Help - strange request to buy my motorhome

teen

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I have received a request from someone in the USA to buy my motorhome....... from an ad on another website..

They want my pay pal address and say they will send the money via pay pal and have the van picked up !!!!!! for a gift!!!!!

It all seems very fishey

anyone out there heared anything about this sort of scam??????

would love to sell the van but - they say if it looks to good to be true it usually is.

HELP

Teen X:bow:
 
I agree that it sounds dodgy, but it is my belief that just giving your Paypal address (and NOT your password) should be safe enough.

I have done several Paypal transactions this way .... okay, so I generally know who they are before hand so not as dodgy.

I would suggest IF you do decide to go ahead, that once the money goes in to you account, then WITHDRAW it to another bank account. Once you are happy the money is in a 'real' account then (and only then) should you hand the log bok and keys over.
 
like all possible scams,sounds dodgy but also reasonable.are they suggesting that they pay with paypal to your account? post this on the sbmcc forum as well,they're pretty cynical too and the more heads on it the better.luck
 
Not sure how it would work with paypal but usually it goes something like this.

Want to buy your vehicle as a gift.
They have a cashiers check which they will send to you.
But unfortunately they made a mistake at the bank and it is for $5000 more than your price - or another sale fell through and the check is already made out but for a higher price.

Would you kindly bank the check when it arrives and when the amount appears in your account, would you please send the excess back to them via western union. Once you have your money, let them know and their friend/son/relative will be around to pick up the vehicle and do the transfer paperwork.


Trouble is while your bank shows the full amount in your account within a couple of days, it will take a month before they discover the check was a forgery and they will just deduct the full amount out of your account - leaving you $5000 poorer.

If you want to have some fun, you can string them along for a while as long as all the info you give them is fake. Ask them to send a small deposit - say 500 pounds - by western union as a sign of good faith (that you will be happy to refund less expenses if the deal falls through) - and see what happens.

In this case, the paypal bit is just a ruse and the cheque offer would be the next step.

Or they just want to get into your paypal account
 
Warnings aside - we have purchased two motorhomes on the internet, both sight-unseen and both in foreign countries as far away from Australia as it is possible to get - but in each case there were a lot of emails exchanged before any offer of payment was made.
 
Tony Lee said:
Warnings aside - we have purchased two motorhomes on the internet, both sight-unseen and both in foreign countries as far away from Australia as it is possible to get - but in each case there were a lot of emails exchanged before any offer of payment was made.
Click to expand...

Thanks Tony

Seems strange after only one e-mail - I have asked him for his address and paypal details, also other details.

This is the e-mail I received:

Thanks for the quick response and I'm satisfied with the condition of the motohome..I am OK with the price and i will love to make an instant purchase because i'm buying this motohome for my dad as a birthday gift, I'm located in Hillsdale Township MI but due to my occupation as a marine engineer at this moment i am presently working offshore, sometimes access to regular emails and phone calls are very poor in offshore due to inefficiency of the immarsat service. Fortunately the internet access working averagely and i was able to come across the advert of motohome . I really want the motohome to be a surprise for my dad by not disclosing the motohome until the delivery is made to him so am sure he will be more than happy with the motohome. I don't mind adding an extra £50 for you to take the advert down from the site so that i can be rest assured that am in hand of the motohome. I insisted on PayPal because i don't have access to my bank account online as i don't have internet banking, but i can pay from my PayPal account, as i have my bank account attached to it, i will need you to give me your PayPal email address so i can make the payment as soon as possible for the motohome and i will be happy to pay PayPal charges and please if you don't have PayPal account yet, it is very easy to set up, i will like you to go on tohttp://www.paypal.com and get it set up, after you have set it up i will only need the e-mail address you use for registration with PayPal so that i can put the money through.


Notice : You don't need to bother your self about the shipment, i have an international courier shipping company that will come to your location for the pick-up,they will also determine and secure the shipment can be done, because i will be adding some extra fee to the payment which is meant for the shipping and insurance..all you need to do is as soon as you receive the money in your account you will deduct your motohome fee and send the rest funds to the shipping company information that will be provided to you in the mean time....So I will need you to provide me with the following information to facilitate the making of the payment.


1.Your PayPal full name.
2.Your PayPal Email Address.
3..Your phone number.


Once again ,I will like you to know that you will not be responsible for shipping. I will have my mover come over as soon as you have your money in your account.


Do Have a nice day,
My Best Regard
Sam


Think I will get on to pay pal as I dont understand the consequences..... Any more comments?
 
Most of these scams work from underpayment or overpayment of some sort so it seems.

Edit: I reckon this is 100% a scam. Why is he asking you to send on the funds for the shipping company from your account?? Why doesn't he pay them direct?

Tell him he must pay the shipping company himself... I bet he will pull out of the deal!

Second Edit: Check out http://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=99631

They use exactly the same text on another transfer!! Proven scam.

I don't know exactly how this works but he will probably string you along later with some request that to get things moving can you please pay £100 to the shipping company first or some other advance fee or there will be some other problem resulting in you paying something upfront.
 
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"..all you need to do is as soon as you receive the money in your account you will deduct your motohome fee and send the rest funds to the shipping company information that will be provided to you in the mean time..."

As Tony Lee predicted above.
 
Firefox said:
Most of these scams work from underpayement or overpayement of some sort so it seems!
Click to expand...

I agree, hence my advice to not release anything untill the money has gone in to a 'physical' bank account that you can then ring up and get the bank to agree the money is there.

I also agree with the comments about the cheque wrote out with overpayment (and you sending the diffrence etc) but this is Paypal, so they have no excuse for 'overpayment'.

Like always, if you dont feel happy about it, forget it.
 
that sounds exactly like tony described.uncanny.so if the overpayment for the shipping expenses is all you lose,you still lose.having seen the e mail,reckon itsa scam. you will be taking that dosh from your account while the bouncy amount that was sent disappears
 
Thanks for the input. As advised I have sent an e-mail to him saying I will invoice him for the van, thru paypal and any other costs are down to him to pay directly. As you all say I dont think I will hear anything else. I have also sent a copy of the e-mail and his e-mail address to Pay pal to see what they say - If its a scam I hope they catch the b****
 
Thanks Firefox - It is exactly the same words - this will also get the old fella off my back - Deffo a Scam........

Thanks all - you really are a great bunch.

Teen
 
I had the same thing happen last month.
The pay pal payment was to be held by pay pal until the van was delivered and then pay pal would pay the person selling.
I went to the bank to pay with all the print outs from surposidly pay pal. and the bank manager came out and advised me not to go ahead with the transaction. It turned out that it was fraudulent. The pay pal letters looked convincing even to the one I GOT IN REPLY TO MY ASKING THEM TO VERIFY THAT THE TRANSACTION WAS BONAFIDE. The E bay letters all looked good as well. But it was a scam and they are now being prosecuted. They had scammed over a dozen people before getting to me.
Dopnt trust any pay pal letters whatever you do. Let your bank have a look at the transaction for you.
 
Think I'm a bit late here, as you seem to have realised that this is unfortunately a scam. I have regular dealings with Paypal and I've heard of this type of "too good to be true" offer (which works as others here have clearly described for you) fairly regularly. The scammer obviously only needs a very small percentage of people to be duped from the hundreds of fake deals offered, and he makes his money! Another ploy they use is to hijack a genuine Paypal members account, and use those details to deal with you.

He will rely on just a few people being too naive, or too trusting. Also, however too good to be true it seems, and however many alarm bells it rings, a part of you would still like to believe it and can imagine a genuine transaction taking place, so you don't like to give up on the potential deal too easily!

Walk away from this "imaginary deal" and wait for a genuine buyer to come along. (or donate your motorhome to me, at least it would go to a good home!)
 
I've advertised two motorhomes this year and received this email each time. It's a scam so don't be taken in by it!!
 
teen said:
Thanks Firefox - It is exactly the same words - this will also get the old fella off my back - Deffo a Scam........

Thanks all - you really are a great bunch.

Teen
Click to expand...

No probs.

If anyone has the time, you can turn the tables on these scammers by pretending to play along. Waste their time asking for more details from their side like photographs, bank statements etc. Give false details for yourself back in return. Some people make a hobby out of how far they can string the scammers along with them!
 
Firefox said:
If anyone has the time, you can turn the tables on these scammers by pretending to play along. Waste their time asking for more details from their side like photographs, bank statements etc. Give false details for yourself back in return. Some people make a hobby out of how far they can string the scammers along with them!
Click to expand...

I was one of them! :lol-053:
 
Another thing you can do is ask for an email address and see if in fact the email is coming from the location that they say...
have a look at www.emailtrackerpro.com the program can be used full function for 15 days and it traces on a world map
where in fact the email was sent from.

It requires you to know what email headers are (explained) and you copy and paste this info into the program for it to use.
If memory serves me correctly it explains how to use it with hotmail and gmail etc.

Not many people are aware such programs exist.
 
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