Does this sound legit?

[Timmos]

I have my car posted on car sales and i receieved an odd text message tonight

The text message did not appear to come from a phone number? instead i have the name BruceMacar. When i hit call on the name it comes up with a number thats definantly not an australia number.. 2782362227.

So anyway, the message said "Gud evening.. i am interested in your item posted on carsales. How much is the last price u are willing to sell it& what is the present working condition. Contact me back on email@gmail.com" (i wont put his email up)

So i emailed him with my contact number and a price that i'd be willing to go down to. and i got this as a reply:

Great thanks to you for responding to my text sms.I am keen about this item and I am very busy here, we are working on the first stages of the Melbourne to Christchurch undersea tunnel and I might get dragged out in the submarine if i should try and make phone calls which led me to the act of sending you sms ...I am ready to further with this transaction by offering you AU$#### .I am getting this item for family usage and pick up would be arranged by me.I will not be able to come for inspection, all i need is your word that the item is as described online and if you are able to send one or two pictures, i will be very happy, sorry if i seem to be causing any inconveniences , I am not able to handle this myself, but i need to get the Item delivered to my partner asap.I have tried to check my online banking and i am getting problem with my online access as i have contacted the bank and they said it may take a long while to rectify it because of the unauthorized access.I need to let you know that I would change my mind on how to make payment and i am ready to proceed with the payment through PayPal... i want you to understand that Paypal is one of the secure ways to pay online without sharing your financial information with the recipent.Paypal is free when paying for domestic purchases.Paypal is most people favourite way to pay online,compared with other online payment systems and individual credit card brands. Be rest assured that everything is going to be okay because due to the present situation in online auto auctions,i decided to open a safe account with PayPal(Premier Business Account)Premier Business Account is quite different from the common PayPal account which is now rampant....Premier Business Account is 100% safe for making outgoing payments and well monitored and verified.

Their is always a charges of 2.4% of each transaction made through paypal and i am using this measure to let you know that i am ready to include the payment of 2.4% of our transaction with the price i offered you.

For those that are not farmilar with paypal at all,I hope with my little explanation ,you wont mind to get an account with PayPal. Its reliable,secure and easy to use ,all you need to do is to visit Welcome - PayPal and register with them.When you are done with the registration of first page,there is a place to link your bank account in which you can move your money directly to your bank account after payment is confirmed by paypal.

When this is done,you are to contact me with the email you use in registering with paypal ...The email stand as paypal account number and the email will be use in making payment .

You can send me the email you used to register so that i can proceed with the payment.

I wait in anticipating to read back from you

Best Regards

What do you guys think?

[Clutchy]

scam dont go ahead with it anymore than ya have. it will be a hacked paypal account ya will never see any money.

[kcpwns]

yeah it sounds automated mate...wouldnt touch it with a 10ft pole

[acarmody]

LOL at Melbourne to Christchurch tunnel.

[VLC86]

stay away haha. I love how he advertises Paypal halfway through

Definately dont go ahead

[Fun_Bucket]

Just about anyone who advertises a car on car sales , cars guide ect, will get something along the lines of these emails.

Give me his details and i'll take some more time out of his busy submarine life.

[VN_Luke]

ah yes that melbourne to christchurch undersea tunnel...... big project that.....

[acarmody]

Just about anyone who advertises a car on car sales , cars guide ect, will get something along the lines of these emails.

Give me his details and i'll take some more time out of his busy submarine life.

True, I got about 5 in a week when advertising on Cars Guide.

ah yes that melbourne to christchurch undersea tunnel...... big project that.....

Yeah but its a cool job since you get transported to work in a submarine, apparently.

[mwb235]

What do you guys think?

Definitely a scam. Even disregarding the ludicrous claim of a trans-Tasman tunnel, i'd ignore it on paypal alone as IMO paypal ain't as safe as they make it out to be.

LOL at Melbourne to Christchurch tunnel.

Yea they'll build a Bass Strait and Torres Strait crossing (not to mention crossings elsewhere in the world like Russia-Alaska, Japan-Korea, Djibouti-Yemen, and Spain-Morocco) long before Australia-NZ!

ah yes that melbourne to christchurch undersea tunnel...... big project that.....

Exactly! An undersea tunnel that long and deep? Wow, what is that guy smoking?

[HamaTime™]

What. A. Muppit.

Ignore it.

[walkierep]

fark me definatly a scam no one in there right mind would believe that if they where building a tunnel like that it would be all over the news worlds biggest tunnel project

[Grennan]

Haha that tunnel was priceless. Seriously if youre going to get a scam going make it believable.

Hell, Im going to the moon tomorrow and would like your car to drive around on the moon with wouldve been fine.

[pow3rslave]

scamola, i forget how these works, something like they get your car, then cancel the paypal. (paypal defaults to siding with the buyer) you end up without a car or the cash.
there might be more to the scam than that, but that's the gist. they generally offer you whatever money you ask, plus extra 'for your trouble' and they're always interstate/overseas/Nigerian princes,

[Julie]

rofl that is classic, tell him you'll drive it to him in the tunnel when its complete

[onca]

LOL what a doofus.... Anyway we already have an Auckland-Sydney tunnel, it's called "Air New Zealand", but the traffic only goes one way (i.e. there to here.)

[HoldenManDan]

Haha mate, you can do one of two things, one being more fun than the other, but none involving you selling the car. Alright, here's the saga:

I had my old work van advertised on automarket and carsales earlier in the year. Twice in the same week i got messages from2 different names and email addresses saying exactly the same thing:

"Do you still have the car for sale?", and there was a landline phone number attached, but was australian. I called this number and the old lady that answered told me that she'd had over a dozen calls that day about car ads that she knew nothing about, i'd asked where she was located and she said she was from coffs harbour in northen NSW. By this point i'd cottoned onto what was happening, as the 2 identical emails originally had me suspicious. The thing was, the email addresses these messages had originated from had to be legit! So i went and added them to my MSN messenger after sending them emails saying we should talk further about the "transaction" in real time. Just with the hope that i'd get a bite. He had already alluded to his geographic position as being "off shore" and "on an oil rig", attempting to provide you with an excuse to use PayPal.

Meanwhile i did a bit of reading about how these scams work. Basically this one involves PayPal. They offer to buy your car, sight unseen. They then generally offer to pay you your asking price with little to no haggling, or even more than advertised! Due to their "offshore" location, they let you know that they will have an "agent" (which they actually DO have!), which will come and pick up the car. What happens is they send the payment via paypal. It can clear and whatever, and shortly afterwards the "agent" will come and get the car. After this happens, the "buyer" lodges an "item not received" dispute through PayPal. Anyone who's had dealings with this system on paypal knows that they almost always side with the "buyer". So the dispute is settled through paypal and they do a "charge back" through your linked bank account to reclaim the money paid, to the "buyer". After this, you're left high and dry, no car, and no money to show for it either!


Anyways...

Sure enough, later that night, I was conversing with a lower than pond scum, nigerian car scammer. I had the upper hand however, knowing what he needed to hear and purposely not letting him hear it. I just baited him along!

I logged the whole chat, and pasted into microsoft word it goes for 13 pages. It's a great read lol!

If you guys like, i might be able to paste some of it up here?

EDIT: actually i couldnt resist! Up to this point i've told him i will accept $57,000 [no typo] for my 2005 holden combo (lol which i actually sold later on for $5,500). He's told me that he's located in VIC (when he's not on an oil rig of course). I offered to bring the car down and drop it off for him... no then he's on an oil rig again... he says he's going to buy it for his daughter who is going to school in DUBAI (lol again). I found him a site which sells cars in dubai and told him he could find better deals on there. He's almost had enough of talking to me! Where i started swearing was the point that i was so disgusted with what they do...

kimbbercute@yahoo.com says:
i ma sure they do but like i said i buy online due to teh nature of my jobs
and besides i want it to be a suprise for my daughter

Dan says:
why dont u try this site then, took me 3 seconds to find
http://www.bazaar.ae/bazaar/vehicles.html

kimbbercute@yahoo.com says:
i was searching for cars online and i found yours and decided to email u if u can help
where is that?

Dan says:
its a site selling cars in dubai

kimbbercute@yahoo.com says:
yeah i know the sites

Dan says:
i found a mad 1971 cadillac fleetwood for 57000 AED!

kimbbercute@yahoo.com says:
they are dealers

Dan says:
she would love that!

kimbbercute@yahoo.com says:
and wont accept paypal

Dan says:
how do you know?

kimbbercute@yahoo.com says:
research

Dan says:
oh im sure you could organise something

kimbbercute@yahoo.com says:
ok
mate thanks for your time

Dan says:
whats the matter mate

kimbbercute@yahoo.com says:
and fo wasting mine
i got a lot of stuff to do but i though you will be able to help me

Dan says:
why dont u scam someone else you #### wit
if you ever thought you'd get somewhere you retards are even more pathetic than i thought

kimbbercute@yahoo.com says:
ur welcome

Dan says:
seriously what is wrong with making an honest dollar for a living like everyone else ####face?
rather than ripping innocent people off?
people like you are the lowest in the world, as low as a thief
lower i should add
also i just saw on the news a fuel rig is on fire, are you sure its not yours?
want me to send an agent?

kimbbercute@yahoo.com says:
ur welcome

Dan says:
you said that already
you ####tards should really brush up on your english by the way
your lack of spelling and grammar is a dead giveaway

kimbbercute@yahoo.com says:
ur welcome
ur welcome

Dan says:
along with the same old stories of being unable to access your bank account yet are able to use paypal?

kimbbercute@yahoo.com says:
ur welcome

Dan says:
man how repetitve can you get?

kimbbercute@yahoo.com says:
mind you i can write better than you and i can spell any shit

********************************************

and that was only from page 6 of 13... its all gold!

Hope this helps everyone... let me know if you want to read more!

Dan

[acarmody]

Please do, HoldenManDan. Though just make it an attachment.

[Astranomical]

You should do something like this:

The Powerbook Prank: He wanted a Powerbook. We gave him a P-P-P-Powerbook!

[rippen50]

had this happen to me i wrote back to his email GET F***ED and he said thanks the paypal has been transferred lol

[HoldenManDan]

Lol i wouldnt post it all up in this thread!

Theres the DOC file attached now...

happy reading!

[Drawnnite]

scamola, i forget how these works, something like they get your car, then cancel the paypal. (paypal defaults to siding with the buyer) you end up without a car or the cash.
there might be more to the scam than that, but that's the gist. they generally offer you whatever money you ask, plus extra 'for your trouble' and they're always interstate/overseas/Nigerian princes,

they do it by saying they will have a "guy" (agent) pick it up (the guy that was gonna pick it up from me was apparently from the UK, we are in Aus here >.>), but from another company type of thing. they send fake "paypal" emails, which tbh look bloody legit. and the email adresses are definately sus, normally with hotmail or gmail. its a cunning plan, but once you get one, youve seen them all.
they say that $(same cost or so on) is going through paypal, they say they will add an extra amount to get it to you, like the money for shipping and handling, however they have it worked out so you pay them (normally cost of product or so on).
If you ask them any questions they get a big suss, like they try to rush things, and force you to do things.

but many people would be caught out by this, which is horrible to hear.

good thing your not going to go through with it, you could always have fun with it as someone said, just for a laugh and see what they try to do to you.

[undersuspicion]

i had them try the same thing when i had my car on ebay. What they want you to do is you put money into a dodgy shipping account (they apparently reimburse you for this). Anyway i got around 10-15 emails of the same sort, i emailed paypal to confirm it was a scam and they confirmed it was.

[Matty.b]

well ive added that nigerian guy to my email...gonna have some fun hahaha

[ucwepn]

phishing scam, the paypal link he gave you would be an infected site that would install a keylogger on your pc so he can see all your passwords and steal money from your bank account. never ever go to a strange link like the one in this email even if the adress looks legit its easy to mask and redirect you. Every day i get emails trying to scam my world of warcraft account with links in them its pathetic lol

[VT-565]

I wait in anticipating to read back from you

Pay many monies make for happy fun time super smiles

lol

My mate copped the same treatment trying to sell a car a while back.

hey mate,
It is Right hand drive, genuine rs, all options
except center gauges, it has wind up windows
and a manual lift up roof. Has been fully rust
proofed underneath & in the boot. It drives
really well, alpine stereo, everything works
including hideaway head lights, i still have
all the old parts for it. It has just had a
V.I.P inspection done for another guy in south
Australia who hasn't got back to me yet. thats
about all i can think of but if you have any
questions i would be more than happy to answer
them for you.

Ok just wanted to make sure nothing is been left out
What is your last asking price?Payment will be sent
using PayPal and ill handle the PayPal surcharge if
they are any.Let me know if you are ok with this,so
that I can arrange for pick up as i wont be able to
do it myself as i am out of town at the moment.In
the meantime,can you send me more pictures?
Regards

i have been offered $46,500 and im still waiting to
hear back from the guy who got the inspection done.
i will send some pics soon. can you get pics on your
mobile phone???

No
Do you want me to improve on the 46500?I can do 48k,let
me know

Sounds good ,what would we do regarding freight, where
are you located???

Melbourne but i am currently overseas
But the plan is,once payment is confirmed,i will have a
shipping company come for the pickup and about the transfer
of rego,you will be deregistering the car,as i am having it
shipped abroad
Let me know if you are ok with this

yeah not a problem, let me know if you need anything

Ok guess we have a deal
Once you provide me with your PayPal details,ill send in payment
Regards

Ha ha ha ha ha...it generally went downhill from there, it all got a bit abusive, me spurring him on didn't help