01-12-04, 15:53 GMT+10#1
Firstly my apologies if i have posted this in the wrong section but i thought this would be the most appropriate place to start anyway.
A friend of mine was recently (in the past couple of months) selling a V* SS in the Queensland Trading Post when an enquiry was made from a person in a southern state on whether freight could be arranged from QLD to this destination. Friend said 'sure, as long as you pay all costs'. Buyer says fine and arranges a bank transfer into the sellers account. Buyer is happy and they agree on a sale.
Next day friend checks bank account and indeed the transfer of said amount has been deposited and car is taken to the depot of a particular freight company (buyer insisted that it must be this company only). Friend says his goodbyes to beloved car and thinks no more of it.
Next morning when they go to withdraw from an ATM the machine keeps his card and when he questions the bank he is told his account has been frozen because stolen funds have been deposited in his account and he will not have access to that account again until he offers an explaination. When told where the money had come from the initial balance was unfrozen but the car payment was still withheld.
What had happened was the buyer had paid for the car using an internet banking account that he had access to but was obviously not his. The police and freight company were immediately informed and were told under no circumstances was the car to leave the depot at the recieving end (couldn't turn around obviously because he was delivering other cars also). The idea was then to wait for the buyer to come and collect at which time he would be delayed until police arrived and asked some serious questions of him (the vehicle had since been returned to the rightful owner). Sadly after several weeks the buyer had not come to collect, presumably because he had been tipped off. The delay in annoncing this was to avoid possibly tipping off the thief but not much point waiting now as it is painfully apparant he is not going to show.
Obviously this is a warning to other sellers on here to watch for suspicious buyers, particularaly from interstate. My friend automatically assumed that because the money had arrived in his account that it was safe to send the car. Had it not been for the real account holder/s noticing (in this case there were 2 transactions made from different accounts) his car may well have been picked up and he would never have seen his car or his cash again. It was just lucky that the fraudulent transaction was noticed in time and my friend was only out of pocket for freight expenses, bad but not as bad as it could have been.
The morals of this story are -
1. Always have your car/other item sent to a physical address, not a depot, not a PO box, not a mail holding service.
2. Always ask for a home phone number (not a mobile) and address.
3. Ask for photocopies of a licence or similar to either be faxed or emailed and make sure that the address displayed matches the delivery address. If it doesn't then ask why and if possible ask for verification of this.
4. Beware of people who don't seem to be concerned with the cost of the car/item (people who don't try and bargain) and just want it delivered as fast as possible, often to places where freight is prohibitively expensive.
5. Watch for payments made in 2 or more transactions. In this case my friend didn't check to see how many transactions were made, once he saw the money in the account he thought all was fine and rosy.
6. If possible take the money out of your account before sending the goods. This is not to rort the bank, but if you have spent $1000 sending a car halfway across the country it's best that you have that money and let the bank extract it from the crook rather than from the innocent seller.
7. Be careful of large transactions altogether
I just thought it was prudent to let everyone know just to be extra careful. I'm assuming it hasn't happened on this forum because nobody seems to have mentioned it, but the police have indicated that a number of similar frauds have been attempted recently, and in most cases gotten away with. Please be careful with your pride and joy guys, and even people selling expensive non-car items in the non-car classifieds be very wary. There appears to be nothing you can do to completely protect yourself (fake id, diverted phone numbers and so on) but you can certainly tip the odds in your favour.
Hopefully nobody on here will ever have to deal with something like this but if you are unsure about a sale, use your best judgement. Apologies again if this is in the wrong section, feel free to move it.
Cheers
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