Car selling advice needed please

[Tweaky]

Hi all, I am selling my S4 avant at the moment and have advertised it in Auto trader. I have had two replies, one from Spain, which was an obvious scam, and on from Italy, which i am not sure about. This is the email i have recieved from the potential purchaser after i gave him more info and pictures of the car.

Hello Phil,
I appreciate your swift response. i must testify to you i'm pleased with the conditions of the Car as stated in your previous email,i'm highly interested in purchasing it. for payment to made out to you, do provide me your contact details and immediately the payment will be remmited to you and when payment gets to you and cleared by your bank. I have a shipping agents that will come to your location for pick-up. I have discuss this with my SOLICITOR over this transaction we are doing oversea and he assured us not to be afraid, I don't know if i can entrust you with my money. I have informed my (shipping company) intension to buy this from you already so shipping will not be a problem . pls let us know if you are okay with my method of payment and shipping. if this arrangement is okay with you, do forward your full details so that payment can be send to you as soon as possible,
FULL NAME ON PAYMENT.............
MAILLING ADDRESS.............
ZIP CODE...............................
HOME PHONE #.................
MOBILE PHONE #..................
As soon as this details mentioned are provided,the transaction will procceed as soon as possible.
I appreciate your co-operation and understanding.
I wait your immediate reply.
My regards,
Maggio.


I am naturally very scepticle, and am trying to see the scam here, but if he pays for the car in advance and the funds have cleared my bank account, surely i am in the clear am i not? Once the funds have been cleared they can't then be removed form my account can they?

Any help or advice here would be appreciated.
Phil

[RS4Kev]

I can't remember the terminology but there is something about being able to claw back supposed cleared funds from international transactions. Commonly used scam - avoid

[busapower]

Yep deffo agree,total scam, avoid

[DavidT]

Scam. You would be giving personal details to someone who has no intention of purchasing your car.

Think about it, what would you do before offering to pay for a car ?

[bobjebb]

If it was me, I'd agree to all those terms, string the little <beep> for as long as possible ensuring to waste his time to the utmost, send him the wrong bank details, ask loads of ludicrous questions then send him a final email that simply reads: "Oh, just one more thing I forgot to mention in my earlier correspondence...... F*CK OFF."

[rs666]

Had this problem too.

If you look at the Autotrader website FAQ's its there.

There is nothing you can do, the most you can is to report the email account to the hosting company abuse@isp.bla bla and hope they close there account down. Won't stop them but at least they loose something.