Is this a scam?

[yang258]

Hi guys,

Not Ducati related, but thought you guys can shed some light. I am selling my car on carsales.com.au and got this message, I believe it is some sort of scam;

"Thanks for the prompt response..I am ready to buy it now as a birthday gift for my generous uncle and i am at sea at the moment as i am a marine engineer and due to the nature of my work, phone calls making and visiting of website are restricted but i squeezed out time to check this advert and send you an email regarding it. I really want the car to be a surprise for my uncle so i wont let him know anything about the car until it gets delivered to him, i am sure he will be more than happy with the car. I insisted on paypal because i don't have access to my bank account online as i don't have internet banking, but i can pay from my paypal account, as i have my bank a/c attached to it, i will need you to give me your paypal email address and the price so i can make the payments asap for the car and pls if you don't have paypal account yet, it is very easy to set up, go to www.paypal.com.au  and get it set up, after you have set it up i will only need the e-mail address you use for registration with paypal so as to put the money through. I have a pick up agent that will come and pick the car up after i have made the payments..."

[dragonworld.]

Hmmmmm, sounds like its veeery similar to what a lot of bike people have come across on this forum!!

Is your car something that would be sorta desirable, or would be good for spares to update another lesser model?? 

This scam appears to be the new way of shopping for spares by order instead of the old fashioned "Midnight Autos" trick!

[ozducati]

definitely a scam... unless you believe in Nigerians wanting to send you millions of dollars...

[yang258]

Yeah thought so. But how does it work? They send you money, you dont do anything till they send you the cash? How do you lose your car?

[mattyvas]

Scam, seen  it before.
These websites are targeted all the time.

[ozducati]

not sure, is something to do with either fake paypal stuff or something like that... don't test it out...

Yeah thought so. But how does it work? They send you money, you dont do anything till they send you the cash? How do you lose your car?

[suzyj]

Yeah thought so. But how does it work? They send you money, you dont do anything till they send you the cash? How do you lose your car?

The usual way it works is like this.  You send them your paypal address.  They pay into your paypal account using a bouncy cheque, including money for courier.  Paypal tells you there's a cheque waiting to clear, so you get warm fuzzies and think everything's working out.

Then they email you and tell you that they're unable to send money directly to the courier (given that they're on an oil rig and all), so they've added that money to yhe paypal amount.  Could you please send money to their courier on their behalf, generally using western union or similar.

So you send actual money to the address given, and then nothing happens.

After a few days the cheque bounces, and you find the "courier company" is actually a front, and you've lost money.

It only has to work for them a few percent of the time to be quite profitable.  The amount of money involved for each case (a couple of hundred dollars) is generally below the radar for police, especially as it almost always goes overseas.

[yang258]

lol no I wont be testing it out. I replied to him telling him to F off

[Justo]

see if he'll throw in some rizoma mirrors with the cash.

[braando]

Yang,

  A similar thing happened to me a while back when i first started using Paypal.....the guy was able to access my account through the back door and started withdrawing money until Paypal became suspicious and froze my account then contacted me. Paypal actually refunded me the full ammount but this dude collected. Mate, they prey on unsuspecting, trusting people like myself and  you. Take my advice here and steer well clear of Paypal services until you understand fully how it works. It was a stupid mistake on my behalf, don't let it happen to you.

Brian

[spotcom]

Yeah thought so. But how does it work? They send you money, you dont do anything till they send you the cash? How do you lose your car?

They allege that they have paid you via Paypal, and send you an email with the receipt to show you. You click on the link, attempt to log in to "PayPal", enter your details, and BAM, they've got your login.  They then transfer cash out of your real Paypal account.

At least, that's the way it was described to me. 

[monstermick58]

see if he'll throw in some rizoma mirrors with the cash.

And twenty litres of chocolate icecream.

String the bastard along.





                                 Mmick

[yang258]

lol cheers for the help guys

[Dannog]

moral of the story when using online accounts for banking and paypal etc is to check the URL before you enter you attempt to long in.

NEVER click on the link someone sends you. It REALLY easy to build a website that looks like the online bank account you use and they host it with a domain name that's very similar to the real thing you'll likely not pick it up when you click on the link.

[cabron]

Had the identical message to me,
An Engineer on a boat, wanted me to pack up and send the Bike to the UK...Right... I played with the guy for weeks, basically trying to get him to send $100 to me as a good will gesture. He wanted me to send money sent to his transport company on his behalf, and then send him the details. He had some really good but fake Paypal website / emails responces. I had his sites checked with Paypal and they confirmed as Fake...you can also tell as the English is a little dodgey.

His first Email..

"Hi seller,

      Pretty good to hear back from you.i want to make it straight to you that am intrested in buying this your item, i would have love to have a proper look but am presently off the east coast of brisbane sailing.{am a marine engineer} please mate, my method of payment for the item will be through my paypal account cos that is the only method of payment i could have access to here on the ship, concerning the pickup i think you dont have to bother your self, i have contacted my picukup company. they will be the one to come for the pickup at your residense after i have might send in the payment into your paypal account. kindly get back to me with a payment request so as to send in the money asap. thanks and God bless while i await the request."


My final email to him..

"Dear Alfred

I must say that I have enjoyed this little game we have been playing. From your first emails, it sounded suspect, I needed to somehow prove your little scam though, so again thank you for your first fake paypal email.

After I had that email checked, and confirmed it was fake, I continued to alert all authorities about your scam. They were very happy to help, they suggested that I keep you on the hook so they can get as much evidence as possible ( track your IP addresses, and your ISP etc..). Well, they have got back to me and said that I can stop the emailing, as they have all the information they need.

So Alfred, what you going to do? I say that the authorites will be closing in on your place fairly soon now, unfortauntly they wouldn't tell me any of the details beside your country of residence, what a shit, as I have family there, and some big cousins that would have liked to visit you, and teach scum like you a lesson.


So "Alfred", it is a shame I couldn't scam a scammer.....you know that $100 would have been the icing on the cake, however not to be now. I have had fun, I wish you all the best running from authorites, hopefully one day you may wake up and see the scum you are looking at you in the mirror, and do what is best for everyone and walk in front of a train."


Never heard back from him....hope I didn't hurt his feelings....