Fraud warning

[bschotty]

Hi everyone,
just thought I'd post an experience of mine over the last week or so which nearly cost me a bit of cash...

I'd been looking for a GQ patrol in the usual places (carsales, gumtree etc...) when I came across a great '93 GQ Ti at a great price.

I e-mailed the seller and about a week later recieved this as a response:

"Please excuse me for the delay, but I have a crazy schedule at the hospital, I'm a doctor and this is the soonest I could get to a computer.
Offering for sale is a 1993 Nissan Patrol , with no finance on it.
Excellent condition, no scratches, no accident damage, always garage kept when not in use.
It's very easy to drive for learners. It has 193000 kms, mostly highway! Log book and full service history available.
NON SMOKER, very good on fuel, reliable and comfortable car.
With its smooth handling and fuel efficiency this vehicle has been a pleasure to own and drive. There is nothing wrong with the car mechanically or on the body and hasn't been in any accidents or bingles.

Here are a couple of features to begin with:

Manufactured: 1993
Colour: White
Kilometres: 193000
Transmission: Automatic
Fuel: Petrol
Body: Sedan
Has Road Worthy Certificate
Reg Plate: OJS 786, expires Sep 2012
VIN Number: JNI0WGY60A0045678
Engine Number: TB42092745

Please click on the link below for a couple of pictures with the car so you can get a better view. As you can see the car is very clean and the interior is flawless.

http://s1261.photobucket.com/albums/ii595/1993-Nissan-Patrol/

The final price is $4000. I'm only selling it because I've moved overseas in the UK a month ago after a 8 year stay and I didn't manage to sell it before my departure.
I wish to conclude the transaction through Escrow Australia for both of us to be protected.
They act as a neutral third party, they will take care of the shipping and everything. If you are interested please let me know and I will explain the entire process. The car is garaged in a self storage unit managed by Escrow. They can also have it delivered up to your place for no additional charges, if needed.
The delivery will take from 1 to 3 days, depending on your location.
I am offering 5 days time to have it inspected and to check on the papers.
Also, may I ask where are you located ?
If you have any questions regarding this sale, please feel free to ask.

Kind regards,
Melanie Saint"

I visited the website for "Escrow Australia". It was very professional and looked absolutely legitimate.
I did a revs check with the details and sure enough they checked out.

However,
A little more research put me on to a website about escrow fraud and sure enough, that near exact response (doctor working overseas) came up a lot. Another one commonly used is Soldier overseas.
Apparently these guys operate mainly out of Russia. They use details of real cars (probably from previous sales posted on gumtree etc) so that the revs check comes up clean, and they are able to pop up fraudulent websites very quickly using pre-set templates.

Luckily I discovered this before parting with my $4000.

The moral of the story is: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

- Ben

[Airstrike]

In 2004 I came across a ripper deal on a 2003 XR6 Turbo too good to pass up. Sure enough during the emails he was a solider posted in rome italy.... anyhoo I was wise enough to catch on and didnt part with 15k thankfully my brother pulled me up last minute.

[growler2058]

The age of IT has fed a new breed of scum bag thats for sure

[04OFF]

Did you ask when you could inspect the car at the self storage unit managed by Escrow ?

A good tip is always say in your first correspondence, you, (or someone on your behalf) needs to look at the car in the flesh (even if you cant) , most times dodgey sellers dont have any vehicle to show, so excuses will follow, a legit seller will expect a potential buyers will want to look at it first.

[timbar]

The age of IT has fed a new breed of scum bag thats for sure

Yeah i came across a simular thing when i was looking for a 4by for the missus. ....bloody w@nkers arent they u gotta ne careful out there hey

[bschotty]

The ad's still up on Gumtree, I just reported it to them so hopefully they take it down before anybody gets taken for a ride...

[Ric]

Report it to the police or the specialist High tech crimes squad as well as you can't trust ebay or gumtree to do anything.

[Tymeup]

When advertising on the Trading Post, after setting up your ad, you receive a message from them warning you of certain things like the whole overseas thing and not to go near some middle man finance mob etc.................................obviously happens a fair bit. I guess some people find out when it is too late. Poor buggers.

Cheeers.

[macca]

Well thats interesting, I'm selling a work van of ours and Melanie Saint wanted to buy it sight unseen, the language was not quite right so I ignored the requests.
There are some scum bags around.

[TimE]

Have a look at this site (http://www.autoprofessionals.com.au/car-scams/automobile-escrow-fraud-warning/), it will confirm that this is just another scam.

[Benno7]

"With its smooth handling and fuel efficiency this vehicle has been a pleasure to own and drive."
You know its a scam when you associate any of the above with the GQ patrol.

[bschotty]

"With its smooth handling and fuel efficiency this vehicle has been a pleasure to own and drive."
You know its a scam when you associate any of the above with the GQ patrol.

Haha, too true.

[GU_POOTROL]

Damn those lemon ruski's!

[xtreme patrol]

It would suck if you were a real doctor thats overseas trying to sell your car or if your a oil rig worker tying to buy one ....... LOL

[HammerBuilder]

Yeah I got a second chance offer from Ebay on a 4.2 GU patrol my highest bid was $5100 as I was only looking, it went to $6400 n sold but then I got the second chance offer n looked realy prfessionaly done but when I said I was interested they wanted $7100 & they wouldn't let me see it as they were always so busy, so I just didn't bother replying & it was way too cheap

[team grandpa]

hell yes be very carfull. we were selling my partners surf on gumtree and she got about a dozen txt one even offered an extra grand on top of price seller be ware

[growler2058]

some fella just emailed me that hed offer extra 700 on the asking price of my commodore. I responded i spose your a doctor or brain surgeon working on an off shore oilrig in kazakstan as a driller, CASH only pal :-)

[Richo460]

i am in Egypt and have been trying to sell my SS commodore ute, all these scammers have made it impossible.

[ReefMagnet]

I have recently advertised both a boat and car on gumtree and Ebay and found that simply putting a comment at the bottom of the add saying that that "Due to scammers, SMS messages from private numbers will not receive a response" amazingly cut down the scam attempts. It seems some of them actually read the ad first!