classified scam

[vauxmini]

have my 90 up for sale in the classifieds .
after a day i got an email from a "daniel williams" who asked a few questions just general stuff.

they asked if i would reduce the price and i said i was going to hold out as it was only for sale 1 day.

the next email he agreed to pay the full asking price. and started talking about shipping. i never realised he was from abroad.

i went ahead and agreed he could send me a deposit and hold it untill they could get someone to come look.

next email was him saying that he had made a mistake and sent me the full amount and the ammount for shipping. and could i cash the cheque and pay the shipping agent.

This was when the alarms started going off and a quick search on google found this is scam that is happening alot.

i could have £5500 out of pocket if i had gone ahead with this. the banks cash the cheque the about a week later when they try to get the funds from the cheque they realise its a fraud. not sure where you would stand as they have put the money into your account.

all i can say is beware of overseas buyers and dont sell to them unless they come to your house with the cash

[hss111]

fesuvious said:

I would happily bank the cheque..........

If it clears, great, delete the email and keep the 'deposit' one. Take the car off the market via pistonheads and sell it elsewhere.

I fail to see the problem?

ha ha ha love it!

[virgil]

heard this before and didn't really get the 'scam bit', but apparently a cleared cheque might not actually be 'cleared' until some time later.

So I guess they rely on gettig the 'extra money' paid back before the final bounce of the cheque. Seems like a loop hole that needs plugging in the banking system so a cleared cheque really means that.

Then you can just pocket the cash and send them the car (which they clearly don't want)

[cpas]

Definitely a scam that's been going round for years! They normally send you a check for more money and ask you to send back one for the difference, or to pay the shipping company (one of their friends). The amount of money you pay to this person is the amount of money you will lose. By the way, banks can invalidate cheques a number of years after they've cleared them and remove funds from your account!!! My bank (Abbey) won't even guarantee a bankers draft!!!

[krusty]

I had my defender in the PH classifieds and immediately got scam mail which I duly reported back. I started here.....

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

but got fed up with it...... In the end I had similar emails from 7 or 8 different people...