Car sales scam

**rmp** · 26th February 2009, 06:27 PM

So I'm selling a car, and I get this from one Harry Sand:

Please confirm via mail if your 2006 HYUNDAI SANTA FE SLX CRDi (4x4) CM MY07 is still available for purchase by an oversea client of mine.
Also confirm the final firm price of the vehicle in question so that i can
discuss it with him.

which immediately seems a bit suss. Doesn't seem official enough to be a real overseas buyer. Anyway I say go ahead, keep talking. He comes back with:

Thanks for your response to my enquiry concerning your 2006 HYUNDAI SANTA FE SLX.
Note that i am an auto broker residing in London,England just like my client who wants the vehicle in question as a present for his son who is resident in South Africa.So the 2006 HYUNDAI SANTA FE SLX will be shipped to South Africa and my client bears responsibility for the shipment
The on-line information about your vehicle are also satisfactory so kindly exercise a little patience while i discuss your price of $31,500au and other necessary details with my client and also conclude my evaluation of the on-line photos of the vehicle.I will get back to you later today or tomorrow morning with my client's offer.

Now, how many people are going to buy a $30k Aussie Hyundai and ship it to SA, sight unseen, just having inspected low-res photos on the web? More suss than a pollie with a seven-dollar note. Anyway I continue. Mr Sand comes back with:

This is to inform you that my client has instructed me to proceed with the purchase of your 2006 HYUNDAI SANTA FE SLX for his son. He said that I should inform you that the payment will get to you in an australian bank cheque of ($39,900 AU) which is a refund payment of a cancelled order earlier made by him.
He informed me that he intends using the refund payment to pay for your vehicle.
He further explained that this bank cheque has to be made out in this amount($39,900 AU) to you because company policy only allows a refund payment on one bank cheque.So you are required to deduct cost of your 2006 HYUNDAI SANTA FE SLX($31,300 AU) when the payment gets to you and refund the balance of ($8,600 AU) to my client's agent via western union or moneygram international money transfer for the agent to be able to offset shipping /pickup charges ,contract fees for the pickup agent, taxes, commission and other handling bills.
After payment has reached you and balance is sent back to his agent,the agent will contact the pickup agent who will come for the pick up of the vehicle for shipping to my client's son.
My client is making some necessary arrangement with some shippers and will provide me with the pickup/test driver agent as soon as he decides the agent to contract for the pickup of the vehicle from it's present location.
NOTE: He also instructed that you are to deduct the transfer charges from the remaining balance($8,600 AU) which you will be sending down to his agent via western union or moneygram international wire transfer.

Confirm this whole arrangement and provide the details requested below for payment to be delivered to you.
PAYMENT INFORMATION:
1.YOUR LEGAL NAME IN FULL.........
2.POSTAL ADDRESS IN FULL...........................
3.PHONE NUMBER(S).................

Mr Harry Sand,
17 Old Kent Road,
London SE15 1JF, England.
+447024068861.

I can see where this is going. The scam is that he sends a fake money order to you, and then pressurises you to send money to their "shipping agent", as documented on most of the carsales websites like www.drive.com.au. Anyway I report it to drive.com.au and they say:

Anyone claiming to be overseas or acting on behalf of a client is fraudulent and we strongly advise you cease correspondence with the sender.

which is news to me and something of a generalisation I think. So after I point this out:

In our experience people who claim to be overseas or acting on behalf of a client are fraudulent as per your email. If you want to debate the fact that is up to you but we are only trying to assist you with your query.

at which point I decide to leave it, and hope legit brokers and/or overseas buyers aren't tarred with the same brush.

By the way if you want to drop Harry an email offering him your rusty old Series wreck for his overseas clients feel free at harry5000_sand@yahoo.com.

Incidentally, after 10 days the drive.com.au network managed 12 views of my ad but carsales managed 150 in 48 hours.

**Chucaro** · 26th February 2009, 07:09 PM

I would reportit to the state police.
Here in Qld it is a section on the Queensland police page to report suspicious activities or posible frauds on the net.

**ladas** · 26th February 2009, 07:55 PM

Interestingly 17 Old Kent Road doesn't exist any more, the complete block was pulled down many years ago from 1 - 25 Old Kent Road, and was replaced by an open space and a meeting hall from memory.

I use to work in an office at 19 Old Kent Road

**Jezzaol** · 26th February 2009, 08:06 PM

one of my workers had the exact same thing here in Perth only instead of the car is was a set of Tyres and rims !! same Western Union info and offered to pay above the required costs to ship a set of Tyres to London !?!?

and had to refund the diference to him !!

**3toes** · 27th February 2009, 10:17 AM

This is a long established and well known scam. First saw this done in the early eighties while in Australia. Would think it was not new then only difference is that now it is easier to do. Am not really surprised by the comment from Drive who will have see plenty of these. Perhaps they could have given you more information on why they say it is no good.

The funds sent to you are in a fraudlent form and you then refund them back the over payment before your bank can figure out that the funds are never going to clear. Trick is that as the funds are coming from overseas it will take a few weeks before the bank finds out it is not going to clear. Your cash will have long gone and be untraceable.

If you think about it if only 2 people fall for this a year that is still a reasonable income.

While the address given is in the UK the scam will not be operating from there it is just an address which they hope will give you comfort and be trusting enough to be caught.

**FenianEel** · 27th February 2009, 11:20 AM

I had a similar scammer, going to pay me $15,000 USD for my 73 Executive P76, about 5 yrs ago.

Whilst i thought the vehicle was worth it,

it was another African scam.
(PS it sold to a Vico for not quite that much)

**Basil135** · 27th February 2009, 11:53 AM

Originally Posted by ladas

Interestingly 17 Old Kent Road doesn't exist any more, the complete block was pulled down many years ago from 1 - 25 Old Kent Road, and was replaced by an open space and a meeting hall from memory.

I use to work in an office at 19 Old Kent Road

This is the bit that I love.

**Ferret** · 27th February 2009, 12:08 PM

If you have some spare time and want a really good laugh, have read of some of the articles written here 419eater

This guy 'baits' scammers. The results are sometimes unbelievably funny.

**Lotz-A-Landies** · 27th February 2009, 12:10 PM

Originally Posted by ladas

Interestingly 17 Old Kent Road doesn't exist any more, the complete block was pulled down many years ago from 1 - 25 Old Kent Road, and was replaced by an open space and a meeting hall from memory.

I use to work in an office at 19 Old Kent Road

I don't know about that!

Last week I bought the entire Old Kent Road and built 2 hotels on it, then I managed to acquire Kings Cross Station and Picadilly, but went to Gaol, didn't pass "GO" and did not collect $200 then missed a turn.

Next week I want to buy Mayfair and Park Lane then put Hotels on them too!

**discowhite** · 27th February 2009, 12:23 PM

scam alright! who would buy a hyuandi for 31 grand

cheers phil

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