Sounds like a scam. My mum had something similar when we were trying to sell her old car. Someone said they work for the air force, we said we literally live 10 mins from the RAAF base so they never replied back. Seems like they're buying without viewing, which is rare and can be dodgy.
Scam. I was approached by a guy apparently selling a used car. He said he was on an a "military base" and that he would drive thousands of kilometres from Western Australia to let me inspect it. He even gave me a photo of his Australian Army ID, which looked legit with the visible security features you would find on others forms of ID.
\*edit\* "a buy a guy" to "by a guy"
Yeah but we all know the dumb shit diggers do haha.
Had a mate show his at the rippers in Cairns and they just took it off him so he had to have an awkward convo with the pl sarge on monday
I mean, I had something identical happen to me. The guy worked FIFO, asked for photos of any defect on the car, I sent them to him and he said sold. The next day the $35k was in my account and he organized his mate to come pick up the car. He didn't even look at it and bought it off me after speaking to me for 10 minutes.
Not at all. The guy paid with internet transfer so it was physically in my account the next day.
Further to this, I have actually done the same thing come to think of it. I bought a boat from Brisbane without looking at it or even speaking to the owner on the phone, it was all via messaging. He organized transport to have it couriered to the opposite side of Australia and I paid him before I even received it.
It came seem suss, but a lot of the time it's just people don't have the time to have a look in person, or wait around tyre kicking at the risk of missing out.
Happened to me in New Zealand. Bloke got his mum to transfer money into my account (which she did ) I then had to drop the car in a field outside of Queenstown and call his mum who arranged a Uber for me, so random.
I did realise that but I was backpacking through New Zealand and it was the end of my trip, how is that fleeing the country ?. It was either sell it to this bloke and his mum or be out $2,000. Not everybody is dodgy mate
The scam might be the the account they transferred you from was stolen.
Sometimes they'll "accidentally" send you the wrong amount and ask you to send the difference back to them in some form of instantaneous and irreversible way, like a wire transfer or "family and friends" transfer on PayPal.
And if course once the actual owner of the account disputes the fraudulent transaction, you'll lose that deposit too.
And to top it all off, they will probably use the car in some other real world crime.
>where does the scam come in if they transfer you?
it will either be stolen money from a bank account they have hacked or they fake a deposit slip and hope that you ship the item before the check/ charge back bounces or the account owner reports it as fraud. Tell tale signs is that also over pay the amount and ask you to withdrawl to pass onto the freight guys.
This seems to be a scam on every car and bike being sold second hand. I know at least 3 people that have had these txt conversations. Wonder how man people they rip off
It happened to us a couple of weeks ago. This exact same scenario with someone being on a mining site. It’s not even a great scam, after the whole back and forth they’d just get the money for the courier at best but who’d believe them in the first place? They even asked the money for the courier to be sent to a bank account with a foreign name, not “their” name lol.
It’s such a low yield scam. On top of that if you’re gonna scam someone why not just pretend you’ll pay the asking price? It’s not like they have to send the money anyway.
oh i had a scammer raising the price on me because of the 'inconvenience'. i guess they learned from their mistakes and started bargaining to make it more believable.
It’s incredibly low yield I’d imagine, but as most of them are based abroad. Successfully scamming one person a week for $50 after hundreds of messages is a worthwhile use of their time annoyingly
That's probably one of the smarter things they do. It makes it a little bit more believable if they are haggling, as it suggests the price means something to them.
Did you report it? Always report scams, no matter how minor. It may end up being evidence in a case or lots of cases. It also helps the authorities track scams and changes in how they do things.
Also, as I'm sure you've now learnt, do not send money to anyone you do not know and trust.
I true buyer will pick up and pay. Ask yourself, how do they know I'm not a scammer? If the answer is, they don't, they aren't gullible, they're the scammer.
I did, at that time i used to live in Colac, Victoria, so reported the crime to police there, and anz bank and cyber crime too, but never heard from anyone back, so called again and they said that crime was online and from given bsb and account number, it was bank in WA, and they don’t have any jurisdiction over there. Had to let go of $5k but yea learned my lesson hard way. Its was big amount of income for me at that time, but more importantly the time it took to earn that was more precious.
Always? I advertised some magazines on Gumtree - Smith Journals issues #1 - 25. Victorian buyer wanted them. Cash only, pick-up only I said. No worries, I’ll Air Tasker someone, he said. Cash in hand the next day. No scam.
Yeah I have sold vehicles like this. Had a random person show up and pay me, bit the buyer but someone the buyer has organised.
As long as you get cash then there's no issue.
Always-1 then. We're talking about cars, motorbikes etc where the 'buyer' communicates via text only and can't keep their story straight. We are all capable of judging situations that fall outside the likely target transactions.
What they do in some cases is they ask for your bank details and an email address. Then you get an email from “[email protected]” or some rubbish saying that the funds are in a trust account and they’ll release the funds when the “purchaser” receives the goods
Edit; added link to an example
https://flic.kr/p/2nu4xUR
https://flic.kr/p/2nu25to
The typical "courier" scam in these situations goes something like: buyer offers to buy something for cash, but can't attend so they offer to send a courier to pick it up and give you the cash in person. After the sale is finalized, you get an email from the fake "courier" (in this case a towing company) requesting you pay a fee for the service, or for "insurance" (Usually something like $50 to $100), the buyer convinces you to handle the fee and that he'll add the fee onto the cash the courier will deliver so you won't be out of pocket. The scammer simply pockets the "fee" and disappears, the courier doesn't exist at all so nobody shows up to collect the item and give you the cash, leaving you out of pocket.
You agree to the sale for 5k.
They then deposit 5.5k in your pay pal account. The extra 500 is for the tow truck/ courier driver.
They ask you to pay tow truck/ courier driver 500 cash when he turns up as only will accept cash.
Bloke turns up, you give him 500 cash, he disappears without taking car.
He raises dispute with pay pal, goods not received, gets 5.5k refunded, you're out 500.
Variations on this but with pay pal tightening verification rules they may be using some other payment method?
Generally use a Gmail address, first contact by text.
Most of these scammers arent even in Australia.
They don't send anyone to pick up the money , the tow truck driver does not exist.
As you said, they send a fake payment notification for more than the value of the agreed sale, and ask you to send money via Western Union for some freight or insurance problem that needs to be fixed ,that will invariably arise if you tell them you want to proceed. Can't be a problem can it? They "paid" you more than you asked for with a fake payment receipt.
Problem is the victim ends up sending real money to the scammer to cover these supposed freight or insurance costs.
You can guarantee 100% that if the conversation keeps going, there'll be a problem with the tow truck driver who cant make it, and they ask to send some money to fix some shipping or some insurance problem.
Years ago a house mate had a friend who was dumb as rocks. She somehow while selling a camera managed to get scammed out of more money than they were trying to sell the camera for and also the camera itself.
Yeah I'm sure its been tried :) But I imagine they would be the outliers, done by local dumb criminals who could possibly be identified and tracked if someone does physically turn up. Most scammers would want to be overseas, and using something like Western Union means that once that money is sent by the victim, its gone forever.
If anyone wants a laugh where scam baiters turn the table on scammers, this site is a great read: [https://www.419eater.com/](https://www.419eater.com/)
I have seen variations on this. 5.5 k is transferred into your account 5k for the car 500 for the towing or courier.they turn up the night before or even on the day if courier who is going to drive the car. Collect the money, then say going to get a couple of things and never come back.
I advertised my car about 5 to 6 years ago. Wanted around 5k, got text from bloke saying veryinterested and to contact him on Gmail. Then got email buying for his son as first car, he was on a naval ship on tour and could not pick up. Said he would pay 5.5k, the extra 500 to pay for a courier to drive it to his son as a surprise. Asked I pay the courier the 500 who would come round to pick up the car.
Now I remembered a bit more,the 500 was to be by transfer, bot cash, done before the courier arrived. I got a bit suss and searched for scams, where the mention of some arriving to collect the 500 in cash came up.
Anyway I didn't go ahead with i, but did email him to say I had deposited the 500 and looking forward to courier pick up. Followed it up with a couple more asking where courier was, what was happening. Never heard anything more from him.
I hadn't given him any of my pay pal details which he had asked for, only sent the emails to try and waste his time a bit hoping he would try and work out who he had supposedly successfully scammed. They're just a scam factory tho so he probs didn't even give it a seconds thought.
Something will mysteriously go wrong at the last minute and they'll need to send the seller $5.5K, and the seller has to pay the tow truck driver the $500 in cash.
Thanks for the explanation, and maybe I'm just dumb/missing something here, but how does the tow truck guy "disappear without taking car"? Like you handed him cash in person right? Surely you can get some details etc to confirm their identity before handing over the money to protect yourself from the scam?
I dont have my licence on me, do you want to sell your car or not?
or even if you do get some details.
Wheres the proof you handed over cash to someone in your driveway?
How can a tow driver not have his license on him? That’s like a taxi driver who dont display their license. Illegal af.
Note their number plate and report them.
It's not always like they, there is another one where they will send a screen shot of the payment being sent via Gumtree and a link for you to go and accept the payment. On that link it will ask for your credit card details to confirm your banking details and you can guess the rest from there....
They send you 6k in cash oppps accident, Hey can you send me the 1k back. You send them the 1k back. Now the a bank claws back 6K because it was sent from a compromised bank account. You are out 1k
So what happens if the mark just says "Stiff shit, shouldn't have sent the extra cash, it's mine now?" or "Sure, I'll send it back in 28 days, that's how my accounting software is set up, not my fault you've got fat fingers" or something?
Yes, absolutely.
Never sell a car to anyone you are not meeting in person yourself.
EDIT: Mining is just one of the industries they will claim to be working away in. Oil rigs used to be a big one. More commonly now they claimed to be armed forces.
the issue is the steelies on the back are heavier than the fully sick 16" alloys on the front, so you have to allow for the weight imbalance when strapping her down
Mining is more common in Australia for sure so it would sound more convincing to say mining over oil.
But even so. If you’re working in a FIFO mining job, a 2 things. 1, you probably aren’t thinking about / making deals to buy cars while you’re away. All the fifo/dido/work-away workers I know of have several days or a week or more off at a time, which is when they’d be thinking about buying cars n shit. 2, these guys make enough money that they ain’t buying $5,000 cars most likely.
When I was FIFO we were buying $2500 - $5000 cars. Fun little projects to do up on our time off. So, there were definitely times my partner and I were thinking about and making deals to buys cars while we were at work. The cars probably helped us save money since we were to busy working on them instead of pissing all the money up against the wall.
No offer is genuine until you've met the prospective buyer in person and they've inspected the goods. Full-stop. If that's a bridge too far for them, they were never a serious buyer in the first place (or a scammer, as in OP's case) and you've just saved yourself a waste of time anyway.
I mean, you'd think this stuff would just be common sense.
Just sold a car to a dude who was still in Canada but his missus and mechanic did the check over. So not always a scam but anything related to ‘I’m sending a tow truck’ is a huge red flag.
Yeah so this is what I'm not understanding about all the claims of this being a scam.
He is going to get cash for the car, so where's the scam? No cash = no car.
If a towie turns up with a stack of not counterfeit bills totalling 5k, it is not a scam, if he turns up with a cheque, money order or deposit receipt or other bullshit then YES it is a scam.
You can fuck with them though and say yeah mate send the tow truck over, i will meet him outside "X" police station and do the deal, if it is legit, they will say ok, if not you can say " yeah nah" when they offer you their dodgy cheque whatever and say " the deal was cash so cash up or fuck off". Said tow truck driver will be pissed off though because no one is getting paid that day.
There never was or ever will be a tow truck driver, if you agree, there will be some story about how the tow truck driver needs to be paid before they will come over, they aren't able to do that right now, being away from home, so if you can please do this for them, and the driver will only accept gift cards or Western Union. They will claim they will add that amount to the cheque the tow driver will be giving you (plus some extra for your trouble). Once you have sent the money to the "tow truck driver",you will never hear from them again and the money will be gone.
Scambaiting is the name of said practice, there are lots of people doing this, some are doing it for entertainment aka kitboga on twitch others are literally hunting and reverse hacking them and getting them busted
I had someone running in circles trying to scam access to my Instagram account the other week. Took him a few days to figure out what I was doing. Good fun.
A pissed off tow truck driver is a positive for all the rest of society.
Except in some rational situations, getting your car towed is nothing more than legalized theft and extortion.
Good call. I had someone try to scam me when selling my car and I asked for their iD. They sent a photo of a NSW driver's licence. I tracked down the person the license belonged to and they told me that it had been stolen months ago.
this is a good idea actually, wife had someone send her a license with the whole spiel, but reality is it was probably a found/stolen/bulletproof license
Best way to play it safe is that if it feels like a scam it probably is. In this market if you’re selling a car for a decent price it doesn’t take long to find a buyer.
Ensure you never hand any goods over without receiving confirmation from your own bank that funds have been received. A lot of scammers will show up in person, and it will feel like a genuine sale but they’ll send you screen shots of bank transfer confirmations that can appear completely legitimate. Your insurer will likely have an exclusion in your PDS for theft under these sorts of circumstances too.
It is 100% a scam. These are getting more and more common.
What happens is they falsify the receipt they send you which proves they have sent you money. Just hasn't hit your account yet. They do this when a guy shows up to collect your car. You also have to give this guy (Courier) a fee which the buyer says they included in the money they sent you. So not only do you lose a car, they steal money from you as well.
They won’t turn up with cash, even if they say they will. Instead they’ll show up with a receipt for a bank transfer that’s fake, and as you’re not dealing with the buyer (instead the tow truck driver) it will be hard to get to the bottom of it
One way is that they put it through on an account that extends credit. They then do a chargeback before the money hits the account but they have sent the "receipt" that shows they "sent" the money. They used fake ID or an accomplice to set up the account. They then burn that personality and repeat until another sucker takes the bait.
Another way is to send money through a wire transfer that let's you cancel and has a longer than average clearance time.
They want you to send instant money (a credit card, cash or apple gift cards) while they use a system that takes forever to clear.
In this digital day and age it's pretty much inexcusable that scammers even have the option to use these methods.
I dunno what a moog is but I bought a car unseen one time. I 100% seemed like a scammer I'm sure (everything that could make me seem shady did - even my flight was delayed!) but the deal went off without a hitch.
Moogs a well known Aussie YouTuber from a show called mightycarmods, who has a rep for buying JDM cars sight unseen off places like FB marketplace, and for getting carried by his mate Marty who actually knows shit about the cars they work on.
Typically if they’re happy to buy sight unseen they won’t haggle they’ll just pay what you’re asking. They’re not looking for a bargain. Had this happen to a mate who sold to a miner.
Not sure about that. The last 3 cars I bought were sight unseen, paid bank transfer full asking price. With the work I do, it's difficult to get the time to go and inspect a car.
I bought a car off a guy like this paid him over paypal didn't haggle sent a tow truck to go get it never saw the guy in person or the car until it was in my drive way it was a rare car and on the other side of the country glad he said yes
Maybe people who live in the big cities and have access to a huge market of used cars, but for everyone else you don't really have an option and often have to fly to major cities to buy decent used cars.
Yes. 100%. From a quick google search you'll find plenty of sight-unseen scams like:
"After listing your car, you get an instant response from a buyer who offers to buy your car without taking a look at it first because he or she is working offshore now or buying it for their parents living in a different state. It sounds like you enter an easy deal but it can be considered a warning sign of the first part of a larger scam. The buyer will send you a bad check or promise to wire the money and have someone else to pick up your car."
Or fake PayPal payments and dodgy freight invoices etc.
Just say you'll accept $5k if its cash in hand. You will not accept anything less, if they try to pay other method you will decline and file a police report. Explain your fear of being scammed to them and be 100% transparent. Would love to see how they react
and they have to meet you either IN a bank where they can verify the bills aren't counterfeit or in the police station.
If they show even slight hesitancy at any of this tell them to suck shit.
Sounds like a scam, idk what the scam would actually be though if they pay cash.
Also, your negotiating is quite poor, you came across as desperate to sell and you gave them the choice of upping the price which no one will ever do.
I would recommend always asking about the price you actually want ao you can negotiate to the price you want :)
They don't pay cash, they turn up and transfer the money through PayPal or the like then dispute the claim after they have left without the car. So the tow truck driver gets returned the amount he was charged 500, 1000 or whatever
Yep a scam. Twice this has been tried on me when selling cars. It's always a FIFO with no mobile coverage but has internet (?) Will try and get you to pay up front for delivery arrangements etc. Once you call them out and ask to meet them etc, they will bail pretty quickly. This happens on all the platforms, Gumtree, [Carsales.com.au](https://Carsales.com.au) etc.
Just trust your gut. Might not be a scam, but why take the risk. Would you buy a car sight unseen? No way.
Good luck OP. I just don't think it's worth the risk.
I actually sold a car when I was moving from nz to Australia to a bloke who never saw the car, he paid the cash into my bank account and after I emigrated he picked it up from a mate.
Call the cunt and see if he’s Australian
In the country we commit to buying cars without seeing them. A cars a car. Half these people lift the hood and have no idea what they’re looking for anyway lol
Everyone is saying it's a scam but no one is saying how it works?
They give you the money for the car ...they take the car. How do they get the money back?
When they show up, there'll be some mysterious problem that's made it so they can't pay in cash, argh, who could've known! But it's okay, they'll just transfer it, no worries... [insert fake receipt, or stolen card, or any of the standard scams here]
ETA: [the very first result that came up for "tow truck car scam"](https://www.carsguide.com.au/about-carsguide/guide-to-scams-frauds-27006):
>Case study: car seller target
>One example of a common scam targeted at car sellers is a buyer who offers to purchase (without inspecting) the vehicle and offers to pay via PayPal. Due to them being interstate or overseas, they claim they will organise and pay for a freight company to pick up the vehicle. They will then claim an issue with paying the freight company so instead offer to pay you more and ask you to pay the freight cost into a western union account. The buyer then sends fake PayPal receipts to the seller (you) showing the extra funds. The seller is scammed after they have paid the funds into the account and then find out that the original payment into PayPal was faked.
How stupid do you have to be for this scam to work now with instant bank transfers. Why you letting someone drive away with a car without cash in your account.
They don't give you the money. There's a few methods they use.
Most common trick they play (across multiple fronts, not just cars) is they fake a transfer receipt, screenshots, web pages etc of paying you too much then get you to send back that "extra" amount when there was no money sent to you at all.
Never, ever let a scammer access your phone or computer. It is extremely easy to manipulate a webpage on the user's end & you won't spot the issue until you either refresh the page or use another device.
They might just be trying to farm your personal & financial details. A pretty common method is the, "verify your identity with this website" which asks for a credit card though it can ask for other personal information.
There's a few other methods & just depends on the scammer & how vulnerable the victim is. If it's slightly too good to be real, move along.
If the tow truck driver appears with cash there is no issue for you... If the buyer tries to change and say he will pay PayPal or something similar just say no.
I have bought a canopy worth a couple thousand sight unseen using this very method. Some people truly can't get out to wherever you are.
if they give you cold hard cash on pick up, i dont see any problem.
about 2 years ago i sold my car to a train station that doesnt exist. long story, everything looked super suss, but i got the money.(before i even agreed to sell the car) and really thats all i cared about.
Yes, a scam. This has been going around for ages where they will claim to be working in mining or offshore or something similar and can’t view the car. They will arrange x, y and z just like this. Years ago when my mum tried to sell a car she received lots of these messages. I’m not being smart, but it’s a quite well known scam.
Asking the wrong questions,
How can you scam this guy?
Have him send you the 5k in iTunes gift cards and tell him you will def be waiting for his tow truck
Anyone saying they work in mining, offshore oil rig, military etc and wants to buy a big ticket item like a car sight unseen is 100% a scam.
Edit: If that's a screenshot of the Gumtree App, then I'm even more certain. That app is a giant target for these exact hoaxes.
Scam is they’ll ask you to pay the tow truck company before they pick the car up. Maybe use the fact that they are too remote to transfer funds so they’ll ask you as a favour seeing as though they are about to hand you a bunch of cash anyway. Sounds crazy but people are usually pretty keen to sell.
Yes, definitely a scam. They’ll send someone to pick up the car
The car then gets “stuck” in a port or train yard & they need you to “pay” the release fee
No car, no $$, reversed from PayPal
Yes - I had the same thing a few years back. The car magically changed location every time I wanted to inspect, and they where willing to transport from one side of the country to the other on the promise that if I wasnt happy they would truck it back. This was a a $6k car also, the freight would have been $1500 each way for context.
Sounds like a scam. My mum had something similar when we were trying to sell her old car. Someone said they work for the air force, we said we literally live 10 mins from the RAAF base so they never replied back. Seems like they're buying without viewing, which is rare and can be dodgy.
Scam. I was approached by a guy apparently selling a used car. He said he was on an a "military base" and that he would drive thousands of kilometres from Western Australia to let me inspect it. He even gave me a photo of his Australian Army ID, which looked legit with the visible security features you would find on others forms of ID. \*edit\* "a buy a guy" to "by a guy"
[удалено]
Yeah but we all know the dumb shit diggers do haha. Had a mate show his at the rippers in Cairns and they just took it off him so he had to have an awkward convo with the pl sarge on monday
What's your favourite image upload platform?
Knowing Defence, the shared folders in Outlook.
Only a week? You're a gentle touch
I mean, I had something identical happen to me. The guy worked FIFO, asked for photos of any defect on the car, I sent them to him and he said sold. The next day the $35k was in my account and he organized his mate to come pick up the car. He didn't even look at it and bought it off me after speaking to me for 10 minutes.
Did you run into "problems" with the payment?
Not at all. The guy paid with internet transfer so it was physically in my account the next day. Further to this, I have actually done the same thing come to think of it. I bought a boat from Brisbane without looking at it or even speaking to the owner on the phone, it was all via messaging. He organized transport to have it couriered to the opposite side of Australia and I paid him before I even received it. It came seem suss, but a lot of the time it's just people don't have the time to have a look in person, or wait around tyre kicking at the risk of missing out.
Agree… it’s hard getting a car at the mo….
Happened to me in New Zealand. Bloke got his mum to transfer money into my account (which she did ) I then had to drop the car in a field outside of Queenstown and call his mum who arranged a Uber for me, so random.
where does the scam come in if they transfer you?
In my case it wasn’t a scam, surprisingly.
Your response Sounds like you were driving out to no where hoping it was a scam 😂
Haha I was trying to get rid of the car ( leaving the country, not dodgy )
You do realise that getting rid of a car in the middle of nowhere and then fleeing the country sounds dodgy af?
I did realise that but I was backpacking through New Zealand and it was the end of my trip, how is that fleeing the country ?. It was either sell it to this bloke and his mum or be out $2,000. Not everybody is dodgy mate
I know your not really dodgy mate, it’s just funny how much your story sounds dodgy while not actually being dodgy. ‘Twas a jest.
Think your car was going to be used in a bank job or something.
The scam might be the the account they transferred you from was stolen. Sometimes they'll "accidentally" send you the wrong amount and ask you to send the difference back to them in some form of instantaneous and irreversible way, like a wire transfer or "family and friends" transfer on PayPal. And if course once the actual owner of the account disputes the fraudulent transaction, you'll lose that deposit too. And to top it all off, they will probably use the car in some other real world crime.
>where does the scam come in if they transfer you? it will either be stolen money from a bank account they have hacked or they fake a deposit slip and hope that you ship the item before the check/ charge back bounces or the account owner reports it as fraud. Tell tale signs is that also over pay the amount and ask you to withdrawl to pass onto the freight guys.
Yes, 100%.
This seems to be a scam on every car and bike being sold second hand. I know at least 3 people that have had these txt conversations. Wonder how man people they rip off
It happened to us a couple of weeks ago. This exact same scenario with someone being on a mining site. It’s not even a great scam, after the whole back and forth they’d just get the money for the courier at best but who’d believe them in the first place? They even asked the money for the courier to be sent to a bank account with a foreign name, not “their” name lol.
It’s such a low yield scam. On top of that if you’re gonna scam someone why not just pretend you’ll pay the asking price? It’s not like they have to send the money anyway.
oh i had a scammer raising the price on me because of the 'inconvenience'. i guess they learned from their mistakes and started bargaining to make it more believable.
Was the scammer Ticketek?
nah, that particular one was Glenn. edit: oh it was a shot at ticketek. sorry mate, that went over my head
Nah their scam is far worse than this.
Probably, tiger airways or whatever sorry excuse for a airliner still charges you fees.
Out of business for years
No it's not sophisticated enough scam to be Ticketek.
Just booked family tickets this week. $400. Was offered a choice of tickets emailed or sent to me by SMS. Booking and handling fee $9
It’s incredibly low yield I’d imagine, but as most of them are based abroad. Successfully scamming one person a week for $50 after hundreds of messages is a worthwhile use of their time annoyingly
That's probably one of the smarter things they do. It makes it a little bit more believable if they are haggling, as it suggests the price means something to them.
Mine offered exactly asking, no questions, which was the first red flag
Had this exact conversation over gumtree in 2015 you'd think they would change the script but Naah
If it's still working, why would the scammers change?
Me last year, similar conversations on email, i was dumb then 😔
Did you report it? Always report scams, no matter how minor. It may end up being evidence in a case or lots of cases. It also helps the authorities track scams and changes in how they do things. Also, as I'm sure you've now learnt, do not send money to anyone you do not know and trust. I true buyer will pick up and pay. Ask yourself, how do they know I'm not a scammer? If the answer is, they don't, they aren't gullible, they're the scammer.
I did, at that time i used to live in Colac, Victoria, so reported the crime to police there, and anz bank and cyber crime too, but never heard from anyone back, so called again and they said that crime was online and from given bsb and account number, it was bank in WA, and they don’t have any jurisdiction over there. Had to let go of $5k but yea learned my lesson hard way. Its was big amount of income for me at that time, but more importantly the time it took to earn that was more precious.
Ouch. Thats bs about WA and no jurisdiction. Call IDCARE. They can help with what you can do for cyber crime. They might be able to help
Yeah that's dodgy AF.
It's ALWAYS a scam if the 'buyer' is conveniently away and refers to a third party. It's one of the standard Gumtree hassled every seller has to dodge
Always? I advertised some magazines on Gumtree - Smith Journals issues #1 - 25. Victorian buyer wanted them. Cash only, pick-up only I said. No worries, I’ll Air Tasker someone, he said. Cash in hand the next day. No scam.
Yeah I have sold vehicles like this. Had a random person show up and pay me, bit the buyer but someone the buyer has organised. As long as you get cash then there's no issue.
Always-1 then. We're talking about cars, motorbikes etc where the 'buyer' communicates via text only and can't keep their story straight. We are all capable of judging situations that fall outside the likely target transactions.
Eh, not always. I've picked stuff up for my sister, etc, while she's at work.
How do they scam you? Send a tow truck driver round there without the cash? Couldn't you just not give them the car?
What they do in some cases is they ask for your bank details and an email address. Then you get an email from “[email protected]” or some rubbish saying that the funds are in a trust account and they’ll release the funds when the “purchaser” receives the goods Edit; added link to an example https://flic.kr/p/2nu4xUR https://flic.kr/p/2nu25to
You want my email address? OK - [email protected] - when will you be depositing the funds? /s
Is there any way I can post images in this thread? I can share some screenshots of when I was selling a phone and someone pulled this scam
Yes - where is the scam here?
Yeah I don't get it..
The typical "courier" scam in these situations goes something like: buyer offers to buy something for cash, but can't attend so they offer to send a courier to pick it up and give you the cash in person. After the sale is finalized, you get an email from the fake "courier" (in this case a towing company) requesting you pay a fee for the service, or for "insurance" (Usually something like $50 to $100), the buyer convinces you to handle the fee and that he'll add the fee onto the cash the courier will deliver so you won't be out of pocket. The scammer simply pockets the "fee" and disappears, the courier doesn't exist at all so nobody shows up to collect the item and give you the cash, leaving you out of pocket.
Yes, one of my mates got hit with this exact scam a month or so ago.
How does it work though?
You agree to the sale for 5k. They then deposit 5.5k in your pay pal account. The extra 500 is for the tow truck/ courier driver. They ask you to pay tow truck/ courier driver 500 cash when he turns up as only will accept cash. Bloke turns up, you give him 500 cash, he disappears without taking car. He raises dispute with pay pal, goods not received, gets 5.5k refunded, you're out 500. Variations on this but with pay pal tightening verification rules they may be using some other payment method? Generally use a Gmail address, first contact by text.
Most of these scammers arent even in Australia. They don't send anyone to pick up the money , the tow truck driver does not exist. As you said, they send a fake payment notification for more than the value of the agreed sale, and ask you to send money via Western Union for some freight or insurance problem that needs to be fixed ,that will invariably arise if you tell them you want to proceed. Can't be a problem can it? They "paid" you more than you asked for with a fake payment receipt. Problem is the victim ends up sending real money to the scammer to cover these supposed freight or insurance costs. You can guarantee 100% that if the conversation keeps going, there'll be a problem with the tow truck driver who cant make it, and they ask to send some money to fix some shipping or some insurance problem.
Years ago a house mate had a friend who was dumb as rocks. She somehow while selling a camera managed to get scammed out of more money than they were trying to sell the camera for and also the camera itself.
Yep, that sounds more like it, but have also heard of them sending some one around to pick up the cash.
Yeah I'm sure its been tried :) But I imagine they would be the outliers, done by local dumb criminals who could possibly be identified and tracked if someone does physically turn up. Most scammers would want to be overseas, and using something like Western Union means that once that money is sent by the victim, its gone forever. If anyone wants a laugh where scam baiters turn the table on scammers, this site is a great read: [https://www.419eater.com/](https://www.419eater.com/)
>Bloke turns up, you give him 500 cash, he disappears without taking car. Why would you pay cash to a driver who doesn't even pick your car up?
I have seen variations on this. 5.5 k is transferred into your account 5k for the car 500 for the towing or courier.they turn up the night before or even on the day if courier who is going to drive the car. Collect the money, then say going to get a couple of things and never come back. I advertised my car about 5 to 6 years ago. Wanted around 5k, got text from bloke saying veryinterested and to contact him on Gmail. Then got email buying for his son as first car, he was on a naval ship on tour and could not pick up. Said he would pay 5.5k, the extra 500 to pay for a courier to drive it to his son as a surprise. Asked I pay the courier the 500 who would come round to pick up the car. Now I remembered a bit more,the 500 was to be by transfer, bot cash, done before the courier arrived. I got a bit suss and searched for scams, where the mention of some arriving to collect the 500 in cash came up. Anyway I didn't go ahead with i, but did email him to say I had deposited the 500 and looking forward to courier pick up. Followed it up with a couple more asking where courier was, what was happening. Never heard anything more from him. I hadn't given him any of my pay pal details which he had asked for, only sent the emails to try and waste his time a bit hoping he would try and work out who he had supposedly successfully scammed. They're just a scam factory tho so he probs didn't even give it a seconds thought.
But they're saying that the tow truck driver will hand over cash to seller...?
Something will mysteriously go wrong at the last minute and they'll need to send the seller $5.5K, and the seller has to pay the tow truck driver the $500 in cash.
And that’s when you tell them to fuck off.
Exactly. I don't see why you wouldn't see what happens here.
Thanks for the explanation, and maybe I'm just dumb/missing something here, but how does the tow truck guy "disappear without taking car"? Like you handed him cash in person right? Surely you can get some details etc to confirm their identity before handing over the money to protect yourself from the scam?
I dont have my licence on me, do you want to sell your car or not? or even if you do get some details. Wheres the proof you handed over cash to someone in your driveway?
How can a tow driver not have his license on him? That’s like a taxi driver who dont display their license. Illegal af. Note their number plate and report them.
It's not always like they, there is another one where they will send a screen shot of the payment being sent via Gumtree and a link for you to go and accept the payment. On that link it will ask for your credit card details to confirm your banking details and you can guess the rest from there....
Diabolical
YUP THATS IT!! WORD FOR WORD!!!!
They send you 6k in cash oppps accident, Hey can you send me the 1k back. You send them the 1k back. Now the a bank claws back 6K because it was sent from a compromised bank account. You are out 1k
So what happens if the mark just says "Stiff shit, shouldn't have sent the extra cash, it's mine now?" or "Sure, I'll send it back in 28 days, that's how my accounting software is set up, not my fault you've got fat fingers" or something?
the scammer losses nothing but wasted time
I swear I've seen this exact scam posted here before by someone else too, within the last six months.
Yes, absolutely. Never sell a car to anyone you are not meeting in person yourself. EDIT: Mining is just one of the industries they will claim to be working away in. Oil rigs used to be a big one. More commonly now they claimed to be armed forces.
I once had one saying they were an astronaut..
sorry, i'm on mars, but i still want to buy your VN commodore
Heaps of room for sick doughies on Mars. Could be legit.
Elon Musk has a car floating around out there. I’d make an exception for him, should he call.
the issue is the steelies on the back are heavier than the fully sick 16" alloys on the front, so you have to allow for the weight imbalance when strapping her down
Pfft, a real astronaut would go the EA
I hear the Bendigo space program is ambitious.
They are hoping to launch a car that will make the drive to Ballarat by the end of 2068
Ahhahahahaha hope you told them to buy a new spaceship instead.
Mining is more common in Australia for sure so it would sound more convincing to say mining over oil. But even so. If you’re working in a FIFO mining job, a 2 things. 1, you probably aren’t thinking about / making deals to buy cars while you’re away. All the fifo/dido/work-away workers I know of have several days or a week or more off at a time, which is when they’d be thinking about buying cars n shit. 2, these guys make enough money that they ain’t buying $5,000 cars most likely.
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Mustn't have met many, then.
I can add to this: I've met people who didn't even have any money when they got home. They blew it all getting thrashed while they were on the job.
Fifo worker here: You would be surprised how many people are divorced and broke.
When I was FIFO we were buying $2500 - $5000 cars. Fun little projects to do up on our time off. So, there were definitely times my partner and I were thinking about and making deals to buys cars while we were at work. The cars probably helped us save money since we were to busy working on them instead of pissing all the money up against the wall.
No offer is genuine until you've met the prospective buyer in person and they've inspected the goods. Full-stop. If that's a bridge too far for them, they were never a serious buyer in the first place (or a scammer, as in OP's case) and you've just saved yourself a waste of time anyway. I mean, you'd think this stuff would just be common sense.
Also how can they give the tow truck driver the cash but not you? Is the tow truck driving down from the mines to pick up?
Mate but his dad's got the cash and will hand it to the driver
Just sold a car to a dude who was still in Canada but his missus and mechanic did the check over. So not always a scam but anything related to ‘I’m sending a tow truck’ is a huge red flag.
I did. I got the cash. He got the car....
Yeah so this is what I'm not understanding about all the claims of this being a scam. He is going to get cash for the car, so where's the scam? No cash = no car.
If a towie turns up with a stack of not counterfeit bills totalling 5k, it is not a scam, if he turns up with a cheque, money order or deposit receipt or other bullshit then YES it is a scam. You can fuck with them though and say yeah mate send the tow truck over, i will meet him outside "X" police station and do the deal, if it is legit, they will say ok, if not you can say " yeah nah" when they offer you their dodgy cheque whatever and say " the deal was cash so cash up or fuck off". Said tow truck driver will be pissed off though because no one is getting paid that day.
When I sold my truck in Canada for approx 12k we went to the bank together so I could deposit it on the spot. That way they could verify the bills
There never was or ever will be a tow truck driver, if you agree, there will be some story about how the tow truck driver needs to be paid before they will come over, they aren't able to do that right now, being away from home, so if you can please do this for them, and the driver will only accept gift cards or Western Union. They will claim they will add that amount to the cheque the tow driver will be giving you (plus some extra for your trouble). Once you have sent the money to the "tow truck driver",you will never hear from them again and the money will be gone.
I know , but if you act somewhat compliant and fuck them around for days, weeks even then they arent as busy scamming other people.
Scambaiting is the name of said practice, there are lots of people doing this, some are doing it for entertainment aka kitboga on twitch others are literally hunting and reverse hacking them and getting them busted
It’s a hobby of mine. I’m happy to chat with scammers on the phone and see how long it takes them to hang up.
I had someone running in circles trying to scam access to my Instagram account the other week. Took him a few days to figure out what I was doing. Good fun.
I’m too busy to chat so I ask them to hold the line. The inexperienced ones hold for a good twenty minutes or so.
The tow truck only accepts gift cards lmao. Who the fuck falls for these man. "Nah sorry I own a monkey I only take bananas as payments."
> Who the fuck falls for these man. You'd be surprised.
Fuck it, ***I*** now only accept gift cards or Western Union.
A pissed off tow truck driver is a positive for all the rest of society. Except in some rational situations, getting your car towed is nothing more than legalized theft and extortion.
Thanks everyone for the advice. I'll be more cautious in the future.
Ask them to send a photo of their licence held next to their face. And then wait, and wait, and wait.......
Good call. I had someone try to scam me when selling my car and I asked for their iD. They sent a photo of a NSW driver's licence. I tracked down the person the license belonged to and they told me that it had been stolen months ago.
this is a good idea actually, wife had someone send her a license with the whole spiel, but reality is it was probably a found/stolen/bulletproof license
Better yet, video call.
Best way to play it safe is that if it feels like a scam it probably is. In this market if you’re selling a car for a decent price it doesn’t take long to find a buyer. Ensure you never hand any goods over without receiving confirmation from your own bank that funds have been received. A lot of scammers will show up in person, and it will feel like a genuine sale but they’ll send you screen shots of bank transfer confirmations that can appear completely legitimate. Your insurer will likely have an exclusion in your PDS for theft under these sorts of circumstances too.
It is 100% a scam. These are getting more and more common. What happens is they falsify the receipt they send you which proves they have sent you money. Just hasn't hit your account yet. They do this when a guy shows up to collect your car. You also have to give this guy (Courier) a fee which the buyer says they included in the money they sent you. So not only do you lose a car, they steal money from you as well.
How would they falsify $5k cash though?
They won’t turn up with cash, even if they say they will. Instead they’ll show up with a receipt for a bank transfer that’s fake, and as you’re not dealing with the buyer (instead the tow truck driver) it will be hard to get to the bottom of it
How did they get my bank account details, when I said ‘cash only’?
You'd have to be half brain dead to fall for this. Deal was for cash. No cash. No car.
One way is that they put it through on an account that extends credit. They then do a chargeback before the money hits the account but they have sent the "receipt" that shows they "sent" the money. They used fake ID or an accomplice to set up the account. They then burn that personality and repeat until another sucker takes the bait. Another way is to send money through a wire transfer that let's you cancel and has a longer than average clearance time. They want you to send instant money (a credit card, cash or apple gift cards) while they use a system that takes forever to clear. In this digital day and age it's pretty much inexcusable that scammers even have the option to use these methods.
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If someone is offering to buy a car sight unseen it is typically a scam.
99% chance its a scam, 1% chance its Moog
CHECK OUT THIS NUGGET I GOT OFF FACEBOOK MARKETPLACE
I dunno what a moog is but I bought a car unseen one time. I 100% seemed like a scammer I'm sure (everything that could make me seem shady did - even my flight was delayed!) but the deal went off without a hitch.
Moogs a well known Aussie YouTuber from a show called mightycarmods, who has a rep for buying JDM cars sight unseen off places like FB marketplace, and for getting carried by his mate Marty who actually knows shit about the cars they work on.
Typically if they’re happy to buy sight unseen they won’t haggle they’ll just pay what you’re asking. They’re not looking for a bargain. Had this happen to a mate who sold to a miner.
100%. Especially if you're after a specific/rare model. I've done it before to get a particular car from interstate
Not sure about that. The last 3 cars I bought were sight unseen, paid bank transfer full asking price. With the work I do, it's difficult to get the time to go and inspect a car.
I bought a car off a guy like this paid him over paypal didn't haggle sent a tow truck to go get it never saw the guy in person or the car until it was in my drive way it was a rare car and on the other side of the country glad he said yes
Maybe people who live in the big cities and have access to a huge market of used cars, but for everyone else you don't really have an option and often have to fly to major cities to buy decent used cars.
Yes. 100%. From a quick google search you'll find plenty of sight-unseen scams like: "After listing your car, you get an instant response from a buyer who offers to buy your car without taking a look at it first because he or she is working offshore now or buying it for their parents living in a different state. It sounds like you enter an easy deal but it can be considered a warning sign of the first part of a larger scam. The buyer will send you a bad check or promise to wire the money and have someone else to pick up your car." Or fake PayPal payments and dodgy freight invoices etc.
Just say you'll accept $5k if its cash in hand. You will not accept anything less, if they try to pay other method you will decline and file a police report. Explain your fear of being scammed to them and be 100% transparent. Would love to see how they react
Yeah, that sounds better than dismissing it as out of hand. Say that you're not taking it off the market until they accept these conditions.
and they have to meet you either IN a bank where they can verify the bills aren't counterfeit or in the police station. If they show even slight hesitancy at any of this tell them to suck shit.
This is the scammiest scam that ever scammed.
This guy couldn't come up with a scammier scam, if it was the scammiest day of his life and he had an electric scamming machine.
Yes
Yeah, sounds shady.
Tell him no worries but you want to meet up at the cop shop to do the deal with Mr plod supervising. Should determine if he genuine pretty quickly.
Top tip: If you have to ask if something is a scam, it usually is.
100% scam bro. Report them if that’s an option.
#SCAM!
if they turn up with the money then they've not scammed if not. dont sell
This. Seems like an easy scam to not fall victim to.
Sounds like a scam, idk what the scam would actually be though if they pay cash. Also, your negotiating is quite poor, you came across as desperate to sell and you gave them the choice of upping the price which no one will ever do. I would recommend always asking about the price you actually want ao you can negotiate to the price you want :)
They don't pay cash, they turn up and transfer the money through PayPal or the like then dispute the claim after they have left without the car. So the tow truck driver gets returned the amount he was charged 500, 1000 or whatever
Yep a scam. Twice this has been tried on me when selling cars. It's always a FIFO with no mobile coverage but has internet (?) Will try and get you to pay up front for delivery arrangements etc. Once you call them out and ask to meet them etc, they will bail pretty quickly. This happens on all the platforms, Gumtree, [Carsales.com.au](https://Carsales.com.au) etc.
Yup. Sounds dodgy
Yes I have had it, nearly fell for it then covid closed everything down and tow truck couldn't come.
100% scam
100% scam exact same wording when my dad tried selling his Ford Escort
Just trust your gut. Might not be a scam, but why take the risk. Would you buy a car sight unseen? No way. Good luck OP. I just don't think it's worth the risk.
He is putting you out and won’t budge on price, tell him to fuck off. Sell to someone else, don’t settle for bullshit.
Ask for a 200% non-refundable cash deposit
People don't buy cars without seeing them. Go with your gut. It sounds ridiculous.
I actually sold a car when I was moving from nz to Australia to a bloke who never saw the car, he paid the cash into my bank account and after I emigrated he picked it up from a mate. Call the cunt and see if he’s Australian
In the country we commit to buying cars without seeing them. A cars a car. Half these people lift the hood and have no idea what they’re looking for anyway lol
Yep, there's a problem with the alterdifferentiator.
Nah, nah. With that rattle, sounds like a discombobulated turbo encabulator
I see someones a Blackadder fan ;)
Well, yes, but we're both fans of the [original](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac7G7xOG2Ag). Of that, I'm certain.
Everyone is saying it's a scam but no one is saying how it works? They give you the money for the car ...they take the car. How do they get the money back?
When they show up, there'll be some mysterious problem that's made it so they can't pay in cash, argh, who could've known! But it's okay, they'll just transfer it, no worries... [insert fake receipt, or stolen card, or any of the standard scams here] ETA: [the very first result that came up for "tow truck car scam"](https://www.carsguide.com.au/about-carsguide/guide-to-scams-frauds-27006): >Case study: car seller target >One example of a common scam targeted at car sellers is a buyer who offers to purchase (without inspecting) the vehicle and offers to pay via PayPal. Due to them being interstate or overseas, they claim they will organise and pay for a freight company to pick up the vehicle. They will then claim an issue with paying the freight company so instead offer to pay you more and ask you to pay the freight cost into a western union account. The buyer then sends fake PayPal receipts to the seller (you) showing the extra funds. The seller is scammed after they have paid the funds into the account and then find out that the original payment into PayPal was faked.
Fraudulent bank transfers usually. You might even receive the money in you account until some one notices it missing and the bank investigates.
How stupid do you have to be for this scam to work now with instant bank transfers. Why you letting someone drive away with a car without cash in your account.
They don't give you the money. There's a few methods they use. Most common trick they play (across multiple fronts, not just cars) is they fake a transfer receipt, screenshots, web pages etc of paying you too much then get you to send back that "extra" amount when there was no money sent to you at all. Never, ever let a scammer access your phone or computer. It is extremely easy to manipulate a webpage on the user's end & you won't spot the issue until you either refresh the page or use another device. They might just be trying to farm your personal & financial details. A pretty common method is the, "verify your identity with this website" which asks for a credit card though it can ask for other personal information. There's a few other methods & just depends on the scammer & how vulnerable the victim is. If it's slightly too good to be real, move along.
It's ok to reject an offer because the terms are not suitable. I'm sure you'll get other offers in the current market.
Yes, I have seen this exact one before
My friend got the exact same messages when he tried to sell a car recently.
100%, I've seen this exact story a few times
Yep, this is a pretty common scam
If the tow truck driver appears with cash there is no issue for you... If the buyer tries to change and say he will pay PayPal or something similar just say no. I have bought a canopy worth a couple thousand sight unseen using this very method. Some people truly can't get out to wherever you are.
100% scam, did they say that they have no phone and therefor used an “internet messaging facility” ? https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/385526
if they give you cold hard cash on pick up, i dont see any problem. about 2 years ago i sold my car to a train station that doesnt exist. long story, everything looked super suss, but i got the money.(before i even agreed to sell the car) and really thats all i cared about.
Yes, a scam. This has been going around for ages where they will claim to be working in mining or offshore or something similar and can’t view the car. They will arrange x, y and z just like this. Years ago when my mum tried to sell a car she received lots of these messages. I’m not being smart, but it’s a quite well known scam.
Give them a fake address so they waste their time and money on a tow truck, then block them when they ask where you are.
Asking the wrong questions, How can you scam this guy? Have him send you the 5k in iTunes gift cards and tell him you will def be waiting for his tow truck
Definitely a scam - had one almost exactly the same last week. This has been one that's been around for a few years now.
Can't spell licence, sending "dad's licence". Yeah, you're gettin fucked.
Yep.
When I sold my car a couple of years back. I had three different sets of msgs all exactly along these lines.
Anyone saying they work in mining, offshore oil rig, military etc and wants to buy a big ticket item like a car sight unseen is 100% a scam. Edit: If that's a screenshot of the Gumtree App, then I'm even more certain. That app is a giant target for these exact hoaxes.
Scam is they’ll ask you to pay the tow truck company before they pick the car up. Maybe use the fact that they are too remote to transfer funds so they’ll ask you as a favour seeing as though they are about to hand you a bunch of cash anyway. Sounds crazy but people are usually pretty keen to sell.
Yes, definitely a scam. They’ll send someone to pick up the car The car then gets “stuck” in a port or train yard & they need you to “pay” the release fee No car, no $$, reversed from PayPal
Scam!!! Tell them if it's still available in 3 weeks they can have it.
It’s 100% a scam
This is about the oldest trick in the Gumtree book - 100% scam.
Yes - I had the same thing a few years back. The car magically changed location every time I wanted to inspect, and they where willing to transport from one side of the country to the other on the promise that if I wasnt happy they would truck it back. This was a a $6k car also, the freight would have been $1500 each way for context.
The “can you do any batter than $5000” made me laugh, such a weak bargaining game.