Selling scams - a response to the doom-mongers
Discussion
There are a lot of stories on here about scams, warnings of rip-offs, and dire cautions never to trust another human. Time for a balancing anecdote.
After 15,000 miles of very, very happy Cerbera ownership, I regretfully decided to sell my P&J. I've always believed that a TVR needs to be driven regularly to keep it in fettle, and my job was increasingly taking me abroad for long periods.
I placed an ad on Pistonheads, and one on Autotrader. The Autotrader ad attracted an awful lot of nonsense calls from agencies who apparently had hordes of people beseiging their offices, demanding to be allowed to buy my car, but nothing else.
The Pistonheads ad brought in a couple of prospects: serious, well-informed guys who had done their research, but no-one was buying until I got a phone call one morning from a chap in Belgium. He informed me that he wanted to buy the car, sight unseen, and that if I sent him my bank account details he would send me a deposit, followed by the rest of the money 'as soon as the loan came through', and would pop over to collect the car sometime after that. He also needed a copy of the V5, my address, and some other information to register the car.
What would you have thought? Scam? That's what I thought. But, I checked him out as far as I could, reminded myself that most Nigerians don't have a Newcastle accent, asked the bank what damage he could do with the information I was handing over, and crossed my fingers.
Now he's in Belgium with the Cerbera, I'm here with the money, and everybody's happy.
Don't dismiss every approach from abroad as a scam!
After 15,000 miles of very, very happy Cerbera ownership, I regretfully decided to sell my P&J. I've always believed that a TVR needs to be driven regularly to keep it in fettle, and my job was increasingly taking me abroad for long periods.
I placed an ad on Pistonheads, and one on Autotrader. The Autotrader ad attracted an awful lot of nonsense calls from agencies who apparently had hordes of people beseiging their offices, demanding to be allowed to buy my car, but nothing else.
The Pistonheads ad brought in a couple of prospects: serious, well-informed guys who had done their research, but no-one was buying until I got a phone call one morning from a chap in Belgium. He informed me that he wanted to buy the car, sight unseen, and that if I sent him my bank account details he would send me a deposit, followed by the rest of the money 'as soon as the loan came through', and would pop over to collect the car sometime after that. He also needed a copy of the V5, my address, and some other information to register the car.
What would you have thought? Scam? That's what I thought. But, I checked him out as far as I could, reminded myself that most Nigerians don't have a Newcastle accent, asked the bank what damage he could do with the information I was handing over, and crossed my fingers.
Now he's in Belgium with the Cerbera, I'm here with the money, and everybody's happy.
Don't dismiss every approach from abroad as a scam!
ajcj said:
but no-one was buying until I got a phone call one morning from a chap in Belgium. He informed me that he wanted to buy the car, sight unseen, and that if I sent him my bank account details he would send me a deposit, followed by the rest of the money 'as soon as the loan came through', and would pop over to collect the car sometime after that. He also needed a copy of the V5, my address, and some other information to register the car.
In this instance he's the one gambling - he sent you full payment without seeing or driving the car...
...and was happy to pop over to collect the car "SOMETIME" afer that...double Why can I never get buyers like that...
These scams aren't limited to the Africans by the way
My pal lost his £5000 jet ski to a very well spoken lovely White couple. Him in a suit, she was well dressed, two nice kids, nice car (turned out to be on false plates) & a building society cheque (turned out to be stolen)
He liked them that much, he threw them some life jackets & other crap in, for free.
Needless to say, I've been ripping the pi55 out of him ever since
My pal lost his £5000 jet ski to a very well spoken lovely White couple. Him in a suit, she was well dressed, two nice kids, nice car (turned out to be on false plates) & a building society cheque (turned out to be stolen)
He liked them that much, he threw them some life jackets & other crap in, for free.
Needless to say, I've been ripping the pi55 out of him ever since
im said:
In this instance he's the one gambling - he sent you full payment without seeing or driving the car......and was happy to pop over to collect the car "SOMETIME" afer that...double
Too right! Which was what made me suspicious. But - if you live abroad, it's pretty tough to do it any other way. He was running the risk that I would disappear with his money I suppose.......and was happy to pop over to collect the car "SOMETIME" afer that...double im said:
RUSSELLM said:
Presume he paid by bank transfer....... And not a cheque that could bounce in six months time
...oops...please say it aint so...
Didn't think of that!It was bank transfer, fortunately.....
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