Has anyone else expirenced a high amount of scamers on Carsales?

[lockieoc]

Currently have my old man’s XR8 advertised on Carsales for a bit over a week. So far we have had three scammers email us, all claiming they want to buy their dad a nice car as a surprise and wanting to purchase by PayPal, I knew they were scammers so I told them to get F'ed. Also this morning dad was contacted by an auction house wanting to come and have a look, I have heard stories about this in the past so I am quite wary of this, my guess he will give a well below asking price offer.

I kind of annoyed that you spend $60 to advertise on their site yet they can’t do anything to protect you from this type scamming, I feel sorry for people who aren’t aware of this type of activity and are getting done over by these low lives.

Is the high level of activity normal? Or has my ad been targeted?

Also has anyone else been approached by an auction group?

[Polyal]

How does someone scam you by offering you money?

You mean its just junk mail?

[Mr Hardware]

I've had my car on carsales for three weeks, not one scammer.

[lockieoc]

Originally Posted by Polyal

How does someone scam you by offering you money?

You mean its just junk mail?

They send a inquiry via the ad inquiry form. The first inquiry sounds semi legit but there is usually always a silly question in there usualy to do with price or condition of the car.
Im not sure how they do you over by paying through paypal but i dont want to find out.

[Polyal]

yeah but dont you just give your details and then they send the cash via Paypal? Play their bluff and let them send it, unless Im missing something obvious, they cant scam you if you dont send any money.

[lockieoc]

Originally Posted by Polyal

yeah but dont you just give your details and then they send the cash via Paypal? Play their bluff and let them send it, unless Im missing something obvious, they cant scam you if you dont send any money.

I just told them if they want the car the can show up on the door step, cash in hand and its all theirs.

There must be some way to be done over through PayPal. Can anyone shed some light?

[lockieoc]

OK after a bit of research it looks like they send you the money, send someone to pick it up then they raise a claim on Paypal saying they never recieved the item, paypal freezes the money and if you cant prove other wise the money gets returned and they keep the car. Something along those lines.

I have read that if someone pays you through paypal with stolen credit cards all your money in paypal gets frozen and you will most likely never get it back.

[sanchoXB]

They try and get you to open a paypal account and email them your registration email with your password & login details. They they login in and steal your money.

[lockieoc]

i have also seen a few where they over pay through paypal and ask you to to send back the excess direct to their Western Union account hoping you havnt realised that the paypal transaction hasnt been approved yet. They get your money, then cancel the paypal transaction.

Seriously! Is Western Union just set up for scammers? Its an absolute joke i dont understand how they can opperate.

[Elks]

This is the reverse of the usual scam where the offer a car to cheap to be true, get you to put a deposit down, then disappear.

Easy to tell, they will only correspond by e-mail. And when pushed to see the car, they and the add disappear.

Give bank details to no-one.

[Polyal]

Originally Posted by Elks

Give bank details to no-one.

That is pretty much a general rule, more so on the internet of all places!

[dannyxm]

Car Sales - no

Ebay - many

You can pick them, quite obvious sometimes.

[rancidpunx]

I had a car for sale a few weeks ago and the scams outnumbered the genuine enquirys by the time i sold it.

Every time I made an edit to the ad I would get 2-3 new texts asking to send an email with firm price and condition.

The paypal scam is nothing really to do with Paypal. The scammer sends you a fake paypal email to say they have paid, usually more than you asked for as they include their agents fees. Its a mock up email from a website thats similar to paypal like pay-pal.com or paidpal.com. If your not interweb savvy it looks like the real deal and most ould have no reason to doubt it. You are then required to send some money back with your genuine paypal to an "Agent" for them to organise pick up and transfer of the car.

[Fev]

When i sold my Futura late 2009 and when i sold my XR6 in Feb this year i copped heaps of dodgy "oil rig paypal" emails. Just reply with Eff off you scumbags and they don't reply.

[lockieoc]

[QUOTE=rancidpunx]

Every time I made an edit to the ad I would get 2-3 new texts asking to send an email with firm price and condition.

/QUOTE]

Its funny that you say that, as straight after a edited the add three inquires came through all spinning similar stories and all asking the asking price to which i replied "the price on the add is the asking price" and then i got another one back asking "what is the price i forgot?" which i replied "have a look at the ad"

i have also noticed if you reply "******* OFF YOU SCAMMER" they will also leave you alone

[Andy777]

had the mother in laws car on carsales for a month, 2 scammers emailed, 2 genuine calls...

[sneh]

What I have heard of happening on other forums is they send you a fake paypal email saying you have been sent a payment, which if you click on the link takes you to a fake paypal site, where you enter your login and password, which is used to gain access to your paypal account. Then if the person being scammed is dumb enough to just send the goods without actually checking their bank account, they have scammed them out of the goods, and any available funds from their paypal account and any credit cards and bank accounts linked to it.

[aussie muscle]

Originally Posted by sanchoXB

They try and get you to open a paypal account and email them your registration email with your password & login details. They they login in and steal your money.

yep, fyi, any paypal member can send you money, but they ONLY need your email address. Don't give anyone your login or password.

If they do pay by paypal, make sure they pay extra to cover the paypal costs (pretty high) and withdraw the money from paypal BEFORE you give them the item, that way they can't drawback the money from you.

[V8 6I]

If someone pays with paypal log into paypal via google not a link via email.When you transfer money from paypal it will take about 3-4 working days to show in your bank account until then dont hand over anything.

[munners]

Originally Posted by V8 6I

If someone pays with paypal log into paypal via google not a link via email.When you transfer money from paypal it will take about 3-4 working days to show in your bank account until then dont hand over anything.

Even if it makes it to your Paypal account, make sure you transfer the funds out of Paypal and into your bank account.

Munners

[Kryton]

Last i heard, if you try if you try and withdraw any amount over $1000, the account is frozen and the money wont be released.
Do to the "anti terrorism support' clause, you need to contact ASIO and prove who you are, why you want the money, where it came from, where its going and what you had for breakfast - all in the name of "dont support terrorism through paypal"
And if you think this process takes a couple of days, try MONTHS before you can even get your own money back.

[gcg2503]

Had quite a few scammers from Carsales via email and text when my car was advertised

Would love to meet someone who actually fell for this type of scam.....

[bigsta]

yeah carsales is crap really now i had my car on there for 12 weeks with about 10 scammers 3 or 4 auction houses and only 1 genuine inquiry, i kept thinking it was the colour, wheels or location that was turning ppl off so i dropped the price heaps progressively way too low really so that it was $5-8k below similar km/cond cars and it still was not moving, finally put it on carsguide they are half the price $30 got about 7 or 8 genuine calls sold it for full price within 3 or 4 days if i had just put it on cars guide first at my original price i would have sold it i think and for what it was really worth.

carsales use to be good but its crap now too many dodge ads and dodge scammers.

Those auction places are BS too even if you get them to commit to a price over the phone which they wont want to when you go out there they argue with you and try and screw you out of your car for as cheap as they can get it.

Best to stay clear of all those bs scams just reply bank cheque or cash is all i will accept.

[megaphat]

Back when I was looking to buy (a few months ago) carsales was full of scams.
A ten year old car would be offered at a good price (~$1000 below market value) with low mileage. But the seller would have no contact details (or location) and you would have to use the carsales inquiry service. About a fortnight later the seller would email you telling you the car is now $1000 cheaper and to put on a deposit immediately with whatever dodgy payment service.

Generally the car pictures would be ripped off another site (e.g. trading post).
Carsales is VERY slow to respond to complaints about fake ads. I notified them of a couple of scams and they took almost a month to remove them. Astonishingly poor service.

[hy_boi]

Yup, had a txt this morning, evens comes up with someones name on the txt now, they're getting good at it, but still easy to pick.

[fmc351]

There are endless ways you can be scammed. The limit is determined by the creativity of the scammer, not your knowledge of such scams.

Dont make the mistake of assuming the methods above are the only ones. The bastards are clever. As Maxwell Smart used to say, "If only they used their genius for niceness, instead of evil."

Just because you cant see how they would pull it off, does not mean they havent figured a way out. Thats the definition of a good scam, most honest people cant even imagine how the things works until its explained, and sometimes not even then.

[Professor Farnsworth]

i've noticed a lot of:

1.) People advertising or claiming the car is something it isn't
2.) wrong models advertised
3.) inspected write-offs
4.) cars with several pictures doing everything to not show the rego
5.) people going overseas
6.) cars with encumbrance, going very cheap with no mention of said encumbrance.

[xxx000]

Originally Posted by rancidpunx

The paypal scam is nothing really to do with Paypal. The scammer sends you a fake paypal email to say they have paid, usually more than you asked for as they include their agents fees. Its a mock up email from a website thats similar to paypal like pay-pal.com or paidpal.com. If your not interweb savvy it looks like the real deal and most ould have no reason to doubt it. You are then required to send some money back with your genuine paypal to an "Agent" for them to organise pick up and transfer of the car.

accurately described
yes this is the scam they use, nothing more, nothing less

[Legit290]

I put my motocrosser on Gumtree.com and i have had three replies about my asking price...one for a greg blane at gmail, another guy calls himself autotrader7070@yahoo and westc@y7mail.com just sent me a teaxt then. You can't reply to their texts only email them then they start with their offers.

I had 2,200 on it. Greg baby reckons he will pay for it from malaysia and have someone pick it up. He will pay 2,400 for it.

If something is too good to be true then guess what? If it's smelly it's probably ********.

I told GREG that he can send his representative here with ca$h in his hand and i will meet him with my pick handle negotiator

[leadfoot]

I usually tell people they can pay any way they want, but they cannot pick up the car until the money is either in my hand or in my account.