car buyer scam
Discussion
turbinetech said:
A warning to all private sellers.
Yesterday we fell victim to a scam by 3 Eastern European thugs.
They came late in the day to look at our second hand car, we showed them around the car & then went for a test drive after around 5 minutes smoke was billowing out of the exhausts. We limped back and they said the head gasket was gone,one off them dipped his finger in the expansion tank and it was full of black oil.
I could not believe it as this is a good car.
The penny dropped when they insisted they would still buy it for half price (intimidating)
We googled thi and found that they distract you round the back of the car while the other one pours oil into the expansion tank.
They left empty handed but we now the have job of putting it right.
Be vigilant this is a horrible thing to suffer
bYesterday we fell victim to a scam by 3 Eastern European thugs.
They came late in the day to look at our second hand car, we showed them around the car & then went for a test drive after around 5 minutes smoke was billowing out of the exhausts. We limped back and they said the head gasket was gone,one off them dipped his finger in the expansion tank and it was full of black oil.
I could not believe it as this is a good car.
The penny dropped when they insisted they would still buy it for half price (intimidating)
We googled thi and found that they distract you round the back of the car while the other one pours oil into the expansion tank.
They left empty handed but we now the have job of putting it right.
Be vigilant this is a horrible thing to suffer
ks!Josho said:
I love selling to the Polish.
A lorry comes, guy jumps out and gives you cash. Bang straight on a lorry and goodbye.
Yeah, same when I sold my BMW - two Eastern European guys turned up with a lorry, checked the car over for a minute, if that, and even paid me a bit more than we'd agreed. Friendly, no hassles or tricks of any kind.A lorry comes, guy jumps out and gives you cash. Bang straight on a lorry and goodbye.
xrv said:
[So you insist that people turn up alone to an address they have never been to before carrying a large amount of cash? You find you sell many cars this way? If somebody said that to me is assume that were going to rob me.
Yes, I've only sold a few cars privately - twice on EBay (one person turned up with 5k-8k in cash) and once a brother and sister. If 2/3 guys wanted to VIEW a car - forget about it - I would assume they were going to rob or scam me. My girlfriend speaks Polish so I would have less issues with 2 Polish guys if she had spoken to them first!ferrariF50lover said:
The bloke I was dealing with was a different race from me, a different sexuality, a different heritage and a different profession.
Blimey, your buyer vetting process sounds a bit intense ! I can't imagine discussing a buyers sexuality (unless he was as camp as Christmas and you made an assumption !)Created an account just to post in support of OP. This is a thing.
Group of four individuals (two stayed in their car, two carried out the attempt) tried this on me just an hour ago.
Unsuccessful, politely told them to Foxtrot Oscar, they only departed when I threatened to call the police.
For anyone doubting the existence of this particular scam, here you go:-
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2045078/moment-roman...
Also reported on The Daily Mail, but nothing could bring me to click on that link.
Edit - the smoke generator is a squirt up the exhaust, the oil in the header is a crude attempt to simulate a head gasket failure. The twunt who test-drove my car made sure to pop the car into manual and rev the nuts off to get the exhaust nice and hot.
Group of four individuals (two stayed in their car, two carried out the attempt) tried this on me just an hour ago.
Unsuccessful, politely told them to Foxtrot Oscar, they only departed when I threatened to call the police.
For anyone doubting the existence of this particular scam, here you go:-
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2045078/moment-roman...
Also reported on The Daily Mail, but nothing could bring me to click on that link.
Edit - the smoke generator is a squirt up the exhaust, the oil in the header is a crude attempt to simulate a head gasket failure. The twunt who test-drove my car made sure to pop the car into manual and rev the nuts off to get the exhaust nice and hot.
Edited by The Librarian on Saturday 24th June 21:09
I think the only way forward is that you are insistent that due to scammers turning up in groups, only one person may view the car and you will be attending to that person. If the buyer is not the person checking the car out, he will have to wait until you've checked nothing fishy is done.
If they don't like it, then lock the car and go indoors, threatening to call the police.
Thoughts?
If they don't like it, then lock the car and go indoors, threatening to call the police.
Thoughts?
What I find hilarious is all the people who ve jumped on the OP a troll, when his post just reads like a genuine 'be aware guys ' warning.
Reality is there are scumbags who try this sort of thing on . Sure they are few and far between and the ethinicity doesn't matter one bit , but it happens simple as that.
I d suggest some people on here are too long in the tooth and call b*lls
t too quickly . Fckitdriveon said:
What I find hilarious is all the people who ve jumped on the OP a troll, when his post just reads like a genuine 'be aware guys ' warning.
Reality is there are scumbags who try this sort of thing on . Sure they are few and far between and the ethinicity doesn't matter one bit , but it happens simple as that.
I d suggest some people on here are too long in the tooth and call b*llst too quickly .
What I find hilarious is all the people who will believe anything they read on the Internet.Reality is there are scumbags who try this sort of thing on . Sure they are few and far between and the ethinicity doesn't matter one bit , but it happens simple as that.
I d suggest some people on here are too long in the tooth and call b*lls
t too quickly . Also as someone stated above, it's good to see I'm not the weirdest weirdo out there
When going to view a car Take a mate
First 2 sets of eyes are better than one, and secondly walking into an unknown situation with a pocketful of cash is stupid
Well, here's what I drained out of the expansion tank this morning:-
http://imgur.com/HU7aMVU
About 0.5l of used engine oil, partially mixed with the coolant/antifreeze.
Nice.
Wonder how that got there............
http://imgur.com/HU7aMVU
About 0.5l of used engine oil, partially mixed with the coolant/antifreeze.
Nice.
Wonder how that got there............
OddCat said:
ericmcn said:
rule of thumb
if more than 2 eastern europeans turn up just tell them f**k off
I'd go so far as to say "if 2 or more turn up" do exactly that...if more than 2 eastern europeans turn up just tell them f**k off
Also it's too easy to get excited about a new car - IME it usually helps to have a second set of independent eyes giving the car a once over.
Sadly this forum has changed and become filled with sanctimonious dheads such as those on here calling the OP a troll or having a go at him for pointing out the culprits ethnicity.
As in my post about the same thing happening to me around a month ago where I was called a troll. I had to run fresh coolant through the system twice to get all the oil out.
Yes it only cost me about £10 or something for the coolant but I also had to waste around an hour of my time when I had netter things to do on flushing the system hence IT IS a big deal and is not a victimless crime.
I am fortunate. I know about the scam and was able to rectify the issue albeit by wasting money I shouldn't have had to on coolant but there are many other people out there who will fall for this scam and sell their car for a lot less than its worth or who will end up paying a garage £150+ to clean their coolant system and check there is not actual HG failure.
I sold the car a week ago to some Romanian guys who could not have been nicer or easier to deal with. Two guys turned up. I told them only 1 person permitted to inspect the car at a time due to having been scammed previously. They were very polite checked the car over asked my best price and I told them and they handed over the cash. They didn't even bother test driving the car.
I even took them to the post office to tax it and send off documents as they were not local.
heads such as those on here calling the OP a troll or having a go at him for pointing out the culprits ethnicity.As in my post about the same thing happening to me around a month ago where I was called a troll. I had to run fresh coolant through the system twice to get all the oil out.
Yes it only cost me about £10 or something for the coolant but I also had to waste around an hour of my time when I had netter things to do on flushing the system hence IT IS a big deal and is not a victimless crime.
I am fortunate. I know about the scam and was able to rectify the issue albeit by wasting money I shouldn't have had to on coolant but there are many other people out there who will fall for this scam and sell their car for a lot less than its worth or who will end up paying a garage £150+ to clean their coolant system and check there is not actual HG failure.
I sold the car a week ago to some Romanian guys who could not have been nicer or easier to deal with. Two guys turned up. I told them only 1 person permitted to inspect the car at a time due to having been scammed previously. They were very polite checked the car over asked my best price and I told them and they handed over the cash. They didn't even bother test driving the car.
I even took them to the post office to tax it and send off documents as they were not local.
This happened to me, one of them pours oil in your expansion tank/coolant bottle while your distracted, the smoke however Is caused by them squirting some sort if oily substance up you’re exhaust tail pipe usually before you even open the door to them. Took me about half an hours driving until it all finally burned away (it smokes like hell once the exhaust gets hot). As for the oil in the expansion tank (coolant bottle) you just have to empty your bottle/tank asap and flush the tank out. I’ve got them on video 3 numpty Eastern Europeans.
charltjr said:
turbinetech said:
Why would they still want to buy it if it wasn't a cheap fix,
Gasket and block are miraculously fine now.
wish someone with descent knowledge could explain
If oil in the coolant is making the car smoke then the oil has to be finding it's way into the cylinders and getting burnt. The head gasket is the number one culprit for that to happen, or alternately a crack in the engine itself.Gasket and block are miraculously fine now.
wish someone with descent knowledge could explain
I certainly wouldn't fancy sticking my finger into a coolant expansion bottle after a test drive so that also doesn't seem quite right.
The problem is that what you're saying doesn't really add up, which is possibly just a genuine misunderstanding. This is the sort of post we get fairly often here from new users especially in the school holidays so people are going to be cynical. It's nothing personal.
Marcus121 said:
You can easily put your finger in a coolant expansion tank after a test drive, yes it’s quite hot but doesn’t burn you. I’ve just done it along with the dodgy Eastern European who was trying this same scam on me, the smoke is caused by them squirting some oily liquid up into your tailpipes (it smokes like hell once the exhaust gets hot) the op has had an attempted scam and is rightfully upset, there headgasked or block is not cracked/gone you just been a tool by ranting in about it.
Ranting on about it 9 months ago, chap. I know it’s an old thread but I read it just today and it made me feel a bit less annoyed to see it’s happened to others and that I wasn’t singled out by the con artists (feel slightly less victimised), others will still be reading this thread in years to come some may even avoid being scammed due to it (regardless as to how old the thread is) I never usually bother writing on forums as they all seem to be the same, someone starts a genuine post about somthing and before you know some thicko (you) has decided to have a go at them and start an argument. Very strange world. I won’t be engaging in an argument with you as I suspect you probably have more time on your hands than and it would go on for ever, perhaps you could go find a more recent thread to ruin.
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