Autotrader scam

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Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2014 1:36 am

He reposted 17 ads today. I had them shut down within 2 hours. Twisted Evil

I posted a related thread to request for a mass bait of this rat bastard. Here's the link. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE consider joining me in this bait. I really want to put the screws to this guy.

http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=246566&highlight=

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Sep 2013 Posts: 2205

I like how short his fuse is! He doesn't like questions does he?

I'm in. Dan H@milton just emailed about his Nissan for sale. Twisted Evil

Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2014 2:20 pm

He may be a bit put off by the fact that his ads get shutdown within a couple hours of him reposting them. I might have something to do with that. Twisted Evil

Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2014 2:23 pm

Ok... so I wonder if this guy has a sick sense of humor, or if he's just pissed at my character for asking so many questions. I asked for more pictures of the car. He sent me a picture of a penis. Shocked

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 13 Mar 2014 Posts: 9

Lmfao Are you sure he wasn't referring to the big end? 😁

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2014 1:32 am

I'm pretty sure he's pissed. I took down 18 of his ads today. AT is responding faster now that they know about this scammer and that "Ryan" has declared war on him. I have been communicating with AT's security department using a baiting address. I intend to learn more about how he is posting so I can either help shut him down, or at least maximize his pain. I REALLY want to know how much he is paying for each ad. It maybe time to invest in some skype credits and call AT UK.

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2014 4:34 am

Take a look over at SW and you will see that AT have known about the scam for months and this group have been heavily baited since at least November.

Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2014 12:56 am

I hate to think he has hacked a dealer account in order to post his ads for free. Takes half the fun out of taking them down! Took down 8 today within 30 minutes.

Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2014 7:18 pm

This lad (or his accomplices posing as Google Wallet) are smarter than the average lads. They tried to verify my character's identity.

Quote:

Al,

I don't know what happen. They told me that they have not receved from you any fax or bank receipt attach with your payment.
For security reason they require this information. Maybe also from this reason they blocked your transfer in order to be received.
They also told me that they verified your name and address and told me that your info don't much. I cheked my self your info on 192.com and no result of your info. They also said that for security reason if you will not send me any proof of your identity or the payment receipt of your transfer i will have to reject you and to not be anymore in contact with you. I don't know what i will have to think in this moment.

I kindly ask you to send me an proof of your identity or the payment receipt copy in order to contact Google Wallet to send you a new invoice and tell them that you are a serious buyer like you said.

Thanks

Ben

I told him that I opted out of 192 because only an idiot lets their information be public, and furthermore the house is in my wife's name for tax reasons. Instead of twigging, he's offering up another bank account!

Quote:

Hi again,

I understand the reason now.
I have a UK bank account if you want in order to deposit the funds directly there. In this way will not be any international payment transfer.
As soon as my bank will confirm your transfer then i will start the shipping in order to confirm the tracking number.
Let me know if i will send my bank details.
Thanks
Ben

Maybe he's getting desperate now that I have taken down over 100 of his fake car ads this week alone. Twisted Evil

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 13 Mar 2014 Posts: 9

I am so impressed with what you have done, sounds like he is desperate. If he gives you the bank account details in the uk can this not be passed onto the police to see what name the account is in? IM guessing it is probably in the name he uses on AT but there may be a possibility he is completely stupid?

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Sep 2013 Posts: 2205

I am asking him questions about his Nissan for sale. He sent me pics, but I still have many questions.

Quote:

What kind of drive-train does it have?

It is a 4 wheel drive, correct?

Dan

Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2014 1:38 am

@Tink - I have reported the UK bank account to a moderator with connections in LE as well as to our mysterious "Alan" to whom we report all bank accounts. We don't know exactly what he does in RL, but he has magical powers to get bank accounts shut down. Some banks are better than others about "giving a damn" and taking action, but the group has had good success with getting scammer bank accounts shut down. The bank accounts often belong to "mules", many of whom are actually victims and innocent people who have no idea that they are acting as mules. They think they have a legitimate job or that they are helping a "friend" (lad has been running a romance scam on them). Either way, we do report all this stuff to the appropriate authorities. With any luck, this guy will lose a couple of bank accounts. Twisted Evil

@Mr. Lab - is he still answering your questions? He dropped a couple of my characters after two simple questions. ("I don't have time to answer stupid questions!!!!!!") Did he send you any different pictures of the car? He send one of my characters the same pics that were in the ad - nothing new. To the other character, he sent a picture of a penis. Seriously. Let me know if you get that one! lol

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Sep 2013 Posts: 2205

WoW! Haven't gotten any penis pics yet. He sent me about 6 pictures of a black truck from different angles.

Yes he answers some questions, but they are short and not-so-sweet. I love how pissed he is getting over simple questions. I am going to keep the questions short since I think he will twig fast if they are too much effort to answer... we will see how it goes.

More MASSBAITERS should join in on this! He could use some more aggravation.

Quote:

Hi again,

Yes, the car is 4x4 !!
Thanks

Quote:

Hello again James,

Just for clarification, does the transfer case allow the 4x4 to be disengaged, or is it all-time 4WD? Also what kind of gas mileage do you get with it in city driving.

Thanks, Dan

Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2014 11:01 am

Tink1968 wrote:

I want to take this opportunity to assure you that this deal is 100% legitimate

Thing is, every legitimate deal I have ever done has never needed this assurance. So now whenever somebody says this, I'm instantly suspicious...

Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2014 3:02 pm

When I got up this morning (East coast time, USA), and checked our scammer's posts, there were NO NEW ADS from him on Autotrader UK! I really hope he is miserable right now. Or, he is having to make new fake ads for different cars, which will take a lot of his time. No worries, I will find those as well.

Last night, I also identified 3 other ads that were from other scammers who had obviously hacked the account of a couple of real car dealerships. I reported those ads, and I emailed the dealerships directly (after googling them) to let them know they'd been hacked. Those are all gone today as well. Twisted Evil

I also started baiting those "new" scammers - two of the cars (a Fiat 500 and a Honda Civic) are the same lad who claims to be in Norway (his IP traces to an exact street location right on the Themes). Anyone who wants his email addresses, please PM me. I'd love to spread the torture.

Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2014 3:29 am

Ok, so we now have 2 distinct lads running scams on AT UK. The original lad, whom I will call Spain lad, and the "new" one called Norway lad.

Spain lad finally got 12 new ads up today, and I've already reported them. They should be down within the hour.

Norway lad has 57 different ads! It looks like he has hacked an old (or has a fake) dealer account, "acl sales". This will actually make him easier to track and report. Once I find one fake car ad under a dealer account, I can just view all the cars under that dealer account. In this case, the ONLY cars under the acl sales account are the 57 scams. I reported each ad AND sent the AT security team a message about the hacked/fake account. They'll have all these ads down quickly.

If anyone wants to bait either of these lads (please please please!!!), PM me, and I will send you some email addresses for them.

Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2014 7:07 am

^^^ You may get the "Thurso" script if you keep going.

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Sep 2013 Posts: 2205

Jeez, this guy does NOT like questions...

Quote:

Ok that is good most definitely. Now what about on the highway? I do quite a bit of long trips. Does it get better mileage on the highway.

Also is it fuel injected or a carburator.

Thanks again, Dan

Quote:

Sorry, just been sold!!

Quote:

Shoot!

Ok well have a good day.

Dan

[b]

That was only my third, simple question that I asked. I left it pleasant so as not to arouse suspicion and I will hit him again with another character.

Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2014 9:12 am

Over the last few months I've had many Bank Accounts from these Lads.

My tip is to play things straight and be compliant -- you'll soon get a bank account from their shipping/escrow service --- report the fake site to the Site Killers and the Bank Account in the usual way (not Alan).

Go back 24 hours later and say that your payment has been reject for some unexplained reason and you've got your money back ---- go for another piggy.

Invariably they will drop them if you mess them around.

Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2014 3:07 pm

Quote:

You may get the "Thurso" script if you keep going.

What is the "Thurso" script? Sounds intriging!

@Spot - thanks for the advice. Yeah, these guys have absolutely NO patience for even the most simple questions. It surprises me that real victims would not ask at least a few questions why looking at buying a car, especially if that car is not physically located where they can go see it. But, that is why the scammers price their "cars" far under market - to attract a buyer who will move fast so the "great deal" doesn't get away. I will continue to bait for piggies with these lads, but I am having MUCH more fun killing their ads. Twisted Evil

Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2014 3:11 pm

Thurso is a town in the far north of Scotland and is another one of the locations they use for where the car is located - they normally offer to meet you halfway for the car to be viewed, but want you to pay some money to Google Wallet (or similar) as a sign you are serious.

Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 5:29 pm

The "norway" scammer sent a bank account and very professional looking instructions and invoice documents supposedly from Toril Transport. Here's the bank account

Quote:

Toril Trans

Bank: Bank Gospodarki

Bank Address: 01-211 Warszawa , Poland

IBAN: PL63203000451130000014XXXXXX

SWIFT/BIC: GOPZPLPW

Account: 6320300045113000001XXXXXX

Sort Code: 20300045

Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2014 2:49 am

Since these lads are next to impossible to bait (if you ask a single question about the car or have any problems making the payment, they drop you like 3rd period French), I have been focusing on identifying their ads and getting them shut down. They can't be happy about posting a few dozen ads only to have them shut down (and lose access to their hacked account) within just hours. Twisted Evil

So far, I have identified 3 different scammer groups and over 100 fake ads. One of the scammers hacks a dealer account to post, which actually makes it MUCH easier to identify the fake ads and shut them down (find one car and then click on the link to "see all X cars from XXX dealer". Autotrader UK's security group has been reasonably good to work with - they respond quickly to my emails and shut down the hacked accounts / fake ads, and they usually respond to my emails. I also email the hacked dealers directly to let them know, and they usually respond with a thank you.

Perhaps I should apply for a job with AT's security group. I'm doing all their work for them anyway! Very Happy

If it saves even a few people from becoming victims, it's worth it.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 07 Oct 2010 Posts: 70

Excellent work!

Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2014 9:10 pm

Either I'm getting better at finding these scam ads, or more of them are being posted. I think I've found yet another scammer (who is claiming to be in Iverness, Scotland). He's playing it VERY differently - he's offering to drive all the way to London to let me see the car. His English is essentially perfect. If his ad wasn't under a hacked dealer account (I verified with the dealer that his account was hacked, and that is not his car for sale), I might actually believe he was a real seller. I'm waiting for him to come up with an excuse for not making the 500 mile trip this weekend. He said he would "ask his wife", which I'm sure is the setup for the excuse.

So far today, I have found 5 different hacked dealer accounts and have reported over 200 fake ads. I'm starting to wonder if there are any real cars for sale on Autotrader UK.

I have also applied the same type of search parameters on the US Autotrader and came up with nothing. The scammers working AT here seem to focus on fake check scams on sellers vs. trying to scam buyers.