Car advert scam

Just wanted to share a scam that I recently received while advertising my car on ebay:

This is the email thread between myself and the scammer (Sharon Edward [email protected]):

----
Hello,
I'm interested in purchasing this vehicle,
Let me know if is available
Thanks
----
Hi, Yes the car is still available. Please give me a call if you'd like to come and see it on XXXXXXXX.Rob
----
Hi there, Thank you for getting back to me.Can you assure me that it's
in good state and that i will not be disappointed with it.I'm ready to
pay your asking price and to be honest, i wanted to buy this for
someone very close to me, but the issue is i am an oceanographer and i
do have a contract to go for which starts tomorrow and am leaving any
moment from now.The contract is strictly no call due to the lack of
reception on the sea area. But I'm able to access email anytime as we
will make use of laptop so my only quickest payment option is PayPal
as i can send money via PayPal anytime.Since I'm requesting this
transaction to be done via PayPal, i will be responsible for all the
paypal fee/charges on this transaction and if you don't have an
account with paypal its pretty easy, safe and secured to open one.Just
log on to www.paypal.com. I hope we can make the purchase as fast as
possible? I have a mover that will come for it once payment clears and
they will get it to my son's location safely.So i look forward to hear
from you soon.
----
Hi, Yes I can assure you the car is a very nice example of a Porsche Boxster S and I'm sure you and your son will be very happy with it. Payment via paypal would be okay, my paypal account is linked to: [email protected]. I'll let you know as soon as the payment clears and you can have your mover collect the car. Regards rob
----

At this point I was a little suspicious but once I received the next emails (summarised below) supposedly from paypal I knew it was a scam:

----
Email One had:
Paypal logo and statement showing transfer for the car plus an additional £2000 and the following text:
This is to inform you that you are required to send a sum of £2,000.00 GBP to the address below via western union money transfer and get back to us with the relevant information which you will be provided with after the money has been sent, you are requested to email us the Mtcn(Money Transfer Control Number) , sender's name and address used to make the transfer .As soon as we have received these information from you, we will credit a sum of £11,090.00 GBP to your PayPal account.Below is the address where the money is to be sent to using western union money transfer.

Agent's Info:
Name: Olusola Deborah Gbadamosi
Address: Rua mar de baffim 0087,
Zip Code: 08470-065
State: São Paulo
Country: Brazil

Address Status: Confirmed

Please note:
We wish to inform you that Ms Sharon Edward has made her intentions known to PayPal that she will like £2,000.00 GBP to be sent to the recipient's address above via Western Union Money Transfer.
Note: As this transaction was done via our e-mail payments service, any inquiries and necessary information should be sent to us by directly replying to this message, because of the status of this transaction, it has not been passed on to our customer care phone service section,and all inquiries should be directed to this e-mail address as it is the one monitored for your transaction.

This payment has been deducted from the buyer's account and has been "APPROVED" but will not be credited into your account until the MTCN # is sent to us for verification, so as to secure both the buyer and the seller. Below are the relevant information required before your account will be credited:

All you have to do is to reply directly to this mail with the MTCN #,Secret questions and answers,sender's name and address used when sending the money. Once it has been verified and the details above sent to us, you will receive a "CONFIRMATION E-mail" from PayPal® Service informing you that your account has been credited with £11,090.00 GBP.

Please, understand that this is a security measure intended to help protect both the Buyer and the Seller.We apologize for the inconvenience that has caused you.

Because of the inconvenience this causes we are giving you the next two incoming transfers for free! You will pay no fees for your next two incoming transfers*.

Thank you for using PayPal!

PayPal Security.
----
Email Two:
Dear ([email protected]),

This message is Originated from PayPal and we received an email from the buyer of your (PORSCHE BOXSTER 3.2 S 2dr Roadster) regarding the transaction between both of you. We are using this medium to get you informed that the total amount of £11,090.00 GBP has been fully removed from the buyer's account, We are informed that the amount for the product is £8,880.00 GBP, a shipping fee of £2,000.00 GBP and £210.00 GBP for 3% PayPal VAT/ Western Union charges has been added because the buyer wish to make the shipping via a private courier, so right now the funds has been fully deducted from the buyer's account but has not been CREDITED into your account yet, so we want you to send out the shipper's fees to them through Western Union Money Transfer and get back to us with the transfer details and as soon as this is confirmed and verified, then we will put your funds in your account.

You should go ahead now and send out the funds as you are 100% protected using PayPal.

Your quick response will be very much appreciated.
Thank you for using PayPal
Sincerely,
The PayPal Team

I was sure it was a scam but googled the email address "[email protected]" to see if others had reported the scam. They had but I decided to post full details of this to help others check if they too we be deceived.

Welcome robabobbob, and thank you for posting this warning! Rest assured it will help others even if they don't post here.

Dou you still have the fake paypal email address?

To other readers: Ebay has got it's own very safe payment system, Paypal. Why would they want you to use the competition, Western Union?

I've been scuamed by same email address last night. It all seamed too strange and i simply called paypal. The shipping addres also was Brazil, but different name. And they wanted ower 1k upfront. the email conversation was very similar to what you posted. Just i was sellin on Aototrader and my cars asking price was bit less!!!! U newer think it would happen to you!!!! Simply need to question and double check everything!

Welcome to Scamwarners Aliaa. I don't think you can regard yourself as scammed if you spotted that something was wrong and checked with Paypal.

Here are some more scammers using paypal for the wrong reasons.
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/g ... n&start=40

And if people take notice, the very naughty Sharon Edward gets a mention on page two. Scroll down the said page approximately half way.

I posted my car advert for sale on auto trader and gumtree and got a response from 'Andrew Smith' email [email protected]. It followed the exact same lines as all the other emails such as off shore, not Internet access, need to put money through pay pal and western union.

I just really wanted to make people aware of it. Especially since he said that as he was off shore had limited Internet etc. Alot of my family work offshore and I can categorically say the have unlimited access to Internet so can easily access their accounts online if need be. The scammer also reported he had seen my item on evo.co.uk however as this is a high performance/speed car website and I'm selling a 1.0l car I find this highly doubtful. I emailed back stating this and that I had reported this email etc and surprise surprise haven't had a response since!

It's disgraceful what these people do and fraud genuine and innocent people. Just wanted to warn others.
Thanks for creating the page to do it.

I wonder if that is the same andrew smith who uses the <[email protected]> email addresss?
Has previously claimed to be an army contractor attached to the US Military force in Iraq. The individual using said name being previously involved in 419 type scam.

The name "Olusola Deborah Gbadamosi" Googles up hits in Benin Nigeria .

Hi all,

Very interested to read the above. I'm currently advertising a car and this morning received the following an e-mail from [email protected]:

Hello,
I'm interested in purchasing this vehicle,
Let me know if is available
Thanks

The phrasing made me smell a rat and I sent simple reply saying that the car was still available. Wish I'd googled the text first and found this thread! Will post any further contact.

Mark

Welcome to Scamwarrners, and I'm glad you spotted something was wrong.I don't advise to keep contacting him though.

Hi all.

Would like to alert you to a very well put together scam! The scammer is a seller of a vehicle which is advertised in Autotrader, and there are lots of great photos of the vehicle in question. When contacted about the vehicle, the scammer then lets you know that he/she is in Spain - where he is from, and that the car is in Spain too. The only reason he is selling it cheaply is because it's right hand drive and no-one in Spain wants a right hand drive car. When checked out on the DVLA website, the car does exist, the registration and chassis numbers match the vehicle description, and it is also marked up as being in Spain.

The scammer then advises you that a Yahoo Representative will be in touch and will act on both parties behalf (please note that there is NO exclamation mark after Yahoo, whereas if it was genuinely Yahoo, it would look like this Yahoo!). The scammer goes on to say that he will make shipping arrangements and the vehicle will be with you in 10 days. He also goes in to how using Yahoo Finance will protect both parties...and that they will hold the monies paid until such time as you are happy with vehicle and advise Yahoo Finance to release the funds (you will have 15 days to make up your mind whilst test driving the vehicle, which has been shipped at the seller's expense).

A congratulations email from Yahoo Finance Inc arrives a matter of an hour or less later. It then congratulates on on your ability to purchase/trade through Autotrader and Yahoo, and it is colourful and very detailed abut the terms and conditions of the transaction. Then the invoice from Yahoo Finance Inc turns up in your mail box. This is just a normal email in black and white, which advises you that you should make the payment by a Bank Transfer and also make it a priority payment. Several of these arrive along with emails from the scammer (oh, sorry, I meant 'seller'), asking how the transfer is coming along.

You then get an email from the 'seller' advising you that the shipping arrangements have been made, and miraculously the time has gone from being 10 days to approximately 2 weeks or just under. The vehicle has been shipped from Cadiz, Spain. At this time no tracking number is given, but the 'seller' says that he will contact you in a few days to advise you of the shipping and tracking details.

When the email from the 'seller' arrives a few days later, it gives you the tracking number for the vehicle that has been shipped...He also gives you a link which includes the tracking number...Check out the link! It's very very good, but there are 2 obvious problems with it...Firstly, there is no telephone number. Yes, I did say NO TELEPHONE NUMBER...For a Shipping Company??? Also the date, which is in dd.mm.yy format reads '02.21.11'...That would mean that there are 21 months in this year...Wow!

http://atlantictransportship.com/gettra ... 9&mail=yes

Now here are the related email addresses etc to watch out for;_

His email is: [email protected]

The so-called Yahoo Representatives emails are:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

also:[email protected]

there were other odd ones which came up too:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]


I can assure you that this has all been reported to the fraud team at Autotrader, and everything new I am getting is sent directly to them. I have been trying to keep this scammer dangling, but it is getting harder to keep up the farce! He/they nearly defrauded me of £4000GBP, but fortunately small details weren't their strong point! The total lack of exclamation marks after all things 'Yahoo', the lack of communication from the so-called 'Yahoo Representative' - which was meant to happen and didn't...only invoices sent. The Shipping Companies web site, so many little things just didn't add up. This criminal network are netting themselves £100million per year, and that's not an accurate figure as for every one person that comes forward admitting they have been scammed, there are probably another 5 or 6 that are too embarrassed to come forward. Therefore the whole scam is worth more like £500 - £600 million per year!!!

Thankfully, for the sake of one tiny error on the scammers part (a digit was wrong in their account details), my money never made it into their grubby thieving hands. Yes, I was stupid to think that such a lovely car would be so cheap, and also to not actually/physically view the car. Also thankfully, I am managing to get so many emails and tons of information about them and forward it all on...Today I will be contacting the Police.

PLEASE DON'T BE EMBARRASSED...COME FORWARD AND HELP TO CATCH THESE AWFUL PEOPLE...IF YOU REMAIN SILENT, THEY HAVE WON!

Thanks for reading this, and I hope no-one comes as close as I did...

Best wishes to you all

mrswesty
Registered Member

Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Nov 03, 2011 8:53 am

Hi,

I have just had an email from her/him, googled the name as somebody tried on my last week, waited for the reply and got:

i there, Thank you for getting back to me.Can you assure me that it's
in good state and that i will not be disappointed with it.I'm ready to
pay your asking price and to be honest, i wanted to buy this for
someone very close to me, but the issue is i am an oceanographer and i
do have a contract to go for which starts tomorrow and am leaving any
moment from now.The contract is strictly no call due to the lack of
reception on the sea area. But I'm able to access email anytime as we
will make use of laptop so my only quickest payment option is PayPal
as i can send money via PayPal anytime.Since I'm requesting this
transaction to be done via PayPal, i will be responsible for all the
paypal fee/charges on this transaction and if you don't have an
account with paypal its pretty easy, safe and secured to open one.Just
log on to http://www.paypal.com. I hope we can make the purchase as fast as
possible? I have a mover that will come for it once payment clears and
they will get it to my son's location safely,So i look forward to hear
from you soon.

Email address must of changed, as she/he emaild from [email protected]

Another one, be ware, happened to me last week

Be carefull, he will send you a cheque and ask to pay somebody via westerunion, but cheque will bounce. Luckilly I have found him and didn't send any money. The cheque has bounced a day after it has cleared, I didn't realise that it is possible until I spoke to the bank, BE CAREFULL CHEQUE CAN BE CALLED BACK BY THE BANK UP TO 10 WORKING DAYS AFTER IT HAS CLEARED. That one calls himself Joe Hersney or Kelly Smith, always calls from whitheld number

From: joe Hershey <[email protected]>
To:
Subject: Re: Enquiry
Hello,
Thanks for the email and for your prompt response.I am satisfied with the condition of the car and am okay with the cost price I will like to proceed with the sale of the car by sealing the deal with a certified banker's draft or Cheque drawn on a UK Bank and have my representative issue out the payment for the car first thing on monday moring and its transportation would be added to the amount of the car as i will be using my local haulage company to come and collect the car from your location as they would be collecting some other items for me.I would have love to send the payment for the car alone and get the extra issue out to the haulage company but it takes longer to get UK payment cash elsewhere and would cause delay in transaction as i believe we both don't want any delay in the transaction.All necessary papers and document regarding the shipment of the car will be procure by the haulage company and they will also sign all the DVLA forms in your presence when they come for collection.To explain things further,contact me on...07035967120.To bring to your attention, it takes 1-4 working days for a UK bank draft or Cheque to get clear an account.I would want to know if i can rely on you to get the rest of the funds to the haulage company after the receipt of the payment and its authenticity has been confirmed by your bank and cleared your account before proceeding with the rest of the transaction.To make things easier and quicker,i want you to supply me the following details so that payment can be issue out immediately:

Your Full name as wanted on the payment::::::::::
Your full postal address(house #,street name,city/town,state and
postal code)::::::::::
Your contact phone #s Mobile,Landline::::::::::

Thanks and i will be looking forward to read from you...
Regards.

Thanks for posting this scam.
I have also just received the same response from [email protected].
this has saved me loads of time in not pursuing the conversation with the scammer.
must admit am tempted to string them along for a while and waste their time.
Cheers All

Hi there,

I have also been targeted by the scam of '[email protected]' when trying to sell my car on Auto Trader. The email quoted exactly the same as 'Robabobbob' and others had, explaining that she was an oceanographer and wanted to purchase it for her son. I thought it was a bit dodgey as there was no phone number or contact and they wanted to buy without viewing. I have not replied to them once finding this information online. Beware!!

Hi All,'
I have been scammed today, seeling my car on Auto Trader, The reply just didn't ring true....Googled the whole email address as advised by my savvy daughter to find that this is a well known name emanating from Brazil of all places...! beware others


Message:
Hello,
I'm interested in purchasing this vehicle,
Let me know if is available
You can get back to me
Thanks

Hi there, Thank you for getting back to me.Can you assure me that it's in good state and that i will not be disappointed with it.I'm ready to pay your asking price and to be honest, i wanted to buy this for someone very close to me, but the issue is i am an oceanographer and i do have a contract to go for which starts tomorrow and am leaving any moment from now.The contract is strictly no call due to the lack of reception on the sea area. But I'm able to access email anytime as we will make use of laptop so my only quickest payment option is PayPal as i can send money via PayPal anytime.Since I'm requesting this transaction to be done via PayPal, i will be responsible for all the paypal fee/charges on this transaction and if you don't have an account with paypal its pretty easy, safe and secured to open one.Just log on to www.paypal.com. I hope we can make the purchase as fast as possible? I have a mover that will come for it once payment clears and they will get it to my son's location safely,So i look forward to hear from you soon.