General: Beware!!!

[wart]

Hello,

I just want to let you all know that I came across a possible fraud. On CandC a (so to see) nice Amazon 122 S is advertised, located in Belgium.

I send the seller a mail and found out he is living in Murcia, Spain. He told me the car was in Spain also. He told me further that he had to sell due to financial problems and that he was willing to send the car by transport (on his costs) to the Netherlands.
I should pay the transporter the full amount for the car. The transporter then would keep the payment on his account as a kind of deposit. If I was't happy with the car after 10 days of using it I could return it and the money was transferred back to me by the transportcompany.

Of course alarmbells were going off.

He send me also a copy of his ID with picture, of course with similar names as is his emailadress....trustworthy! I decided to cooperate for a while seeing what he would do.

I let him know that I would send my own transporter, a Volvo fan, who could see and judge the car at collection. That (of course)was not possible, the seller was moving out of Spain because he found work. There was no time.
After that he send me a couple of emails writing that I had to hurry.

In the meantime I searched over the internet and found the same car, with the same pictures, advertised in Salerno Italy (autoscout). And finally I found it In the USA (Ebay) where it is for sale at a dealer. With lots of pictures and genuine with licenseplates visible.

I informed the proper authorities about this, but there is not much they can do they told me. It seems almost impossible to track these ''guys'' and about the ID.....''they always use stolen ID's or ID's from earlier victims".

The adds can be found on:

One in Murcia Spain (Ternat, Belgium) for sale on www.carandclassic.co.uk
One in Salerno Italy: http://www.autoscout24.it/Details.as...000000&asrc=st
One in the USA: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Volvo...item3382eaee00

I suppose most of you know of these scams, but I thought it would be helpfull.

Best,
Willem van der Wart

[thx569]

Beautiful. I saw similar ads in the Autotrader (Canada) for a Mercedes and a Chev Malibu. Both ads claimed the transporter would look after everything and at the alleged owners cost. The ads included a song and dance story about failed relationships or a poor widow. Both ads I saw were for very nice looking cars at well below fire-sale prices. Of course you could not actually go to inspect the car or confirm ownership; it had to be shipped to you at your cost up front. Both ads had really strange misspelling/syntax. Nigeria??

If you buy a car online (eBay is as scary as it gets), get a faxed copy of the title/registration before you send any money. The address should match the car's location.

Pete