Possible car sale scam - Need advice !!

Dear board ,
My first post on what i can describe as a most usefull forum.

Would you guys with more experience be able to recignize potential signs of this being a scam ?
I can do with you help and advice on this matter.
Thanks for your time reading.

Scenario is i want to buy a car on Friday-Ad.co.uk
Its advertised as second hand the price is around 4K and seems cheaper then usual for its year and milieage about 1.5K cheaper then same models on the market.

This is the correspondence sent once a day from the seller for a period of 2 days :

" Hello,
I apologize for the delay, I'm in the military and that's why I couldn't reply in time. I don't have access to a phone, so we will communicate through e-mails. Anyway, thank you for your interest in buying my car.Full service history. HPI clear.  Mot and Tax till Dec 2012..  I was deployed yesterday in Gibraltar and I think I'll stay here for a while that's why I'm selling it so cheap. I intend to buy a new car when I'll get back home. I will use a third part to sell this car (PayPal or Escrow.com). Let me know if you are interested in a purchase.
Thanks, David "

The second email is this :

"Hi again and sorry for the delay,
 Before leaving I had prearranged shipping and the payment with PayPal (the most secure way to pay and get paid) so my presence isn't necessary(The car is at our Northwood Headquarters, Hertfordshire HA6). The Logistic Department will deliver the car to your home. The price includes all the shipping costs and insurance, so you won't have to pay any extra charges. Since I work with the Army the delivery process is not an issue, I'll have the car shipped at your home address in maximum 2 days.
  Here is what I suggest: we will use PayPal services, you'll make the payment in an PayPal managed account trust fund ( they'll hold the money until you'll receive the car ), I will send the car over( the car will be delivered with the owner's manual,  service records, and of course the bill of sale authorized and signed by me),I will offer a 5 day period from the day you'll receive the car , you can inspect it, take it to a mechanic to check it out, drive it and then if you decided to keep it, you'll confirm to PayPal the sale and they will send the payment to me. If, by any reason, you will not be satisfied with it ( even though I can assure you that it is exactly as described), you can return it at my expense for a full refund of your money, no questions asked .Please note, that the return of my car will be made, only after you will get your deposit back. I think this is more than fair for the both of us.
 The payment is refundable, and is just a security measure, to make sure that the buyer is serious, and that I am not going to ship the car, and loose time and money. Your payment is 100% covered, because I have open a Trust Account with PayPal and if something goes wrong, you will get a full refund from my account. If you are interested to go ahead with the deal, please reply with your full name, phone # and shipping address so I can ask PayPal to open a case! After, they will contact you explaining all the details regarding the payment.
 I'm looking forward to hear from you.
David "


Can you guys let me know your opinion on what he is sugesting?
I dont feel its right somehow a gut feeling ...tells me its a scam...
On a side note i wont buy a car without seeing 1st.

Regards

[AlanJones]

Hi JTBlack and welcome to ScamWarners.

It's a definite scam - PayPal do not offer an Escrow service like the scammer is describing here.

Could you post up the email address that the scammer is using as this will help others avoid being scammed.

Alan thanks for your advice .
Its quite refreshing knowing people get together here to put scammers out of circulation .

He is using this Email address : [email protected]

I will reply tonight with my final answer which will be a big NO, not interested.

Just on a side note he is using the 23rd Royal Engineers Air Assault emblem in his email signature signd Sargent David Graham

Nowdays they even use "Military" to make things more convincing.

I've just had exactly the same email from exactly the same guy about a BMW X5 in the Friday-Ad for £3600.....I'm not touching with a barge pole! I guess if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.

This the second scam that I have found recently the first was Anna graham The second David graham and the responses identical to those Posted. Luckily I found this site checking out Northwood HQ and so confirmed my suspicions.

Many thanks.

I have received the exact same emails also.

It was in response to this ad; http://motoring.friday-ad.co.uk/london/ ... -YI208OF6F

I have reported to the Friday Ad and sent them a link to this thread, so if anyone else has links for the cars they have had the same response on, either post the links below or report to Friday Ad to investigate.

THE PUNK IS NOW TRYING SELL ME A LEXUS WITH THIS SAME MESSAGE...ON FRIDAY AD ..USING THE EMAIL ADDRESS [email protected] BUT ANSWERS BACK WITH THE DAVIDGRAHAN1985 TING im trying to set his ass up.. lexus reg is gu05mdo becarefull thanks for bsaving me lol

I have just recieved the exact same series of emails in response to a Mazda 3, for £3,200 on Friday-ad. I initially responsed to the ad 3 days ago. The signature is from Sgt. David Graham, 23 Engineer Regiment (Air Assault). email address: [email protected]

I had exactly the same emails, the address on the ad was [email protected] the replies where from [email protected].

i am in conversation at the mo with this very person.. am in the army etc, it is for a RAV 4, with all bells and whistles selling for £3,600 on a 55 plate ,black. i'll sit back and see how far we go

just to add the email address is [email protected]. The contact name on the advert was [email protected]. On Friday-ads in London.
What immediatly waves a red flag is the delivery, what to me - 200miles away?

I am also in communication with this .... cant even say it! about a quad bike also advertised on friday ads. he has sent me a fake paypal invoice which has the bank details of someone called arturas friedland who i am supposed to send my money to. I have forwarded the invoice to paypal. Have also contacted Friday ads who say they have removed the advert. have asked them to contact everyone who enquired about the quad and warn them not sure whether they will bother. I wondered why his english is not so good with an name like david graham and then the paypal invoice had the same english mistakes on it, although i have to say it was very authentic looking,even had a button for chat with paypal representative now. i pressed it and chatted to god knows who about payment methods, alarm bells really started to ring when i was told that i had to go into a bank and pay in the money over the counter. he very nearly got us but thankfully he delayed a week in replying to my enquiry about the quad so we had already bought one by the time he got back to me. he even offered to ship it free to spain! surely something can be done to catch this muppet. i am going to call barclays and tell them about the account and also the police.

he tried selling me a audi a3. as soon as i saw the word paypal i knew it was a scam. i went straight to the point told him forget about the car, who is gonna LEGALLY sell the car on your behalf and how am i going to view it. no reply. he would either run away with the money or make a claim his car was stolen.

I have just ad the same email from this guy(was deployed yesterday in Gibraltar again)after I replied to his ad in the Friday Ad. Seems the Friday ad are not doing much to stop this guy from scamming their readers.

Thanks to all the people who made the effort to report this guy as a scammer

Hello,

Just put my truck on Cars.com and received an offer on it. From reading quite a few of these stories, I know it is a scam. I suspected as much in the beginning. Just wanted to post the email addresses for future reference and to see if anyone else expierenced similar offers.
[email protected] and [email protected]

Jared