Car buying scam- anyone heard of this one in Aus?

[POD]

A bloke from the UK posted this one on a Jaguar forum- apparently it is an old scam that is making a comeback. I had never heard of it. You have a car advertised for private sale, 2 or 3 clowns turn up as prospective buyer and his hangers-on. One of them distracts you at the rear of the car whilst another unscrews the coolant reservoir cap and squirts dirty oil, brought along for the purpose, into the reservoir. An optional bonus is a squirt of oil up the exhaust pipe, producing smoke when the engine warms up. They then offer to buy the car at a massively discounted price as the engine is obviously stuffed. There were a couple of news articles from the UK and US, with these antics caught on CCTV.
Like I said, I hadn't heard of this one. Just one more thing to hate about selling cars privately.

[Eevo]

A bloke from the UK posted this one on a Jaguar forum- apparently it is an old scam that is making a comeback. I had never heard of it. You have a car advertised for private sale, 2 or 3 clowns turn up as prospective buyer and his hangers-on. One of them distracts you at the rear of the car whilst another unscrews the coolant reservoir cap and squirts dirty oil, brought along for the purpose, into the reservoir. An optional bonus is a squirt of oil up the exhaust pipe, producing smoke when the engine warms up. They then offer to buy the car at a massively discounted price as the engine is obviously stuffed. There were a couple of news articles from the UK and US, with these antics caught on CCTV.
Like I said, I hadn't heard of this one. Just one more thing to hate about selling cars privately.


yep, ive heard of this one.

if you car was running fine yesterday and only has problems when when someone comes to look at it, its a scam.

[jonesfam]

yep, ive heard of this one.

if you car was running fine yesterday and only has problems when when someone comes to look at it, its a scam.

If it is a Land Rover the above may or may not be a correct assumption![bigwhistle]

[BradC]

If it is a Land Rover the above may or may not be a correct assumption![bigwhistle]

As long as the oil is in the coolant bottle and not on the driveway...