My mate got a scam text when he put his SS on eBay. Just deleted it and left it at that.

After the car didn't sell, he got an email from a marine engineer who was buying the car for his dad and wanted to do the purchase through paypal blah blah blah.

I wrote a reply along the lines of 'due to the high amount of fraudulent transactions of this nature via paypal for motor cars, I must insist that this is a cash only deal, If you're uneasy about carrying that much cash around, we can conclude it at my place of work'

Yours,
Detective Senior Constable XXX
Internet Fraud Dept.
Newcastle Police Dept.

I accidently did not click off the box when it asked to accept paypal payments for my car.This instantly attracted lots of attention from overseas buyers saying they had a shipping agent that wanted to pick the car up and take it back to the UK.It started with a text to my phone saying to email them. I emailed back to one guy he replied asking for the direct link and the minimum I would take for it. I knew this was a scam straight away. I traced the senders IP address from the header in his email.turns out to its from taiwan. I sent the header information off to gmail and ebay for them to follow up.

Thanks for all the info on this thread. Have just had same thing on a motor bike we are selling - 2 different offers to buy at advertised price, 1 from Malaysia and 1 from a "hearing impaired" person working on a "rig" who can't make phone calls.

When I questioned both of them via email as to why they would seriously consider buying an expensive motor bike sight unseen, they disappeared.

The old saying is true - if it sounds too good to be true, it definitely is.

The feedback from everyone on this has confirmed my suspicions. Thanks again.

just happened to me....from reading this i will no longer be selling this car to that person! thanks for the help!

I've had my car advertised in the t.post and have only received sms in response to the ad, not 1 phone call. Can not reply via text as it comes up with no number. All have an email address to reply to. Latest sms came in the other night past midnight"
Hey I'm ready to offer you an additional sum of $500 to ur asking price for the vehicle,pls email me ASAP on
p4manivong1965g.mail.com Phillip"

How many people actually fall for this scam?

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260833911250

Has anyone had offers to purchase your car from anybody from Malaysia stating they have looked everywhere for this type of car and want to purchase and ship to their country as they have just moved there from Australia they request your paypal address so they can deposit full amount to the account then they will arrange for someone to collect the vehicle and ship it to Malaysia... have had two very similar requests from two different women. Sounds like a scam to me ???

LINDA TEASE.......... I GOT THE MSG, THEN ONLY EMAIL TO REPLY, SHE WANTED IT FOR HER SON.... WILL PAY 500 EXTRA....THIS IS A SCAM, FROM MALAYSIA!!!!!!!!! BEWARE...SHE IS PERSISTANT.

i had a similar exerience when i advertised elsewhere but i do buy and sell a bit on ebay and paypal so i thought i would share for the sake of public awareness.

i had an sms and email from a (scammer) buyer who said he was a hydrographer working at sea wanting to buy my car for his dad. he would send a friend to collect and do the paperwork. he said he cannot access banks or other financial support only paypal.

he insisted on papal even though i had not shown this as a payment option.

i said to make a deposit and we can take it further. he said no deposit necessary just 100% down.

i therefore replied and said that the terms would be for him either paypal his agent who would pay me cash, or him to pay to my paypal, then wait for funds to clear from my paypal to my private bank account at which point payment would be deemed to have been paid. i advised not to buy the car if not prepared to wait for the funds to clear. i heard nothing further from this supposed buyer.

then i did some research & what i read on a scam watch document said that a 100% payment on paypal can be covered by buyer protection in the event of a dispute. the policy apparently says that paypal would refund money to a buyer who merely sates that "goods were not shipped". the document went on to say that paypal requires a valid shipping / freight tracking number from the seller to prove shipment otherwise buyer gets money back. if i am right the scammer just deposit funds, sends agent to collect car, then lodges dispute to obtain a refund from paypal.

i read paypal policy on this and it doesn't seem to apply to vehicles however it probably would be not that hard for a buyer to say it was for something else other than a vehicle.

is sounds like this kind of scam attack is becoming common in australia. best to do it the old fashined way and deal in cash or bank cheque.

i submitted a scam report on one of the government websites the next day.

i also sent paypal an email and explained what was happening & to ask if there was a danger of me losing funds back to a suspect buyer. they advised it was a scam & they said to terminate contact with this buyer.

They won't send any actual money, because they don't have any.

What they will do is send you an official looking paypal email, which will tell you you've received a payment and will contain a link to log in to your paypal account (bam, now they have yours too)

You log into their website, which is a clone of paypal and you will see what you think is your paypal account showing a payment of $x from this person for the car.

You release the car and lose your account, car, money, whatever.

They do it so that it moves fast, looking for people who are inexperienced and keep it moving along as quickly as possible, so you don't have time to research etc. Its not uncommon for them to offer more money, so you are persuaded. (They can offer a million dollars, you won't get any of it)

I'd be reporting the number to the telco provider so it can be shut down as it is used for fraudulent uses.

I hope you have reported the emails as spam to your service provider so that future emails will be blocked.   Scammers always use free services such as yahoo, gmail and hotmail etc. that allow greater anonymity so that's the first warning sign.  Accounts with providers such as Bigpond are traceable as they are linked to credit card billing etc.