The old "petroleum engineer" scam apparently HA!

[Young Angus]

Okay here's a weird one...it is possible however that I'm just way too big an X-Files fan and I literally TRUST NO ONE!

Got a text message today from someone inquiring about my Disco 1 for sale. It is both for sale on carsales and on ebay. It was in the form of a text message but there was no number that it came from...where it should have said what number it came from it only said the name of the person inquiring..."catherine". I even tried saving the number to a new contact (on an iphone) and it put the word "catherine" in the number section. Is that maybe what happens if someone contacts you via your ebay details page?

Anyway she said that she's a petroleum engineer or something on an offshore rig and she wants to buy the car sight un-seen. I'd be wrapped about this if it was a piece of crap but it's not it's a decent car and if she works on a rig like she says she's probably not short of money but she says she wants to pay with paypal and organize a courier agent to come pick up the car and she won't even get to see it.

I have yet to hear back from her about what state she lives in and hence where it will be getting registered but I would have thought that's something she might have mentioned. I'm happy to sell it all seems a little strange and my only question is do I actually have anything to lose in this since I will be the one getting the money and no money = no car!

Maybe it's just a really easy sale and I should be grateful :D

Thoughts?

EDIT: Yep just as I thought it is a scam...a common one too. I really hope these idiots don't scam any decent folk into actually going through with it, that's just sad to think about :(

[p38arover]

Scam! Scam!

Google the oil rig bit (using a cut and paste from the email you received) and you'd find it comes up quite often.

A friend of a fellow member on here also got caught. It was discussed last year.

See also http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1340763

My sister had the same occur with her last year (same wording) and asked me. I Googled it and found multiple hits.

[Ausfree]

I would be a bit suspicious too. Buying a car unseen and not leaving a contact number makes the alarm bells ring REAL LOUD.;) I believe Paypal do have some sort of protection policy, but I think I would be careful just the same!!!;)

[p38arover]

Ahh, here we are: http://www.aulro.com/afvb/general-chat/99396-e-bay-scam.html

[Didge]

It's a scam. Believe Ron, it was on this site before. They have some ingenious way of getting the car and you getting no money which I think involves direct debits from their already empty bank account. Sell it to someone who fronts up at your door if you want the money.
cheers Gerald

[Ausfree]

Yep, It rang bells with me too, something about an "Oil Rig" got the old grey matter going.!!!;)

[Young Angus]

Hahaha god they will try anything won't they, well there is no way I would have fronted payment for anything out of my own pocket...I wonder if I can get them to pay for anything and then they don't get the car I've heard of people getting scammers back sometimes ;)

Here is the email I got from this piece of trash word for word:

"thanks for mailing back,am ok with the price and the condition,am
buying it for my vacation,because i'll be coming soon from our rig as
am a petroleum engineer on a rig offshore,i won't be able to come for
the inspection due to the nature of my work,i would have love to call
in person but our satellite server has been down which restrict our
calls.i will be paying you through PayPal,pls get back to me with your
PayPal details so i can proceed with the payment and contact the
courier agent who will come to pick it up and deliver it in my place.
Await your reply."

Come on people think...is there any way we can go on with this to scam them out of something???!!!

[ATH]

G/son had a similiar message about a car he was selling and I had it about a boat.
They don't want to see the item but must have it ready for their agent to collect etc etc.
As someone else said wait for a buyer to turn up on your doorstep as you will probably never see it or your money again if you enter into a sale with this mob.
Alan.

[big guy]

Run---
Run like the wind mate:p:p:p

[Young Angus]

Haha yep not worth wasting time trying to get scammers back...although if you google "scam baiters" you will find a whole internet culture devoted to stringing these scammers on and wasting their time so they don't have the chance to go and scam people who might actually be taken by their crap.

I've got slightly better things to do with my time but nice to know some people are giving them hell. Pretty funny website though if you want a laugh ;)

[justinc]

A few years ago I got a Nigerian $$$ scam email, promising millions US if I would allow them to use my name and account details bla bla. I replied several times to 'string' them along, quite amusing actually. eventually I sent them bogus contact details for my 'bank' via an inserted link in the email - which was actually the AFP internet fraud site page:D:D:D:D

Didn't hear from them after that..:confused:


JC

[wanglemoose]

i had the same scam hit me about ten times when i was selling my skyline.
the name comes up instead of a number because its being sent from an email address, i eventually had enough and traced the email address and the ip address, back to his address in nigera and including the server info and sent it to car sales, never herd back from them after that.