car buyer scam
Discussion
"Who the hell sells off an RS6 cheap due to a perceived problem during a test drive rather than taking it out of sale and investigating further?!"
Quite simple really - though I am kicking myself in retrospect! Looking to shift the thing - v little interest from Ad (high mileage) though car is in very good fettle - I'd owned it for 6 years. Last day before I have to sort out new temporary cover etc.
The difference in price offered was pretty much what I guestimated it would cost me (£3.5K) to have MRC strip down the top of the engine (my immediate thought was major head or gasket failure) plus then I would have the hassle of sorting it all out.
These guys are very plausible, have all the banter and their tricks down to a fine art.
Not looking for sympathy - simply want people to be aware it's still going on, and to let me know if you spot OY04TWF anywhere for sale!
VSTAG and Action Fraud alerted (I have a full crime number for it), and Tracker alerted too, though it technically doesn't count as "stolen", so police not interested.
Quite simple really - though I am kicking myself in retrospect! Looking to shift the thing - v little interest from Ad (high mileage) though car is in very good fettle - I'd owned it for 6 years. Last day before I have to sort out new temporary cover etc.
The difference in price offered was pretty much what I guestimated it would cost me (£3.5K) to have MRC strip down the top of the engine (my immediate thought was major head or gasket failure) plus then I would have the hassle of sorting it all out.
These guys are very plausible, have all the banter and their tricks down to a fine art.
Not looking for sympathy - simply want people to be aware it's still going on, and to let me know if you spot OY04TWF anywhere for sale!
VSTAG and Action Fraud alerted (I have a full crime number for it), and Tracker alerted too, though it technically doesn't count as "stolen", so police not interested.
strath44 said:
Yep - stolen from a mate's house and recovered four days later thanks to Tracker and TVP. Fortunately only minor damage at that time all repaired under insurance.I hope it's OK that I've duplicated this on two threads.
OK, so this happened to me yesterday, exactly as the original poster described. I'm selling a high mileage e60 530d, there's nothing wrong with it, I've bought a new car. The guy on the phone asked about the condition of the engine, agreed to my minimum price and arranged to meet at 12:00 pm at my house. They we're late, I put off other people (annoyingly) because I wanted to honnor the appointment.
When they arrived two hours late they were in a 05 plate Audi A4 2.0 TDI. There was three of them and a child. They looked over the car and he asked to drive it. I let him take it up and down the road because it's private, the car is uninsured now so I wouldn't let him take it on the road. When we got back to the house (thank goodness I closed the front door) they opened the bonnet and the coolant cap which low and behold was full of used engine oil. He then offered me the scrap value and said they could get a low loader to come and pick it up.
I imidiatly smelt a rat, the oil cooler has been changed after it filled the system with oil about 18 months ago and when that happened it pressurised the system. I knew it wasn't the head gasket beacause of the lack of mayonnaise. I promptly told them to get lost, he was cheeky enough to ask if I'd pay for their diesel. I told him to FO and they left.
This is a common scam, I had heard of it before and so in the back of my head knew something was wrong. But I'm sure they catch many people out with it, they probably target high mileage relatively inexpensive cars to make it more plausible and likely that people will give in. Not nice, although at no point did I feel physically threatened.
OK, so this happened to me yesterday, exactly as the original poster described. I'm selling a high mileage e60 530d, there's nothing wrong with it, I've bought a new car. The guy on the phone asked about the condition of the engine, agreed to my minimum price and arranged to meet at 12:00 pm at my house. They we're late, I put off other people (annoyingly) because I wanted to honnor the appointment.
When they arrived two hours late they were in a 05 plate Audi A4 2.0 TDI. There was three of them and a child. They looked over the car and he asked to drive it. I let him take it up and down the road because it's private, the car is uninsured now so I wouldn't let him take it on the road. When we got back to the house (thank goodness I closed the front door) they opened the bonnet and the coolant cap which low and behold was full of used engine oil. He then offered me the scrap value and said they could get a low loader to come and pick it up.
I imidiatly smelt a rat, the oil cooler has been changed after it filled the system with oil about 18 months ago and when that happened it pressurised the system. I knew it wasn't the head gasket beacause of the lack of mayonnaise. I promptly told them to get lost, he was cheeky enough to ask if I'd pay for their diesel. I told him to FO and they left.
This is a common scam, I had heard of it before and so in the back of my head knew something was wrong. But I'm sure they catch many people out with it, they probably target high mileage relatively inexpensive cars to make it more plausible and likely that people will give in. Not nice, although at no point did I feel physically threatened.
matthew Khaghani said:
I hope it's OK that I've duplicated this on two threads.
OK, so this happened to me yesterday, exactly as the original poster described. I'm selling a high mileage e60 530d, there's nothing wrong with it, I've bought a new car. The guy on the phone asked about the condition of the engine, agreed to my minimum price and arranged to meet at 12:00 pm at my house. They we're late, I put off other people (annoyingly) because I wanted to honnor the appointment.
When they arrived two hours late they were in a 05 plate Audi A4 2.0 TDI. There was three of them and a child. They looked over the car and he asked to drive it. I let him take it up and down the road because it's private, the car is uninsured now so I wouldn't let him take it on the road. When we got back to the house (thank goodness I closed the front door) they opened the bonnet and the coolant cap which low and behold was full of used engine oil. He then offered me the scrap value and said they could get a low loader to come and pick it up.
I imidiatly smelt a rat, the oil cooler has been changed after it filled the system with oil about 18 months ago and when that happened it pressurised the system. I knew it wasn't the head gasket beacause of the lack of mayonnaise. I promptly told them to get lost, he was cheeky enough to ask if I'd pay for their diesel. I told him to FO and they left.
This is a common scam, I had heard of it before and so in the back of my head knew something was wrong. But I'm sure they catch many people out with it, they probably target high mileage relatively inexpensive cars to make it more plausible and likely that people will give in. Not nice, although at no point did I feel physically threatened.
Good on you for clicking that something wasn’t right. If they were dealing with a woman it would have been a different story. OK, so this happened to me yesterday, exactly as the original poster described. I'm selling a high mileage e60 530d, there's nothing wrong with it, I've bought a new car. The guy on the phone asked about the condition of the engine, agreed to my minimum price and arranged to meet at 12:00 pm at my house. They we're late, I put off other people (annoyingly) because I wanted to honnor the appointment.
When they arrived two hours late they were in a 05 plate Audi A4 2.0 TDI. There was three of them and a child. They looked over the car and he asked to drive it. I let him take it up and down the road because it's private, the car is uninsured now so I wouldn't let him take it on the road. When we got back to the house (thank goodness I closed the front door) they opened the bonnet and the coolant cap which low and behold was full of used engine oil. He then offered me the scrap value and said they could get a low loader to come and pick it up.
I imidiatly smelt a rat, the oil cooler has been changed after it filled the system with oil about 18 months ago and when that happened it pressurised the system. I knew it wasn't the head gasket beacause of the lack of mayonnaise. I promptly told them to get lost, he was cheeky enough to ask if I'd pay for their diesel. I told him to FO and they left.
This is a common scam, I had heard of it before and so in the back of my head knew something was wrong. But I'm sure they catch many people out with it, they probably target high mileage relatively inexpensive cars to make it more plausible and likely that people will give in. Not nice, although at no point did I feel physically threatened.
matthew Khaghani said:
There was three of them and a child. They looked over the car and he asked to drive it. I let him take it up and down the road because it's private, the car is uninsured now so I wouldn't let him take it on the road. When we got back to the house (thank goodness I closed the front door) they opened the bonnet and the coolant cap which low and behold was full of used engine oil. He then offered me the scrap value and said they could get a low loader to come and pick it up.
Why on earth did you let someone you don't know jolly off unaccompanied in your uninsured car?? Private road or not that is a ludicrous idea, if someone doesn't have insurance and wants a test drive they get a passenger ride or nothing. Knowingly allowing someone to drive an uninsured car is a bad idea.
Call me paranoid but when selling a car and someone does show me suitable insurance in order to perform a test drive I go with them and get the keys back immediately after the drive is complete. I hold onto the keys + V5 and the buyer(s) not left alone with the car until I have money or they walk away. I've not been scammed yet!
aka_kerrly said:
matthew Khaghani said:
There was three of them and a child. They looked over the car and he asked to drive it. I let him take it up and down the road because it's private, the car is uninsured now so I wouldn't let him take it on the road. When we got back to the house (thank goodness I closed the front door) they opened the bonnet and the coolant cap which low and behold was full of used engine oil. He then offered me the scrap value and said they could get a low loader to come and pick it up.
Why on earth did you let someone you don't know jolly off unaccompanied in your uninsured car?? Private road or not that is a ludicrous idea, if someone doesn't have insurance and wants a test drive they get a passenger ride or nothing. Knowingly allowing someone to drive an uninsured car is a bad idea.
Call me paranoid but when selling a car and someone does show me suitable insurance in order to perform a test drive I go with them and get the keys back immediately after the drive is complete. I hold onto the keys + V5 and the buyer(s) not left alone with the car until I have money or they walk away. I've not been scammed yet!
Had the buyer of my 330i touring have the car sideways on the redline. Fair enough it was £400 and he agreed to buy it before (with deposit and his car parked outside my house) but wanted a bit of fun.
I hadn’t had this exact thing today. 3 Eastern Europeans looking at Audi rs4, while I was at the back they put oil in the coolant, then Managed to spray something in the exhaust to make it smoke. It was inly the tips wet and few minutes into drive started smoking. Got to drain the coolant now and flush it all out.
Watch people like hawk when they view your car!
Watch people like hawk when they view your car!
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