Carsales.com.au scam

TruBlu351 · 08-02-2012, 11:58 PM

G'Day Fellas!

Just checkin in to touch base with any online scam buster gurus!

I was looking at an online ad on carsales.com.au last week and the dude is a scammer....put up a fraudulent advert which has since been cancelled, but I've still got him wheeling and dealing with me!

The original ad which I found a few days later was actually on ebay. I spoke to the real owner and the car has already been sold from Sydney. This guy ripped all the ebay pics and threw up a bogus ad for about $10K cheaper.

I have his name (or secret alias!), email and mobile number.

He claims to be a solider in the Army up in Darwin. Little does he know that I am also in the ADF and there ain't nobody with his name anywhere in the internal directory!

He says he lives in Darwin, but it's a 2007 Landcruiser which was owned by a local 4x4 accessories shop in Sydney with NSW plates.

Sob story is that he's about to deploy to Afghanistan and is currently going though "intense" military training and would much rather just deal on email!!

Car is "in a local warehouse" in Darwin and he's arranged an online title transfer deal with Blah blah transport compnay. I can't figure out how the hell he's got an online inspection reference with them which states with vehicle has the actual rego number of the real car (in someone elses name) and also states the proper VIN number???

Just learned about email HEADERS this evening! How cool are they! Quite a bit of info jammed in there, but because he's using a gmail account it doesn't list his proper IP address.

SO!!.....where to go next!

I'll call the transport company tomorrow to try and get some info.

I've heard of these stories where you pay for a nice car but when the delivery truck arrives.....a 30 year old bomb rolls off the back....a quick card switch along the way somewhere!

I'd like to call him at some stage too!

Betta go watch a few more episodes of Barge ****!

mik · 09-02-2012, 12:13 AM

heh, good work, let us know how you go.

Geez Louise · 09-02-2012, 12:20 AM

You could log your story on thescambaiters.com

They get scammers to do all sorts of things to try and make their sale and some of these things go on for months!

There is so much of this stuff going on now adays...Good to see you are at least wasting a bit of THEIR time and having a giggle yourself. (especially about him being in the ADF!)

Cheers
Col

Torment47 · 09-02-2012, 12:42 AM

Unless i was able to inspect the vehicle i wouldn't bother with it really, but just adding on to the "SCAMMING" ive got my drum kit advertised on Gumtree and it's weird cause i wrote on the description "no emails" and yet im getting emails(and some txts) from overseas people saying they will pay via paypal and they've augonised for courier to come pick up the kit.... i'd rather the person inspect so i kno that they know what they are paying for and will be happy with it.

red.car · 09-02-2012, 07:35 PM

I was dealing with the same guy a few days ago. There was a 06 Land Rover on sale on carsguide.com.au and the same car on carsales.com.au at a lower price. When contacting the owner on carsguide the owner said the car had been sold a week ago. I then received an email from the carsales seller saying that he was in Darwin on training (same story) and that he was going through a transport company. It all didn't seem to add up so I tried contacting the company, however, they don't have a contact phone number. I then contact carsales and they said that it was a scam and that they have heard of this transport company but they are a company based UK. I don't think the one in Australia is actually legit.

Auslandau · 09-02-2012, 07:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TruBlu351

G
I've heard of these stories where you pay for a nice car but when the delivery truck arrives.....a 30 year old bomb rolls off the back....a quick card switch along the way somewhere!

The scam doesn't work like that ...... at the very end you will be asked to deposit some money for the transport costs to get the car to you ..... they are only after the deposit and/or the transport amount. They will suddenly try and get you to do it in a very big hurry as they are 'leaving' in 24 hours and the deal needs to be done! If they can get anything from $300 to $1000 from you they are very happy little *********

You wont receive anything at all. Even if you ask to pick the car up they will have excuses why you cannot see it or pick it up ..... in storage, they are now overseas, in another state ...... etc

TruBlu351 · 09-02-2012, 09:20 PM

Yep....did a bit more digging today and yes, that whole transport webiste is fake. That's how he put up the fake inspection report....he got the VIN off the ebay ad.

No phone numbers on the website and you MUST register to get to the contact details page! No company ever makes you do that.....and the web pictures of the transport trucks are nameless. Zero branding on any of the vehicles.....all fake.

so as mentioned, they are only after the $$$, nothing ever gets dispatched.

TruBlu351 · 09-02-2012, 09:21 PM

Mods.....

Can I please ask you to delete that tranport web address I wrote on my first post. This thread comes up on google searches so I don't want to blow my cover

Jim Goose · 09-02-2012, 11:34 PM

Same scam has been going on now for years and mostly they are from nigeria or similar. These guys arent even in Australia.

There is no car.... if a old 30yr old bomb shows up then your lucky.

Typical story is that they are in the army.... they are foreign military serving a stint in australia ( to cover their poor grammer) or they work on an oil rig....

Vincenzo · 10-02-2012, 01:40 AM

Being a Darwin resident for 30 years and now retired with a lot of spare time on my hands if you have anything you would like checked out and I can help just let me know.

Vincenzo

red.car · 10-02-2012, 02:25 AM

This transport company requires the buyer to pay the entire fee of the car. They then send you the car and say you have five days to decide whether you want it or not. They then say that you will have a complete refund if you decide it's not for you. So I'm guessing they won't just be making $300-1000. More so $20,000+ if anyone actually went through with it.

GTpilot · 10-02-2012, 08:05 AM

It's been going on for years.
Have you fun, if that's what interests you. But becareful. Your not the first person to do this, and I'm sure they know your tricks better than you.
I'd suggest if you have only just learnt about email headers, they already know more about you than you do them!

aussie muscle · 10-02-2012, 08:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by red.car

So I'm guessing they won't just be making $300-1000. More so $20,000+ if anyone actually went through with it.

which is why they and a hundred others are trying it. it only takes one 'fool'* to make them keep coming back.

*a fool and his money are soon parted, but they have my sympathy

fugitive.rmx · 10-02-2012, 07:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aussie muscle

which is why they and a hundred others are trying it. it only takes one 'fool'* to make them keep coming back.

*a fool and his money are soon parted, but they have my sympathy

Very true...makes me sick thinking about these clowns with no conscience trying to take advantage of people who know no better...I agree, they may be fools but I feel sorry for them if they're getting caught by scams like these...

Craney · 11-02-2012, 01:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTpilot

It's been going on for years.
Have you fun, if that's what interests you. But becareful. Your not the first person to do this, and I'm sure they know your tricks better than you.
I'd suggest if you have only just learnt about email headers, they already know more about you than you do them!

It is good fun tho. We strung a bikesales scammer along for a few days until he was abusing us!

He had pics of a $40k+ Goldwing trike he wanted $15,500 for. The bike had covered 15,500kms also. The truck in the background of the pics had American plates and it was a weird scam. We had to deposit $500 in (can't remember what it was now, something like ebay motors??) to inspect the bike and then we'd get the money back if we didn't want to buy it.

We played him like a fish... then got bored and put him into crimestoppers.

We did the same a few years ago to one of those Nigerian "Ive got all this money but... blah blah... I want to park it on your account and you can have 30%... blah blah... scams. We drove the bloke nuts with expectation that we'd go the $1000 "transfer fee" We were ringing him on VOIP at 3am his time asking and reasking silly questions. Our last conversation (after about a week) was him cussing and screaming down the phone as we rolled around laughing.

And yes, he probably was very poor and he does probably make less in a year than I make before smoko but if salivating over screwing me for $1000 for a week stopped him from taking in someone gullible then I make no apologies. So wind up your local internet scammer, it's great!