Is this a new scam? How does it work?
Is this a new scam? How does it work?
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Discussion

wraggy

Original Poster:

170 posts

234 months

Wednesday 19th March 2014
quotequote all
Hi. We are in the process of selling my wife's car and taken a deposit, so not trying to bring attention to the advert.
I have received 2 emails, identically written, but from different addresses.
They both ask what my real price is as they have seen an advert for the same car for half my price. They then provide links to the adverts both on pistonheads. The links didn't work (probably lucky for me?) so I just deleted the emails.
Just interested as to how this scam works. I presume it is dodgy as both emails were identical apart from sender and name.
Thanks.

Grandpad58

12,549 posts

210 months

Wednesday 19th March 2014
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Scam ,pay no attention to them.

bennyboysvuk

3,494 posts

277 months

Wednesday 19th March 2014
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Speaking of scammers. My colleague received the following when he enquired about an XC90 on Auto Trader last week. It was from a certain petercluper@gmail.com who he Googled and it came back with lots of websites talking about scamming. Anyway, here's the totally daft email the scammer sent:

I still got the 2009 VOLVO XC90 2.4 D5 SE for sale at the price of £5495. The car is in excellent condition, garage kept and accident free. The mileage is real and I never had any problems with the engine. The car looks and works just perfect. I bought it from UK and it is still registered here. We live in the Northern part of United Kingdom, in a beautiful sea-side city called Thurso.

We are a nice couple of pensioners (I have 64 and my beloved wife is 63 years old) and don't use the car so often. We love to spend our time on the road but now we use to travel by plane, so a car is no more useful for us. Also we sold our house and bought a big farm here in Thurso. If you are really interested we are ready to make a trip to England and meet you personally. You can take the car for a test-drive and any kind of inspection.
Please tell us where do you live? I am sure that we will find a nice city in England to arrange a meeting, a region acceptable for us and for you in the same time. We have the faith that this can be a good deal!

P.S. I appreciate if we can continue our conversation by e-mail. The mobile signal is poor here, we have to walk over 2 miles for a good phone call.

anonymous-user

83 months

Wednesday 19th March 2014
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The links are normally to phishing sites that look like the ad site.

tomsugden

2,467 posts

257 months

Wednesday 19th March 2014
quotequote all
bennyboysvuk said:
Speaking of scammers. My colleague received the following when he enquired about an XC90 on Auto Trader last week. It was from a certain petercluper@gmail.com who he Googled and it came back with lots of websites talking about scamming. Anyway, here's the totally daft email the scammer sent:

I still got the 2009 VOLVO XC90 2.4 D5 SE for sale at the price of £5495. The car is in excellent condition, garage kept and accident free. The mileage is real and I never had any problems with the engine. The car looks and works just perfect. I bought it from UK and it is still registered here. We live in the Northern part of United Kingdom, in a beautiful sea-side city called Thurso.

We are a nice couple of pensioners (I have 64 and my beloved wife is 63 years old) and don't use the car so often. We love to spend our time on the road but now we use to travel by plane, so a car is no more useful for us. Also we sold our house and bought a big farm here in Thurso. If you are really interested we are ready to make a trip to England and meet you personally. You can take the car for a test-drive and any kind of inspection.
Please tell us where do you live? I am sure that we will find a nice city in England to arrange a meeting, a region acceptable for us and for you in the same time. We have the faith that this can be a good deal!

P.S. I appreciate if we can continue our conversation by e-mail. The mobile signal is poor here, we have to walk over 2 miles for a good phone call.
When did Thurso become a city? There's no way you could live in a place like that without a car.

McWigglebum4th

32,414 posts

233 months

Wednesday 19th March 2014
quotequote all
wraggy said:
Hi. We are in the process of selling my wife's car and taken a deposit, so not trying to bring attention to the advert.
I have received 2 emails, identically written, but from different addresses.
They both ask what my real price is as they have seen an advert for the same car for half my price. They then provide links to the adverts both on pistonheads. The links didn't work (probably lucky for me?) so I just deleted the emails.
Just interested as to how this scam works. I presume it is dodgy as both emails were identical apart from sender and name.
Thanks.
Probably someone fishing for a discount

And the correct reply to someone saying "I've seen an identical car for less money" is "Go buy that one then!"

wraggy

Original Poster:

170 posts

234 months

Wednesday 19th March 2014
quotequote all
Thanks for the replies. I just wondered how the scam worked and couldn't figure it out as the links didn't work.
Anyhow, the car goes to its new owner on Friday.
.

Captain Benzo

442 posts

167 months

Wednesday 19th March 2014
quotequote all
bennyboysvuk said:
I bought it from UK and it is still registered here. We live in the Northern part of United Kingdom, in a beautiful sea-side city called Thurso.
totally a scam, Thurso is a st hole.

dbfan

183 posts

152 months

Wednesday 19th March 2014
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bennyboysvuk said:
P.S. I appreciate if we can continue our conversation by e-mail. The mobile signal is poor here, we have to walk over 2 miles for a good phone call.
It must be a nuisance for them to have to go two miles (or more) to get their emails if they haven't got a landline or good mobile signal!

I get loads of SPAM and phishing emails (I am moderator on a tractor club site) and they all go straight in the Junk folder without being read. I never click links - they are the quickest way of downloading viruses etc that I can think of and why would I want a thousand cylinder heads from China!?

The latest one around here is a message from NICE telling us that we have cancer and to click various links. I suspect that, as I haven't seen my GP for about six years, they have some secret method of detecting it!