Internet scam?

[Marie_5041148]

Hi, We currently have our Avondale 650-6 for sale, and have advertised on a few websites. We are being bombarded with e-mails from people from 'abroad' who are interested with buying our van. Each e-mail is similar, in that they all offer to pay you more to cover the shipping, which they will organise. Call me suspicious, but I smell a rat. Has anyone else had this experience, or has anyone actually sold to this sort of buyer? Anyway, don't they sell used caravans overseas!

 

[Barrie_5039905]

Hi Marie, yes these emails you are receiving are indeed scams. They quite often purport to be an agent for the buyer and want to pay an excessive and fraudulent banker's check to cover shipping. You then reimburse the overspend and possibly even send the van! There are a lot of these scammers in the boat world also, one in Africa keeps popping up. Take care regards Barrie

 

[trevor123]

Hi marie, don"t do it, Barry is right about that scam, my wife had seen the internet scam before. be on the safe side, sell it local or to a dealers good luck with the van, trevor

 

[BJ]

If it looks like a rat and smells like a rat, it probably is a rat.

Best avoided, I think.

 

[merv_5041048]

I too had a similar experience and was wondering what was going on. My questions were answered by an item in the current copy of Computeractive Magazine. They are all scams. They offer to pay by a large cheque with you passing on the difference. Surprise, surprise - the cheque bounces are you are left nursing your losses. They are often written in very bad English but in any case avoid them !!

 

[Damian]

Marie, what you describe IS a scam, have nothing to do with it, or you will not only lose your van, but also the extra money you sent, as they overpaid you.

They send out Bankers Drafts, but they are stolen, and although they WILL credit your account with that money, usually within 3 days, in 2 weeks time from then, the Bank will reclaim ALL the moneys, when the Draft bounces at the original bank.

End result,,you have no van, and are also out of pocket to however much you sent back to the scammers, which is usually around

 

[Sue_5041660]

dear marie we sold our van on ukcampsite.co.uk the people that bought it were for cambridge we are in birmingham they wanted the van so we had a cheque from their bank account be they did not have the van until our bank confirmed that the cheque had cleared they came and collected the van a few days after if they are genuine buyers the will wait hope this helps you good luck with the sale. regards sue ps. we did have an e-mail from a foriegn country but we deleted it.

 

[Steve_5041619]

Damian is spot on; that is exactly what they are doing. A friend of mine lost an

 

[bandb666]

this was on TV other day, buyers use good quality fake cheque so it clears, you release item then bank retracts cash as they discover the fraud

 

[JohnLee]

Hi Marie,

I bought a new Bailey Pageant this year via the net from Viscount in Southampton. I got the VAT refunded which meant that it was the same price as a 4-5 year old van. Since there is no VAT on 2nd hand (I think you call them part exchange) there was no incentive to purchase a near new van. So why would anyone overseas want to buy a near new van?

As a matter of interest I almost bought a 2003 Bailey Ranger here in New Zealand earlier this year from an English "Tourist" but when I checked the Vin No with CRIS (yes I knew about them courtesy of this column) they told me that the No was not valid and not to touch the Ranger so I didn't. As far as i know that van is now owned by some other unsuspecting owner here in NZ. The local authorities didn't want to know about it unfortunately which I found rather frustrating. When i told the "Tourist" about the CRIS info he couldn't refund my deposit quickly enough!