Thieves target car sellers
Scam relieves sellers of both money and car
If you're buying or selling a car, watch out! Thieves from Lithuania are focusing on Britain's busy second-hand car market -- and it's become so bad that top cops have issued an unprecedented warning.
The crooks respond to classified ads in the specialist press, and pay for vehicles with high-quality forged bankers' draft cheques. By the time the forgery is spotted -- usually days later because of the time taken for clearing -- the seller has released the car, keys and paperwork. The car is either exported to Lithuania or quickly sold on again to UK second-hand dealers, often with forged documentation.
The National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) highlighted the scam saying that, "Typically, gang members won't identify themselves as Lithuanian, but pose as Scandinavian or western European nationals. They tend to buy medium range value cars in the 10 – 15k bracket. The NCIS advises vehicle sellers to wait four to five days until the draft has been fully cleared before releasing vehicles. Suspicions should be reported to local police forces."
The scam came to light at the end of last year. Areas affected include London, Suffolk, Nottinghamshire, Wiltshire, Kent, Hampshire, and Surrey.
Note though that even if the money's in your account it's not safe, according to the police. "Once a bankers' draft has cleared, the cash will appear in the seller's account, and he'll be able to draw against it. But if the cheque is found to be stolen - which could be up to two weeks later - the funds will be withdrawn back out of the account."
tinhead said:
You can ring the bank that issued the draft to check its not forged or stolen but i don't know if thats foolproof
It should be, but the problem is how do you phone half the banks when you get put straight through to theier indian call centre? Actualy talking to a specific brabch is very difficult for private people.
Auto Trader have quite a bit on this...
www.autotrader.co.uk/CARS/sell/cc/fr-1.jsp
How can the banks 'clear' the cheque and then ask for the money back later!!
As a result, most experienced ebay users will NOT accept payments from foreign banks or by money order.
tvrman said:
What I have done in the past is taken the buyer with me to the bank when I get the Draft, thus pure confidence. Though, I have to admit this is still not fool proof.
How is it not fool proof?
Buyer (with Barclays) comes to me to pick the car up... I choose, lets go to, eeny meeny miny mo, this branch of Barclays, local to me and get your bank draft issued - he gets a bank draft drawn under my watchful eye - I see that it is genuine.
A pain in the backside I know, but safe
No one thought to inform me that they were going to do it.
The entire situation was a little complicated and involved my then employer going into administration and their bank try to recover money that had been transacted through the BACS system quite legitimately.
The press got hold of the story a few weeks later and the bank concerned backtracked rather rapidly, at least as far as the salaries were concerned, although my bank had clearly got jittery first and approached me with a resolution before the other bank announced it would in fact do the honourable thing.
Pity they both took about 7 weeks over the Xmas period to put things right though.
Remember - the money, if it exists, is never really yours!
A similar arrangement applies to property but involving a longer timescale. Occupy property for, I think, 12 years and it becomes yours if the original owners don't try to challenge your occupation.
I assume that money falls under the one year rule but it may be prudent to try to contact the buyer first. If you can proove that you did this and drew a blank then the money is probably yours after the requisit time.
grandadboats said:
Maybe it was a scammer who got stopped in mid-transaction?
That would be a result eh?
That is a distinct possibility, the Police may be able to trace it, and if it was the case, maybe the excess money would be better off going to help someone else who was not so lucky? She wouldnt be £2500 down because it was never hers in the 1st place. And imagine how good she could feel knowing it has helped a less fortunate victim.
>> Edited by Balmoral Green on Saturday 29th January 16:35
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