how have i been scammed?

[z4RRSchris]

I had my RRS 4.2 SC for sale on the usual portals, its priced cheaply at £4750 because the bodywork has London scars but mechanically has a huge file of invoices, 3 owners, £20k plus spent on it etc.

i get the usual: "£2k tomrw mate" "wot ur best price cash now" etc etc, along with maybe 15 decent enquiries. I send everyone a full set of HD photos of everything, along with a list of any broken / damaged items, and all the service history. No hiding anything.

I suggested anyone interested, i would be at home over the weekend so they can come view. I get a call from a french / african chap, who wants to come but only has £4500, sure we can do a deal at that price.

He then txts me Saturday night:

"Hi, Sorry to disturb your rest tonight. My younger brother is coming from Brussells will be with me and told him that i will be spending 900 pounds on top of what we agreed. Could you please do me an invoice for £5400 so he can take it to my father in africa. I am broke and i want some of that money to survice. I will give you £100 for you please"

I reply sorry no - sounds dodgy as fk.

Anyway forward to Sunday, and the phone goes for the first viewing, and three African lads outside. I'm 100% sure its a scam so i keep the keys on me. I take their "mechanic" for a spin, he reports back in french (i speak it well enough) that the cars great, suspension no knocking, air compress good, service file is huge, this guys had it 10 years etc etc. He says they are driving it to Brussels then exporting to the Congo.

So he hands over £4500 in cash, and i take it to my flat to count and check over. I still have the key and V5 on me. I check every note with a UV light and typical checks and they are all legit (i since took them to HSBC to check and again all legit). Sign over the car on DVLA website and off they drive after taking some celebratory photos. There is a switch missing that I've ordered, so he gives me his address so i can post it to him when it arrives.

Is the scam that they are not actually scammers?, but he did want to do his dad out of £900?

[GT9]

Maybe they were hoping to reject the car for some spurious reason, and then force a refund somehow.
A refund of £5400.....

[shtu]

z4RRSchris said:

Is the scam that they are not actually scammers, but he did want to do his dad out of £900?

Does sound like he wanted an extra "middleman fee". Probably the norm somewhere like the Congo.

I can't see anyhting else, unless 3 african lads are about to ramraid their local Barclays.

[vikingaero]

He's taken the opportunity of money movement to tax his own family.

Normally the scam is they pay using a hijacked PayPal account or bank account, but in this case they seemed genuine apart from scamming their own family. The guy is going to be a King Player in the Congo in his Rangie.

[Timothy Bucktu]

(cash) Money laundering?

[InitialDave]

Yep, I don't think you've been scammed, but daddy was going to be!

[essayer]

probably forged an invoice for £5400 for Dad to transfer

you should have left a note under the spare wheel with the invoice. "Dear Dad, your sons owe you £300 each. Enjoy the car"

[MrBarry123]

I reckon he was just wanting to charge his dad an admin fee for the effort. Lol.

It does sound dodgy though although can’t see how you would be scammed.

[ChocolateFrog]

A SC RRS in the Congo

The guy should start a YouTube channel.

[GiantCardboardPlato]

What an adventure for the old Range Rover.

[Roger Irrelevant]

It's like in the good old days* when London cabbies would ask how much you wanted an invoice to be made out for (or if you just wanted it blank so you could fill it in yourself), so you had the opportunity to indulge in a bit of low-level expenses fraud against your employer/clients. Any easy opportunity to skim a bit off for yourself (which I never did, obviously).

• may well still be the same now.