Topic: Europe scam??

[Jim Shea]

I have a race car for sale and I have been made a decent offer for it. Here is the story;
I advertised the car on ebay classified, he rang and asked all the right questions, he did not want to see the car, he said that he is involved in buying and selling cars and he regularly has a transporter going between the UK and Portugal where he lives. He called me from a mobile phone +351 which is a Portugal #. He also said he has a UK office in the UK.
I have checked his ebay name and he has 100s of transactions 99% positive. I have also checked his name on a google search and he seems to be who he says he is. He has a bit of a background in Portugal racing and rallying, everything rings true, as it does in any good scam.
He has asked fro my IBAN #, I spoke to my bank and they said this is ok and that when money is transferred my bank can tell if it is cleared funds or not.
So, what do you think? Has anyone had any experience of international money transfers?
I recently had another offer from Africa; the old "I'll send you a cheque" and then you keep the money even though it is more than the vehicle is worth; they pick up the car, the cheque bounces and you are screwed!
Yours suspiciously,
JIm.

[Raul CB750K1]

Well, if you can find the phone number through other media, and you phone him and talk to the same person, then it seems it's genuine. Don't trust phone numbers; my brother lives in LA and his phone company offers him a local Madrid phone number. That is, we can call him like if he is Madrid, at local rate, and he picks up the phone thousand of miles away, for a flat rate.


I do international transactions almost every week. When you make a transaction through IBAN, once the money is in your account, it's yours. It's not like a check, in which the funds have to clear. Ask your bank so they will clarify all the aspects. The bad thing about it is for the money sender; I had once a transaction rejected due to incorrect data and the destination bank took 30 euro from my money as a "fee", even when I'm not a customer of that bank nor have I approved their fees. My bank didn't want to know a thing; from their side, they did what I told them to do.


My 2 cents....


Raul

[Jim Shea]

Raul,
Thanks for your advice.
The IBAN is much safer than a 'stolen' money order or similar. The problem is that if the account is new and somehow illegl funds are transferred they can take the money back of you in the future. I suppose, that if someone gave you cash and then it was proven that it was stolen or fraudulent somehow, they could take that back also?
Maybe I ambeing too suspicious,but when someone doesn't even view the car, you have to wonder?
Jim.

[Raul CB750K1]

Yep, that makes sense. They can have somebody's secret acces number via "phising" and will do the transfer from that person account. It will take a lot of hassle but chances are you will be out of money. Tell him that if he wants the car, the truck guy can come with the money in cash, or tell your bank to check the account holder's name just to make sure it's his. No matter how many transactions somebody do: when you spend your money it's normal to make sure what you are buying is worth what you pay.


If you think you can get another buyer easily, just forget all the hassle and tell him the car is sold.


Raul

[Jim Shea]

I would have used paypal, but they want 4.4% fees, + 2.5% for cross border tranactions!!

[SteveD CB500F]

Now that IS a scam...   (and legal too no doubt)

[Jim Shea]

Legal, but ethical?

[SteveD CB500F]

The ethics of big business.

[stevej]

Would it be feesable to get this guy to write you a cheque (from his uk office if needs be)?Wait till the cheque clears then let him collect the car.It would mean he needs to trust you I know, but someone needs to make the first move btw Ive never done anything like this myself good luck.

[burmashave]

My dad is selling a 1980's Benz coup, and he's gotten a couple of offers similar to the one you got (buyer claims to be a European business that does classic auto imports).  My dad asked me what I thought, and I told him that I didn't think the offers passed the smell test.  He agreed with me but toyed with one of them long enough to find out that they either weren't serious or were just a scam. 

Obviously, I'm not saying your buyer is not legitimate.  Were I you, I'd set strict requirements (high deposit & all funds via bank wire transfer) and stick with them  If he's legitimate and wants the vehicle, this should be no problem.  If he whines and hedges, you need to wonder.  There's no way you'll know whether he's legitimate until funds are in your bank account.

[Jim Shea]

He is happy for me to have had the funds cleared before he gets the car. The transfer should clear in 2-3 days, he wouldn't get the car until end of next week at earliest.

[burmashave]

That sounds pretty legit.  I'm assuming that you can prevent your buyer from taking possession if the funds do not clear.  I'm also assuming that you are protected from getting stuck with shipping charges, etc.