Advice please

[homerjay]

As you may of noticed, my car is for sale, i have just recieved an email off somebody interested.





Quote:

Hello,
I am interested in the purchase of your 2001 VAUXHALL ASTRA Coupe 2.0i 16v Turbo 2dr £10,200
I have make an arrangement to have it shipped to Republic Of South Africa.
If this is okay with u,
so that I can arrange payment
Thanks
Kim...

so i replied asked them to elaborate.





Quote:

Hello,
Thanks for your response, i did appreciate your
way of keeping me posted of developments on your ends. The
acception of the amount for the Car is also okay by me, i saw the advertisement in http://www.autotrader.co.uk./U color=#006699www.autotrader.co.uk./U
At any rate, im based in Republic Of South Africa, North Pretorial, i just got off the
phone with my account officer, who made me understand it will
take a while for a check sent from Republic Of South Africa here to clear your bank in
the UK. But all the same, i just made arrangement now, as to how
you will get the payment in the UK there .
I just finalised with an associate of mine now, and he has
agreed to send you the payment in an Britain paying instrument
and this will be drawn on Britain Bank which will be less free
and will really speed up our transaction. All the same, as
regard the shipping, i have made a solid arrangement with my
long time shipping agent (BSG Ocean Liners) who will be on
ground to come for the pick up as soon as you confirm
payment.
Please as regards payment, do you want the check sent to
your bank or physical address?. Please re-confirm and send to me
the beneficiary name that will be endorsed to the check and also
your full mailing address inclusive telephone number.
As regard shipping once again, you will be receiving an
overage in your payment, and you will have to deduct the cost of
your CAR and you will have to send my balance to my shipping
agency so that they can come for the pick up.
Please reply asap.
Regards,
Kim.

is this a scam or have i missed sommit???

 

[DAVE_RSi]

ITS A SCAM, seen this b4 sumwhere and its a scam, stop contact with them asap m8

 

[Liam]

leave it mate, probably a scam, Ive been dealing with one at work, the cheque that came bounced, luckily he didnt send the bike that they were trying to buy.

not worth it, sell to UK.

 

[homerjay]

cheers mate

 

[dangermouse_se]

There is another post somewhere with similar stuff on it. At the end of the day noone is really going to send 10,200 quid overseas to someone they never even met for a car they havent seen.

 

[Smokey]

How can these be a scam??? Or am i being dumb?

If they send you a cheque, you wait for it to clear then send the car!

If the cheque has cleared then they cannot get the money back can they?

 

[homerjay]

reet i know now. my dad reckons its a way of getting money out of south africa (which is illegal) they give you 20k for you car, you give their "shipping" coompany the car and 10k back, they then have 10k adn a 10k car (which they sell on in the uk) in this country

 

[Dash]

http://erc.qmuc.ac.uk/cliosport/gallery/full/1088779005__binit.jpg

 

[dangermouse_se]

Your Dad knows his stuff HomerJay. Sounds right to me.

 

[Griff]

Nothing to do with trying to get money out of Africa, just another scam.....

"Auto Trader has been alerted by the police to a large-scale scam, which could leave car sellers thousands of pounds out of pocket.

The scam, officially known as the West African advance fee or 419 fraud involves a buyer from abroad posing as an international dealer who wants to buy a car. They claim that they are owed money by a client in the UK who will send a bankers draft for the full selling price of the vehicle, plus a few extra thousand pounds to cover the cost of the shipping.

The seller is then asked to pay the draft into their bank and wire the excess money to the buyer to pay for the shipping costs.

After the money has been sent, the seller hears nothing more from the buyer. Normally, the bank will contact the seller after a few days to tell them that the bankers draft was stolen, forged or that it has bounced. The money is then stripped from the sellers account, leaving them thousands of pounds out of pocket.

If you receive an email which you believe could relate to a scam, forward them to the internet service provider where they originated from. If you receive a letter through the post, throw it away - the sender has not targeted you personally.

Auto Traders advice is to be extra vigilant when selling a vehicle - particularly if there seems to be anything out of the ordinary."

 

[homerjay]

cheers all...

balls, anyone (UK based) wanna buy and astra coupe turbo...

 

[Mauwzer]

Yeah , international cheques take ages to clear, but UK banks like you to think they are efficient, so theyll tell you a cheque has cleared after 3 days even though it takes much longer to actually transfer the funds. If the cheque eventually bounces then the bank will take the money out of your account even though they had previously told you it had cleared and sometimes they will add insult to injury by charging you an administration fee. You can not do anything about this.

I had a friend who sold a rare record to someone abroad - they sent an international cheque for £50. After 3 days, the guys bank statement said the cheque had cleared so he sent the record abroad. A week later he checked his bank statement, the cheque had actually bounced (or been cancelled) and the bank had taken an extra £25 admin fee out of his account - so he lost his record worth £50 and £25 from his account! Obviously with a car this would be much worse!!

 

[Matt16v]

Theres also the money laundering side of things to consider. If you get caught up in that your screwed for 14 years!

 

[dangermouse_se]

On the subject of cheques, a word of warning:

A cheque is NEVER cleared. EVER. Theoretically the cheque could still bounce three or four years down the line. This is however highly unlikely.

A cheque is cleared for interest and withdrawal purposes after three working days provided it is paid into the account before 3pm on a banking day. Basically a cheque is a personal promise to pay and the bank accepts no responsibility other with a cheque guarantee card.

Bankers Drafts are guaranteed payment and are as good as cash as long as they are genuine. A person or comapny will purchase a Bankers draft and the bank will take the money from them immediately. A Bankers Draft cannot bounce (or be cancelled unless it is physically returned). The only risk is forgery and the accepting bank can check this immediately when paying in. Theft is unlikely as the payee is predetermined.

You can verify a bankers draft over the phone before accepting it.

 

[Toypop]

Ha I remember when I got my last car which I bought privately.

I gave the bloke a cheque for £8k which he took to his bank.

He got a statement the next day and it showed the £8k in his account because his bank had updated his balance even though it hadnt fully been cleared by my bank at the time. Anyway he transferred the £8k into another account from which he was going to pay for his new motor.

I was 16 or 17 when I opened the bank account and this was 10 years later. Needless to say my signature had changed slightly in that time so my bank bounced the cheque!

The bloke looked in his account a couple of days later and found he was £8k overdrawn as my bank had swiped the money back!!!!!!!!

He was not happy and I never did find out whether the bank charged him for going overdrawn! I would say it was his banks fault for crediting his account despite not having received the money from my bank.