Camper van Scam

Hi I would like to warn everyone that I have been tried to be scammed twice in a week over camper van sales. one was for a VW and the guy said he was in the Isle of man with the army, but he made the mistake of including the vehicle reg in the photo's so I check it out before I paid the money, the next one was today and it was for a Bessacarr E765 2001 for 4500 and the lady whose name was Anne Lound from Leeds. So be very careful on the net please or get ripped off.

Hi, we've been scammed by that same guy! Thought it was very cheap. Checked if there was army base in the Isle of Man: there is. Thought that 8 months in a garage was no big deal, made us questioned if genuine...
How is it working though with the Google wallet thing?
This is a copy of his emails, we found him very keen.

Hi,

I can confirm that the vehicle is still for sale and that never been involved in an accident. Nobody smoked in and I never carried pets. Full history and V5 document is present, HPI is clear.
My last price is £ 3000.

The only reason for selling this vehicle so cheap is because I am involved in a military project and move to Mali on May 14 and come back after 8 months. It is the first time I will go to Mali and I'm a little nervous but excited.

It would be a shame to keep the vehicle in the garage 8 months without being used and I also need some cash before leaving in Mali.

Right now I am located in a small military base in the Isle of Man because our squad do some special training here.
The vehicle is here with me inside of the base garage and in case you decide to buy it I will deliver it to your address anywhere in UK on my expenses.

In case you are still interested to buy the vehicle please write me back since we can deliver the vehicle anywhere in England on my cost.

Thank you for being interested in my vehicle.
David Bennett,

2nd mail:

As I've said in my previous email I am currently located in the Isle of Man in the military base do daily trainings for 2 weeks to get ready to be deployed on mission in Mali . I'm doing a special training program each day and I am not allowed to get out of the unit or give calls whenever I want. The delivery will take 2 to 3 days depending on your location and it's not a problem because I can do it at no cost for you. Because it is a large transaction, we will complete the deal only using an authorized third part like Google Wallet because I already prearranged the whole process with them, using their Google Safe Pay Solutions (bank-to-bank wire transfer) for vehicles.

The money will be sent to Google Wallet, before you will receive the vehicle. So, you will deposit the payment directly into the Google Wallet agent's bank account in United Kingdom, either online or at most banks and they will hold and secure your money during the entire transaction. I repeat, they will hold and insure your money until receipt of the vehicle in good condition and will release the funds to us only after you decide to keep the vehicle and you register it, into your name. You will have an inspection period of 10 days. In this time you can check, test and inspect the vehicle. If by any reason (the vehicle has any hidden damages or is not like I describe it) you can reject the deal. In this case Google Wallet will refund you totally and they will deliver the vehicle back.
You can read more about Google Wallet here:
http://wallet-uk-google.co.uk/how-to-wo ... #how-works

Let me know your shipping details (your full name, full address and home phone number) so I can open a transaction case with Google Wallet and declare you as buyer. They will contact you with further information regarding payment and delivery.

Regards,
David

From: David Bennett [mailto:[email protected]]

Whenever a seller mentions Google wallet you can be certain that you're dealing with a scammer.

Google wallet is only operative in the USA and it's only used for store/online purchases. It has nothing to do with private purchases.

If you're dealing with a scammer he'll tell you lies, so you cannot afford to believe what people tell you.

To confirm what I say check here

http://www.google.com/wallet/faq.html

or Google yourself. I regret that it's a hard way to learn a lesson.

i am an old soldier myself,and have never heard of any garrisons on the isle of man.one thing any ex serviceman hates with a vengence is a walt (walter mitty),that is a person who poses as a serving or ex serviceman.my friend was almost caught by this scam,and bennets name and e mail have been passed to several walt hunters communities.these people devote their spare time to tracking down and exposing walts around the globe,and they are very good at it.there is a combined community of more than 10,000 people who have found walts as far afield as new zealand and australia.rest assured,he will be found

Have you read our romance scam forums ?

It's pretty standard operating procedure for romance scammers to impersonate serving soldiers. If that offends you, as it does every member here, you'll risk exploding in anger over some of the lies and deception they perform.

There isn't any offensive act a scammer won't perform and some have been known to impersonate soldiers who have died in combat and then even go as far as to use their photos in their scams, but they are depraved in the true sense of the word. They can even sink lower than that.

Hi we to have been scammed by this man last week and we lost £3200!

The emails that have been copied here are exactly the same as the ones he used on us.
There must be something else we can do?

We have tried the bank and the police but both not helpful. We also passed all our info to Action Fraud but not yet had any response.

Perhaps if we pool any information we have it might help?

I am also interested in speaking to the ex army guys who try to track down scammers like this....I would even pay them for their efforts if they got my money back or at least caught the scum who robbed all of us

You could always quote the details of the account the scammer used jayney because it's unlikely he'll contact you to complain and it would reduce the chances of him succeeding again as other potential victims will be able to Google his details.

From what we've seen it's quite a small number of bank accounts being used for this fraud and it might also shame the authorities in to doing something about them.

Though it's too late to help you now the recommendations here would have helped you

https://www.gov.uk/checks-when-buying-a-used-car

..... and I'd insist on the seller showing the V5C because if he hasn't go one he can't transfer title to the vehicle. It doesn't prove it's his, but it would enable you to make other checks and verify that he's phoning you from the part of the country where the vehicle is recorded as being kept.

I know it's too late for you, but he'll not give up trying I regret to say.

Last Saturday - i also lost £3000 to 'David Bennett' posing as training in milatary in Isle of Man!!
The emails are the same as Estelles.
If only i had found this site - if only i had not been so stupid and so on!
I have reported this to Action Fraud via Auto Trader and also the NFRC - and they suggest that all of you have been or nearly were do the same so we can try and catch this 'thing' scamming us.
Good luck all. x

Thankyou. Thankyou for these posts. I almost purchased a Jag today exact same story only Seller was in Cadiz Spain.

Hi all
We have been scammed 3 times this week all for vw t5's.
Today the latest - David Budds - the same as earlier is on isle of man military base and going to mali in june. I have reported to auto trader.

Yesterday Evelyn who has new work commitments in Scotland so will post a private auction on ebay where ebay will hold my money, she will ship the van at her expense and then ebay will onky release funds to her once I have the vehicle and have confirmed am happy.
This was also on auto trader and as soon as I messaged her she removed theadd so I cannot report it.

The other was a poor lady called maureen who lost her husband 2 months ago and herself cannot drive. She has been scammed by selling on ebay someone turned up with fake notes so did not trust us to come and view she offered as above via ebay with special buyers protection.
This add was via vivastreet and was removed the night after the watchdog show.

I do have sympathy for those who have lost money but dont but a vehicle without seeing and test driving first people!!!!!

Hi,

I too was close to being scammed by David Budds purporting to be a serviceman currently in the Isle of Man, waiting to go to Mali. He has listed a VW camper (T5) for less than a quarter of the price it should be on the car sales website "Pistonheads". I was suspicous so googled "Isle of Man Army base" and fortunately came across a link to this topic. I have reported it to Pistonheads.

When I initially enquired about the vehicle, the e-mail response I received didnt entirely relate to the question I had asked and was poorly worded. I also noticed it was word for word the same as he has sent other people (example posted by someone else on this topic) Please BE WARNED!

Welcome to Scamwarners JonG,

Please post any additional email address and the script the scammer used with you. This will help others as they search the internet for help and avoid being scammed.

Bryon

I came across the so called david budds today on pistonheads.com. I have also reported him to the website. the photos are clearly of a van worth £30,000+ advertising it for £3,300! I did email him to see if this was a mistake. I found his mobile number to be fake, i got exactly the same email as others have posted on here (see below) I decided to do a little checking. Not everyone but a majority of people have facebook so i did a name search with no luck for matching info, i then google picture searched one of the images to see if the same photos are used anywhere else (a very handy tool to find fakes!) the photo came up on a different website using a different name and almost the same information but with slight differences in milage and location. I then checked to see if the army had a base on the isle of man and they do, i also checked out mali and there has been a lot of news articles written about our soldiers being sent to Mali recently. I then checked the information about the car from the reg and that comes up with more info, but the information does seem believable.

Email i received:

Hi,

I can confirm that the vehicle is still for sale and that never been involved in an accident. Nobody smoked in and I never carried pets. Full history and V5 document is present, HPI is clear.
My last price is £ 3300.

The only reason for selling this vehicle so cheap is because I am involved in a military project and move to Mali on June 18 and come back after 8 months. It is the first time I will go to Mali and I'm a little nervous but excited.

It would be a shame to keep the vehicle in the garage 8 months without being used and I also need some cash before leaving in Mali.

Right now I am located in a small military base in the Isle of Man because our squad do some special training here.
The vehicle is here with me inside of the base garage and in case you decide to buy it I will deliver it to your address anywhere in UK on my expenses.

In case you are still interested to buy the vehicle please write me back since we can deliver the vehicle anywhere in England on my cost.

Thank you for being interested in my vehicle.
David Budds.

This guy seriously needs to be stopped!! Hopefully due to the sloppyness of using the same info and stories etc he will get caught out.

Hello and welcome to Scamwarners lauraw7693,

Thank you for posting the script the scammer used.

Could you please post the email address and mobile number he gave you. Even if it is fake.
This will help others avoid being scammed if they search his email address and phone number.

Bryon.

The email he used was [email protected] and mobile number 07021556859