Beware this scam!

[Daveperc]

This is just a heads up to those buying or selling one of our precious machines. This scam is alive and well - and I got caught - you can read my story at viewtopic.php?f=2&t=128759

The scam was highlighted in the Sun newspaper in 2016 - see https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2045078/m ... ed-faulty/

There's more on PH at https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/top ... &t=1675777

Stay safe people - I didn't and it cost me about £3500

Dave

[Shoppinit]

Thanks for posting this, Dave.

[Eddie555]

Top man for taking it well and sharing with everyone.

[RS Owner]

Thanks for sharing and alerting everyone.

[cfcdoc]

Ok please for the engineeringly challenged readers of this forum( i include myself ) , what exactly did they do that ensured they were able to convince you the head gasket had gone when it hadn’t ? I am about to sell my c63 and wanted to know if a pair of burly gentleman turns up and one wants a tour of the house whilst his mechanic mate fiddles under the bonnet , what exactly it is that they would be doing to get the puffs of smoke. I ask this simply as reading the PistonHeads thread there seems to be some
Conflicting opinion as to whether pouring oil into the coolant system would cause those symptoms ..

[norman1979]

They put some oil in the coolant - probably had some oil in a coke bottle. This is usually done when they are "looking under the bonnet"

They also put some oil or possible coolant on the inside of the exhausts. Its likely they did this before the seller came out of their house to welcome them. Usually they come abit early and do this.

[chunky79]

I'd be tempted to ask a friend to be with you when having a "buyer" look at the car. Keep paperwork close to you so you don't have to leave them alone with the car. If you haven't got cctv, get some fake cameras put up in clear view, my stop them.
Also, if you haven't had issues with the car and it suddenly shows symptoms and they still want to buy it, question it.
What happened to MrPerc could have easily happened to any of us.

[RS Owner]

I'd be tempted to ask a friend to be with you when having a "buyer" look at the car.

I think ideally you would have at least as many people with you as they have with them so you can man mark them.

[chunky79]

I'd be tempted to ask a friend to be with you when having a "buyer" look at the car.

I think ideally you would have at least as many people with you as they have with them so you can man mark them.

You just need another person to keep an eye on the car. It's really tough selling a car privately these days. You can try and weed out who you don't want to view the car via the phone calls, but there are also a lot of genuine folk out there.