Scammer, right?

A friend is selling his 60's valiant as a wrecker / spare parts and has had quite a bit of interest. Today on his mobile phone he gets a series of messages:

 

Let me know the best price you want for it and you can remove it from the listing as i really want it as urgent for my son.. I will wait for the total amount and your registered email with PayPal so i can pay in

 

My friend replied with a 'no thanks', and indicated tyhat he would prefer the auction ran it's course. He then got this series of texts:

 

 

Hello thanks for reply, i am a marine engineer, i am at sea right now. I am buying this for my son as a surprise gift. I can only pay through paypal at the moment as i don't have access to my bank account online(i dont have internet banking with it), but i have it attached to my paypal account, and this is why i insisted on using paypal to pay,all i will need is your paypal email address to make the payment, and if you dont have a paypal account yet, you can set one it cant take you less than 3mins to do that, i will be expecting your paypal email so l can pay. I have a pick up agent that will come for the pick up after payment has been sorted, l will be waiting for your reply asap.

 

So tell me, why would a scammer express an interest in a derelict car?

 

BTW, I have told my friend to cease all communications with this person immediately.

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Scammer, right?

Correct, SCAM.

 

They prob have enough info from your ebay listing to marry up with your PayPal details (if they get them) to attempt an automated computer password hack.

Or they may send some PayPal looking correspondence so you log in via a link and turns out to be a key logger. (Gets your passwords)

 

Also if you know their ebay ID add them to your blocked bidders list so they can't make purchases or bids.

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Scammer, right?

Well, he doesn't have a credit card linked to his Paypal, or any funds currently in the account which is good. But they do now have his email address and his mobile phone number fromt he listing. I'll warn him not to log onto Paypal via any emails.

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Scammer, right?

Good, as you prob already know, the classic scams are saying it's for a relative abroad or asking for some special payment method.

And requesting items to be sent by courier even though they are pick up only.

Any genuine buyer would prefer to pay cash after they have seen the item on pick up items.

May pay for your friend to change email, ebay and PayPal passwords just to prevent any probs. Smiley Wink

 

Also have your friend put blocks in place. Stops new accounts being able to bid or buy to get personal info after purchase is made.

Hover over account tab, select site prefs then buyer requirements. Then show and edit. Block those that are not phone verified and any others your friend may like to.

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Scammer, right?


 

So tell me, why would a scammer express an interest in a derelict car?

 

 


 

The nux of the "agent will pick up" car purchase scam is often the scam freight charge involved by where the  scammer ("buyer") pays for the vehicle via stolen credit card and also sends the seller an extra $1500 or so to pay the "forwarding agent" for the freight.

 

In essence the seller is actually cleaning the ' $1500 freight charge" and passing it onto the scammers safe bank account. When the fraud squad comes a knocking the seller still has the car but is liable for the money paid for the vehicle and the money that was passed on to the scammers account.

 

If it's the Charger or the Safari then it is possible that the scammers are also after the car as they are both now hard to get and

 

desirable fopr rebirthing a stolen car.

 

Tell your friend not to list cars with paypal as a payment method. Ebay has built a permanent "glitch" into the listing process for vehicles by where even though you remove paypal as a payment method while compiling the listing.... it magically Smiley Frustrated reappears on the final check page.

 

Unless you diligantly uncheckthe paypal as a payment method check box again it appears on the vehicle listing. Not only that once it is selected as a payment method it cannot be removed even if there are no bids or offers unless you end the listing and reinsert a new one.... 

TELL ME AND I WILL FORGET, SHOW ME AND I MAY REMEMBER,, INVOLVE ME AND I WILL UNDERSTAND Confucius 450bc
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Scammer, right?

another way its done is pay via paypal wait till it clears pick up car as its cleared in your bank,so you give reciet all is good 2 weeks later paypal contacts him payment was REJECTED you owe us[paypal] $1800.cops involved no good as he was paid via pay pal so he got his money and it was up to paypal to complain FREE CAR

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Scammer, right?

This was your friend's first mistake...

 


@terroxyboy wrote:

 

My friend replied with a 'no thanks', and indicated that he would prefer the auction ran it's course.


He should not have replied at all.  Why was it necessary for him to tell a bidder that he wanted the auction to run its course?  It's a foregone conclusion, and it's an obvious trademark of any/all scammers to request a seller cancel an auction.

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