Buying a car on Facebook
Discussion
I thought just recently, Facebook had cleaned their act up with all the scam adverts for non-existant cars. Checking 'other items for sale' were coming up looking genuine, with no long lists of 'bargains'. Surely, if you were running a scam, you'd put a fairly realistic but low price, not a ludicrously low one. 75% of value rather than 25%.
Anyway, in an attempt to see just how it works, I am persuing a 2012 Bentley Continental at the bargain price of £4800. I've received an invoice and I really don't see the catch. Just need to send the money.
Anyway, in an attempt to see just how it works, I am persuing a 2012 Bentley Continental at the bargain price of £4800. I've received an invoice and I really don't see the catch. Just need to send the money.
I've reported obvious scams to FB in the past. Nothing happens. But I thought they have been better lately.
I have asked CAAS if I can pay on delivery (with a 'sorry my English isn't very good').
I find it sad that it really works and the vulnerable get caught out.
Anyway, never owned a Bentley before!!
I have asked CAAS if I can pay on delivery (with a 'sorry my English isn't very good').
I find it sad that it really works and the vulnerable get caught out.
Anyway, never owned a Bentley before!!
There are still hundreds of scammers with massive long lists of cars for peanuts.
I responded to one indicating the vendors were a bunch of replicas of female genitals but just got a standard response saying the car was still for sale and to contact a sales manager at an e-mail address. Obviously the next leg of the obvious scam.
However, I then got a shed load of emails trying to give me stuff for free or sell me crap and I had to block them every time. They stop after a while.
I responded to one indicating the vendors were a bunch of replicas of female genitals but just got a standard response saying the car was still for sale and to contact a sales manager at an e-mail address. Obviously the next leg of the obvious scam.
However, I then got a shed load of emails trying to give me stuff for free or sell me crap and I had to block them every time. They stop after a while.
These cars always have "new tires" and "clean titles".
It's the same with desirable products - a Yeti Coolbox that retails for £300, used might be £250, but scammers list them for £32 and direct people from a website to order them. You pay £32 and they never deliver. In the meantime the website has served its purpose and scammed 10,000 stupid people out of £32.
It's the same with desirable products - a Yeti Coolbox that retails for £300, used might be £250, but scammers list them for £32 and direct people from a website to order them. You pay £32 and they never deliver. In the meantime the website has served its purpose and scammed 10,000 stupid people out of £32.
Mark McCann just posted an interesting video about these scams on YouTube for anyone interested. I don’t think there has been any effort done by Facebook to address the problem as any car search now seems to come up with more dodgy ads then genuine looking ones.
The objective is always to extract some form of holding deposit from buyers, so please stick to the age old advice of don’t pay anything until you are standing in front of the actual car!
The objective is always to extract some form of holding deposit from buyers, so please stick to the age old advice of don’t pay anything until you are standing in front of the actual car!
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