New twist to old car scam!!

psychoticgroove · 13-01-2011, 03:13 PM

Gday folks,

I did a quick search and couldn't find anything so I'll try and post this to warn the good people of fordforums

Moderators- feel free to delete/ close thread if its been covered before.

Ok so I'll try and keep it short. Same old scam. Car we were after was cheaper than standard market value. I'm wary but inquire anyway (listed as local but with no contact numbers), don't hear for 3 days, then get a generic email saying he's not good with the computers, his wife put the ad rararara ..... and if I'm still interested. Since I'm on gmail, his registered name came up as 'Mark Clyburn' but email address was 'thomasbr76@gmail.com (the tool possibly signed up with his real name but given his few grammatic errors which he attributed later to his danish descent, he may be the usual suspect- Nigerian!!)
When i replied yes and asked for his number again, he emailed back (still no contact number and this time he signed off as Thomas Brent)saying that he works for the Royal armed forces and is currently posted in Queensland leaving for Afghanistan in 14 days (hence selling his car) and if i wanted to buy the car i would have to confirm with a deposit so that he could take a couple of days off from work and come down to deliver the car. At the bottom of his email in his signature, he had his supposed army email and rank. I immediately emailed that address for verification which of course was fake and then reported the ad to carsales.com.au.
The ad was removed promptly and couple of days after that carsales emailed saying that they have received complaints about the sale vehicle/ seller and that it is a scam. But then today i received an email for 'carsales' again saying they had initially removed the ad because of the postcode not matching but now have personally verified the seller and that 'thomasbr76@gmail' is a genuine seller. And while they try to fix up and load the ad again on the website, we should feel free to contact and deal with the seller.
YEAH RIGHT!!! Looked at the first email which actually was from carsales that further stated that the scammers may try contacting people again posing as carsales support centre with authentic looking emails and saying that the ad had been verified as genuine.
The scary thing was that the fake scam email looked exactly like the real thing and some people could possibly fall prey to it.

SO BE WARNED PEOPLE!

Danny · 13-01-2011, 04:13 PM

Got a link?

-Dan

TUF270 · 13-01-2011, 04:24 PM

im really over carsales, trying to sell my car atm on there and you never know who is fake or serious....i find it difficult trusting anyone when it comes to buying and selling cars...

psychoticgroove · 14-01-2011, 01:00 AM

Well there's no link to nothing mate since the ad has been removed. But please see attached document that shows the fake email.....

psychoticgroove · 14-01-2011, 01:03 AM

sorry repost

Yellow_Festiva · 14-01-2011, 01:17 AM

The scams are getting better it seems. I have no idea why this whole industry is not better regulated. I bet the email was sent from an account that looked almost the same as a correct carsales email eg 'support@carsales.net.au'

To the untrained eye, they (both the senders email and the format of the message) looks legit.

With all the electronic tracking and surveillance available this sort of thing should be better monitored. Like not being able to register almost identical websites / email accounts unless you can prove you have valid reasons.

psychoticgroove · 14-01-2011, 01:45 AM

The effed up thing is that the email address that the fake email generated from is
'carads@ad-carsales.com'
which means that they are quite internet savvy and have actually bought the domain rights for that email name!!!

Jim Goose · 14-01-2011, 09:55 AM

I wouldve thought the term "Royal armed forces" wouldve been the most obvious thing wrong with his email.....
I have always said that if your going to run a scam at least use the proper terminology..

sleek7 · 14-01-2011, 10:47 AM

Little bit of the grammar doesn't read right in that email and to me it just doesnt come across as legit. "and we must let you know" <-- this sort of style of writing just has alarm bells ringing to me.
I do however work in IT and I do come across these things regularly. Great pick up though groove.

AWD Chaser · 14-01-2011, 04:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by psychoticgroove

The effed up thing is that the email address that the fake email generated from is
'carads@ad-carsales.com'
which means that they are quite internet savvy and have actually bought the domain rights for that email name!!!

It doesnt mean that they have got the domain ad-carsales.com

They can just use an SMTP server and send an email with that as the sent address...

sgt_doofey · 14-01-2011, 06:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AWD Chaser

It doesnt mean that they have got the domain ad-carsales.com

They can just use an SMTP server and send an email with that as the sent address...

Yep. The from e-mail address is easily spoofed, but for peace of mind, check the e-mail headers to see where it came from.

NAFairlane · 14-01-2011, 07:06 PM

Its pretty simple tho, when selling a car dont even let them drive it till you have a copy of a drivers license and dont let them go alone, and dont give it to them till you have a bank cheque or the funds in your account.
When buying one dont transfer any funds till you have seen and driven the car and have some form of i.d from the seller.

Yellow_Festiva · 14-01-2011, 07:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NAFairlane

Its pretty simple tho, when selling a car dont even let them drive it till you have a copy of a drivers license and dont let them go alone, and dont give it to them till you have a bank cheque or the funds in your account.
When buying one dont transfer any funds till you have seen and driven the car and have some form of i.d from the seller.

I don't release a car until real money is in my account and at my disposal. A bank cheque is a 'promise' of money in 3 business days, and can (and has been in the past many times) been fraudulently made.

NAFairlane · 14-01-2011, 08:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yellow_Festiva

I don't release a car until real money is in my account and at my disposal. A bank cheque is a 'promise' of money in 3 business days, and can (and has been in the past many times) been fraudulently made.

Ah yeah, forgot about the fraud ones, genuine ones though (correct if im wrong) freeze that amount in their account till the bank cheque is either returned or processed into another account so are therefore reasonably safe.

bigsta · 14-01-2011, 11:01 PM

I was recently selling my car on carsales and in 2 months i got 1 genuine inquirey and prob 30 scammers like this wanting to pay via paypal etc

i put it in cars guide half the price and it goes in the local papers too sold it within4 days for full asking price.

XESP351 · 15-01-2011, 12:06 AM

Sounds identical to the emails that i have been receiving from this ******, here is the latest one:

Hi,
First of all I wish you a HAPPY NEW YEAR and all the best to you and your family. My car is still available but currently I'm in QLD, due to my job duties.I'm a pilot for the Royal Defence Forces and I'm stationed at a military base here because I'm being deployed to Afghanistan in exactly 15 days from now so, this is the reason I'm selling it. Some of the persons who inquired about my car asked about the RWC so, the car will come with RWC as well. Anyway, if you want to buy my car, I can take 4-5 days permission to bring it to your address and close the deal. Some things you must know in case you'll be the buyer just to avoid future questions:
1) no accidents or scratches on the body of the car
2) I'm a non smoker person and the car is very clean inside
3) perfect running order, oil changed every 5k kilometers, new tires and brakes fitted in August (full service history can tell), no warning lights on the board, engine runs smoothly as it should and rego expires in April next year
Price is not negotiable because it's already reduced for a quick sale. In case you have any other questions, feel free to contact me but due to my job and trainings every day it might be a delay in reply so, I apologies in advance for this. One more thing, there is also no money owe on my car and can sell anytime
P.S. Please excuse my english, I'm dutch of origin and my english is far from perfect

--
Daven Kots - Air Corps Pilot id# 2819293
Army email: ac2819293@defenceairforces.com
Personal email: davikots@gmail.com
Royal Australian Air Force

I like how it says 'Army email' but he is in the Air Force....Idiot obviously doesn't know am a Navy officer.....

Jim Goose · 15-01-2011, 12:42 AM

hahah the grammer is so bad....

and the email address... come on please!!! defenceairforces.com???????

Royal Defence Force???
Air Corps Pilot???

Like I said before, if you gonna scam someone, make the effort to make yourself sound real and know your subject matter.

GTpilot · 15-01-2011, 01:31 AM

Hi Physhcticgroove,
Have you informed carsales customer support of the fake email? What was their response?

Feathers · 15-01-2011, 01:33 AM

Also, most websites have a disclaimer when you report anything, that they will not contact you personally about the outcome, for privacy reasons.

Ben73 · 16-01-2011, 01:28 AM

I would never pay for a car I have no test drove.
Do people actually fall for these pathetic scams? IS that why they keep doing it? Or are they just trying to hard to get someone to fall for their crap.