long as the Westy clerk does not ask for ID (which a slightly bent Westy clerk won't or doesn't have to if you have the question and answer) - note that he says "Your wife or friend transfers the money to you" - that way the sender and receiver are not the same.

Lad collects victims' 1600, maybe gives the westy clerk his bribe and disappears.

Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2011 9:13 am

Quote:

As I told you, your wife or good friend must go to any Western Union in your town and ask to make a personal transfer ( Money in Minutes ) on YOUR NAME in Birmingham .

Once he has the details of your transfer he will go to WU and get your cash.

There are agents who will not care about ID!

Also the money can be collected at any agent anywhere in the world! All they need is the MTCN number.

Elite Baiter Joined: 16 Jan 2011 Posts: 1650

ive sent him an email lets see if the seed grows!

Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2011 3:12 pm

Over here I simply ask for a copy of the CARFAX on the VIN of the car. I don't know if you have the same thing there. With a VIN on the Carfax, then ask for photos of the car including the odometer, door post barcode tag, and the VIN tag. A scammer will be unable to comply. Knowing this I offer the WU scan in exchange for the above photos.

This kills sales of stolen cars and most scams. Someone checking on the history of a car by VIN scares them for some reason.

Do UK cars have a VIN?

here · Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2011 3:25 pm

they certainly do

Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2011 6:09 pm

Quote:

I have 64 and my beloved wife is 63 years old

This phrase is inconsistent with a native English speaker and is consistent with machine translation from a Romance language (e.g. Spanish: Tengo 64 y mi amada esposa tiene 63 años). It is possible that you're talking to a scammer in Francophone Africa who is typing in French and using Google Translate.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 28 Sep 2011 Posts: 13

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201139417995342/sort/priceasc/usedcars/fuel-type/diesel/maximum-age/up_to_5_years_old/model/discovery/make/land_rover/postcode/al23lt/radius/1501/page/1?logcode=p

quick! have a bait before autotrader lifts it

here · Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2011 10:45 pm

^^^^^^
you can learn something everyday on 419e

thanks for that!

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