Car Scams and other Scams. BUYER BEWARE!!!

[Some Asian Bloke]

So I was looking at all the cars that were for sale and came across some peculiar ones that stood out like a sore thumb:

"Mercedes-Benz CLK320 A209"
"2006 Chevrolet Corvette"
"2006 Nissan 350Z Z33"

The prices are ridiculously cheap at around a consistant AU$9300 considering I myself drive a 350Z and it cost a little over $50k.

Anyway...I responded to the ad and got an immediate response. I tried it again with all the other "cheap" cars and got a response straight away. I think this is an automated email and the response that I got for all three goes like this...

"Hello,

First of all I want to thank you for contact me and your interest in my car and is still available for sale.I must inform you that I sell at this price(AU$9300) because i just finished the divorce with my husband and for that we have to split the car and I only get a small part of the money and i do not want to sell it with lots of money, and this is the reason why I sell it so cheap.YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORRY IS REGISTERED IN MY NAME,Car is in great condition and was never involved in an accident,no scratches, flaws or any kind of damage, slightly used in 100% working and looking conditions,never dropped or laid down and comes with a clear title which you will receive at once with the car along with the car's papers, 3 months transferable warranty.From the begining you have to know that i want a safe transaction and for the payment I request ONLY secure pay, I prefer the payment to be done using eBay services.We will use a safe payment method because I am affiliated at eBay and I have a purchase protection account for $20.000 and eBay will guarantee this transaction between us.
I will wait for your answer very soon.If you are interested to buy i'm sure that we can close the deal as soon as possible.

Thank you"

The same response in all emails is a guaranteed scam. If that doesn't get you then more than likely this person will send a phishing site that is similar in looks to a PayPal site. Another way to steal your money.

As you may have all heard before, try and get a personal inspection of the vehicle. If the seller refuses, then it's a guaranteed no-go zone.

Also there are some that are real even at those prices but these are mainly stolen vehicles and some are welded together from "chopshops". If you're going to check these out, then I would advise you to bring along an RAA Inspector at your own expense and also run a check on the cars previous owners and check out the stolen car registry at your local police station. They have a large database of reported stolen cars. You'll know something isn't right when the seller doesn't allow you to bring along a third party to inspect the vehicle or they'll either say it was already sold. Then you check an ad a week later and the same car is for sale at that price albeit with a stolen and different licence plate.

It pays to be vigilant when it comes to buying anything. Do the hard yards. Do the research before committing to anything. If it doesn't feel right, then don't follow through.

Hope this helps.

I'll add some other scams that have been posted on Gumtree that I have come across and have also become a victim of. I'm just a little pressed for time at the moment.

Cheers =D

[nards]

It is good that you warn people about these things because unfortunately there are people that will fall for it and won't realise it until it's much too late and they have lost substantial amounts of money. I have heard of car scams on Ebay

[emels]

Here's another one: http://melbourne.gumtree.com.au/c-Cars-for-Sale-cars-5K-Honda-Accord-2003-Like-New-W0QQAdIdZ58094404

I got a very similar reply as:

First of all I want to thank you for your interest for my car.I sell at this price($7000)because i just finished the divorce with my husband.When the divorce has finished i own this car. Now as a woman i don't need.This car is in excellent working conditions and looking conditions.From the beginning you have to know that for the payment I request ONLY secure pay,I prefer the payment to be done using eBay services.We will use a safe payment method because I am affiliated at eBay and I have a purchase protection account for $20.000. The final price that I want for this car is $ 7000 including shipping and handling.If you are interested in buying it please provide me your full name and address so I can initiate the deal through eBay.I will wait your answer(if you are interested to buy) very soon!
Thank you

[christyp]

"never dropped or laid down" lol pretty hard thing to do with a car!!

[Julz_130]

I think I came across another one but not too sure I wouldn't be buying it


Hello,



The car is in excelent condition as it's presented in the add.

I always kept it in my garage,away from bad weather and it looks gorgeous.
It's my personal car.No money owning ,no finance .

I've worked in Australia for the last 2 years and I've purchased the car there. My company wanted me back home, so currently I'm in Milano. I've brought the car home with me and it's now located in Italy since Jan 2008 and still has Australian Rego !

I've decided that it's better to sell it because I don`t use it anymore (the steering wheel is on the right side and it' very difficult for me to drive it), it `s a pity to keep such a car and not to use it.
Now I'm trying to sell it back for such a low price because next week I have a deadline term for paying those taxes.
I tried to sell the car in Italy , but nobody want to buy a right side steering wheel car.
It has title of ownership, cleared of any obligations or fees and comes with all the documents you need to register it and a new RWC will be provided on purchase.

My car is already at DAS airfreight department international delivery at their local representant.

We can use an escrow agreement to facilitate payment so that we both can be 100 % protected.


I will also supply some more pictures as soon as i get home from work.


If you are interested , please reply with the following information's in order to arrange shipping at DAS airfreight department:
-Your full name ;
-FULL delivery address(with zip code);



It may be legit. Anyone have any ideas??????

[Kurnai]

EXACTLY the same reply, Word for Word for a Winabbago(?) that was on here a few weeks ago, there was also a Harley PanHead ..same reply..

[fairgo]

scammers will fish for fools and they will catch a few! Have a look at scamwatch and learn before it's too late;
http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/content/index.phtml/tag/SCAMwatchRadar/

[carly2]

Gumtree does nothing about the scammers that use this site. There are scams on every single category so Gumtree are potentially opening up people to scams all the time, they should be held responsible as they make no effort to control it.

I would never buy anything from Gumtree as apart from anything it takes too long to find anything when you have to search between the hundreds of scams every day. Gumtree are useless in every aspect and allow scammers to put on ads with no phone number and obvious scamming text and when reported do nothing.

My advice is do not use Gumtree at all to sell or buy anything as they are inadequate in every way. Considering this is Australia and scammers if found are likely to be prosecuted I would imagine Gumtree will be having a few visits from police soon based on the recent prosecution of the sydney ebayer who did the same thing.

[maDDmike]

ive bought a quite a few things off gumtree(computer, graphics card, phone, games, guitars) and sold a few things(games, laptop and various parts). I would never pay for something now that ive been scammed without physically seeing / testing what ive bought before passing cash over.

Educating people who use this site could become helpful especially when it comes to buying things off Gumtree. Maybe a little tutorial or sign up to this part(discussion area) of gumtree should be involved before you buy / sell and a stronger sign up form to help stem the automated and scamming ads from ever appearing on gumtree.

[deejayceer]

The 'car in Italy because of my job' scam is on the Vans/Utes section right now - asking a low price for a 2004 Mercedes Vito. Here's the reply I got:

The vehicle is in excelent condition as it's presented in the add.

I always kept it in my garage,away from bad weather and it looks gorgeous.
It's my personal car.No money owning ,no finance .

I've worked in Australia for the last 2 years and I've purchased the car there. My company wanted me back home, so currently I'm in Milano. I've brought the car home with me and it's now located in Italy since Jan 2008 and still has Australian Rego !

I've decided that it's better to sell it because I don`t use it anymore (the steering wheel is on the right side and it' very difficult for me to drive it), it `s a pity to keep such a car and not to use it.
Now I'm trying to sell it back for such a low price because next week I have a deadline term for paying those taxes.
I tried to sell the car in Italy , but nobody want to buy a right side steering wheel car.
It has title of ownership, cleared of any obligations or fees and comes with all the documents you need to register it and a new RWC will be provided on purchase.

My car is already at DAS airfreight department international delivery at their local representant.

We can use an escrow agreement to facilitate payment so that we both can be 100 % protected. www.escrow.com

I will also supply some more pictures as soon as i get home from work.

If you are interested , please reply with the following information's in order to arrange shipping at DAS airfreight department:
-Your full name ;
-FULL delivery address(with zip code);

There's an old saying - if something seems too good to be true, it usually is.

[AndrewR2]

Seen a couple today - they seem too good to be true at less than half the price stated in similar ads. Also, they stated they were in Adelaide, when the pictures showed interstate plates....Hmmm.

As the saying goes... if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Edit: I have come to the conclusion that there is no point in searching Gumtree for used cars as most of them are SPAM anyway....May as well search a site where you don't have to first decide if the seller is genuine or not..

[EllenBennett]

THATS WHY YOU BUY FROM A LICENCED MOTOR CAR DEALER AS YOU ARE PROTECTED 100% YOU CAN NEVER LOOSE YOUR MONEY ONLY FOOLS BUY PRIVATELY SO DONT CRY IF YOU GET CAUGHT

[gumtreeryan]

Hi there,

We work hard on keeping the site “clean” for our users and have clear guidelines to advertisers when posting their ads, and also in the Policies section on the site.

We also welcome and encourage all kinds of feedback from our users, especially the sort that helps us keep the site free from “rubbish” ads, which is why we have a "Report this Ad" box which you will find on the right hand corner of every ad. Consequently we have removed the posting that you have reported and the rest of the ads belonging to that poster from the site, since majority of the ads posted by this particular poster didn’t comply with Gumtree posting rules.

However there can always be improvement and we are continually looking to make further improvements so that we can ensure the site is kept as “clean” as possible.

We appreciate you all warning other users about scams and please do let us know via the “Report this Ad” button if you spot any ads in the future that you feel we should take a look at.

Let me know if I can help you with anything else.

Thanks

[daveycast]

she sent me the exact same reply.

[weeowen]