Dodgy reply!

[payney1]

Due to a change in her personal circumstances, my daughter has downsized her car, so i'm trying to sell her old car for her, i thought gum tree would be a good idea, with it being free advertising for her.

I've advertised it a few times and got no response, so today i dropped the price further as she wants rid of it.

I got a reply from someone offering £4K for it, it's advertised for £3K - i don't know anyone who offers a grand more than the asking price.

Here's the reply:

"just viewed your listing and will like to purchase it.
I am willing to offer you £4,000 for it,please let me know if you accept my offer,payment will be through PayPal and the pick up will be arranged.Also don't forget to send me more details of the car,and your contact address also.Thanks and will be looking forward to hear from you sooner."

Email address:

[email protected]

Is anyone else trying to advertise a car for sale on gumtree who may have also had a reply from this email address?

Is it worth reporting this as a dodgy reply to gumtree? Within the reply is a link to report as a dodgy reply.

 

[Kier]

I would say its deffo a dodgy one...why pay £1k more for it? Fact they want to use PayPal as well, sounds like they want to try and do a charge back or whatever it is.

 

[Stu DemonD]

Dodgy, no doubts...

 

[payney1]

Thanks for the speedy reply Stu

 

[payney1]

I would say its deffo a dodgy one...why pay £1k more for it? Fact they want to use PayPal as well, sounds like they want to try and do a charge back or whatever it is.

Thanks Kier

What's a charge back?

 

[Kier]

Thanks Kier

What's a charge back?

I think thats what its called, were they say they haven't got xyz and PayPal give them the money back.

 

[jenks69]

I sold several cars in the last 6 months - I had emails of this sort for everyone that was on gumtree. I replied to every single one saying "cash only, if you can't pay cash then you're not the buyer for me" not one ever replied.

 

[Soleil]

I think thats what its called, were they say they haven't got xyz and PayPal give them the money back.

Or they have stolen Paypal/ credit card details and then the money is taken back, and you have no car.

Cash (on collection) is really the only way to go, any other ways of payment leave you open to being scammed.

 

[Focus Owner]

even cash can be flawed fake etc
to me cheque with a 2 week wait

 

[ChrisUK]

Usual scammer mail.

 

[Soleil]

even cash can be flawed fake etc
to me cheque with a 2 week wait

As I recall even a cheque can be recalled up to 6 months later ( maybe more)

 

[Focus Owner]

As I recall even a cheque can be recalled up to 6 months later ( maybe more)

eak!

 

[payney1]

Thanks to everyone for your replies

I've reported it to Gumtree as spam / scam / fraud.

 

[sludgeguts]

As I recall even a cheque can be recalled up to 6 months later ( maybe more)

Indeed, you take a cheque from near the back of the book to buy the car then carry on writing cheques as normal. when the time comes to write cheque 56 (for example), you 'suddenly' notice cheque 57 is missing & report it. As far as your bank are concerned, you have just noticed because the cheque sequence all tallies - except for this one which was cahsed months ago.
Alternatively, if you get regular statements, you can querry why cheque 57 has been cashed when you are still only on cheque 25 (eg).
An old trick used by thieves and the genuine account holder alike.

With paypal, in their smallprint (certainly for ebay but prolly applies to all transactions), if you pay by paypal, the item must be sent by a trackable method - so whatever the item is, it has to be able to be tracked from your house (or parcel firm depot) and be signed for upon reciept by the purchaser. Of course, it's impossible to do this with a car so the buyer denies ever having recieved the car, you cannot provide tracking evidence or signature & so PP refund!

people have even been known to sign 'M. Mowze' or 'D.Duck', or even a squiggle which resembles their name - they still deny receipt of goods & claim it's not their signature.

 

[Focus Owner]

take a photo of them standing by the car, and 2 photo's of driving licence

 

[DlightSwitch]

On the original topic, I've heard of this before, where the person then sends you an email that appears to be from paypal, such as [email protected]
The email looks real and everything, saying that the money is in your account, so the seller believes he/she has been paid and then gives the car away

 

[payney1]

Reply from Gumtree:

"Hello,

Thank you for your email reporting this to us.

The information you have shared with us does, in our experience, shows fraudulent activity and I would strongly advise you to not follow their instructions and end contact with them immediately. I would recommend that you avoid paypal and always meet in person to exchange the car and money.

We take reports of this nature, and the safety of our users, very seriously. I have removed this email and used the information to try and prevent this person from using Gumtree again in the future."

Lets hope we see the last of this person.

 

[ChrisUK]

Good to see they act on that stuff.