[smalhotra_93]

I came across something similar as well ! There was a 2013 Range Rover Sport with just 5000kms on the clock and he was ready to sell it for 22L. I put in an email to the seller and got a call back almost instantly. Someone from the African region ( judging by his voice ) spoke up and gave me the details as like this is an embassy car and stuff .

[yaseenar]

Originally Posted by MetalBuff

Wow! Just wow!

Do you mind asking him to share the requisite documents (RC, receipts and the likes) with you? Would be great fun to see how the drama unfolds after that.

Is there anyway this can be reported to the police? I'm pretty sure using the IP tracing techniques this person could be tracked. Can't even begin to imagine how many peeps can fall prey to antics like these!

P.S. - A reasonable price tag probably in the 40-50L region would have spared him the scrutiny which he invited for himself with the current one. And I thought only Hyundai trumped at pricing their cars well

Cheerio,
-Shivang Gandotra

Sure. I am going to ask him for scanned copy of RC, Insurance etc.

[vinay.makhija]

Even i was trying to search for a super bike and came through two such bikes which were being sold online for a very cheap price and even tried to call them but the phone was switched off and realized that the same may be a scam. so left the same.

[Turbo_Torq]

I was scammed for around $410 i.e. 27k back in August. I made a mistake of having the seller ship the item to a relative's place in the US who'd have bought it back for me on their way back. The seller gave me a tracking number and kept constant communication for about a couple of months and even said that she had filed a complaint with her local post for non-delivery of the parcel. Follow-ups were promptly answered up until two months post which she stopped reverting; which is about the period that Paypal grants you to file a claim.

[Jaguar]

Came across a similar scam a couple of weeks ago while searching a car for a friend. A 2013 accord for 3 lakhs in bangalore. My friend even called up the bangalore number and the guy told him that he was leaving out of the country the very next day and will go park the car in the airport. We have to go to the airport, settle the parking charges, pay the remaining to an agent who will hand over the keys.

[nettooran]

"2013 Mahindra Xuv 500 W6 very good and nice condition its doctor car well used and less kms driven 24,600 kms price 6,78000 rs Well maintained, accident free and all services done as per schedule at company authorized service centre only".The pictures too justified the good condition. Location - kochi. That is a mouth watering offer. Isn’t it? Well I too had the same feeling when I first saw the add in OLX.
My colleague was looking for an upgrade to bigger can I felt this was a suitable one for him. Took down the number immediately and called. The phone was picked up by a foreigner at the other end. He had a heavy accent and explained to me that he is in Delhi now and the car is in Cochin. He said he will pass on the number of his acquaintance in Cochin and that I can talk to him.

A nice gentleman, I thought and within a minute I received another number with a name. My colleague called up the guy and found out that he too was not a Malayalee , but was an Indian ( by his accent ). He started talking to his broken English and this is the summary

The car is parked in Trivandrum Airport. It has been there for 40 days and thus accumulated a parking fee of Rs.82000. He is the customs officer there and will give his account number. I should transfer the parking fee to his account and then with the receipt , I need to go and meet the CRPF security at the airport and they will show me the car. The owner has signed all documents and it is with him. He said the car will only be shown after the payment of parking fee.
My friend said he shall get back to him cut the cal. When he checked the number in true caller, it Showed different names for same number.
No further talks with the guy, but for me this seems nothing other than a scam in the lines of the Nigerian lottery etc. I may not be 100 percent true, but all the talks with these guys add up to a cheating formula. Any of you guys faced or heard something on similar lines?

N.B. I do not wish to add those number or the olx link here since there is a 0.1 percent chance of this being a genuine case.

[Rahul Bhalgat]

Originally Posted by nettooran

The car is parked in Trivandrum Airport. It has been there for 40 days and thus accumulated a parking fee of Rs.82000. He is the customs officer there and will give his account number. I should transfer the parking fee to his account and then with the receipt , I need to go and meet the CRPF security at the airport and they will show me the car. The owner has signed all documents and it is with him. He said the car will only be shown after the payment of parking fee.

Thanks for sharing the information.

I have no words for this man, who says that the potential buyer of the car shall pay the accumulated parking fees of Rs. 82000/- just to inspect the car. This looks to be more of a mischief than a fraud; nobody will agree to this.

[Karthik Chandra]

Originally Posted by Rahul Bhalgat

Thanks for sharing the information.

I have no words for this man, who says that the potential buyer of the car shall pay the accumulated parking fees of Rs. 82000/- just to inspect the car. This looks to be more of a mischief than a fraud; nobody will agree to this.

While this is utter non sense, these guys must have pulled this off a couple of times, you'll be surprised to know that there are people who fall prey to such tactics and end up losing money.

One of my friends looking for an upgrade called up yesterday and told there is an 2011 X1 run 37K kms for about 11 lacs, that sounds very tempting, chances are it might be a scam like this. I've asked to hold on for the moment

Morons, couldn't come up with something logical and better, parking fee 82K, my foot

[asit.kulkarni93]

Last year I had come across something similar. There was a 2 year old Cruze put up for sale on olx for 4L. It was in a really good condition. I called the number mentioned on olx and exactly in the same way the foreigner was in Delhi and his car was at the pune airport. He gave me some custom's officers number. I started have my doubts after knowing about the involvement of a customs officer, so left it there. Now I understand the whole game!

Asit

[KK_HakunaMatata]

I have heard and read in newspapers that this is a sort of new modus operandi for scams. As per a newspaper report, many people have fallen pray to this and have ended up paying the parking fee / demurrage, whatever the scamsters call it as and then realising this as bogus.

I usually go for pre-owned cars, and I do not generally check out the advertisements selling cars at rates that is too less from the current market rates.

To sell at such low rates either the vehicle should be in a bad condition and they would be expecting huge repair costs or it may be some sort of scams.

[mayankk]

Originally Posted by Karthik Chandra

Morons, couldn't come up with something logical and better, parking fee 82K, my foot

For us all who understand the truth of "if its too good to be true.....", there are a hundred times more who dont.
419'ing is pretty old, but IS successful in india at least. Thats why we see so many ads/emails. Not just the uneducated, just a few days back I read of a government officer who lost some lacs. And recently a builder or something like that, made not one but 3 payments!! Go figure!

[sumeet007]

Originally Posted by nettooran

My colleague was looking for an upgrade to bigger can I felt this was a suitable one for him. Took down the number immediately and called. The phone was picked up by a foreigner at the other end. He had a heavy accent and explained to me that he is in Delhi now and the car is in Cochin. He said he will pass on the number of his acquaintance in Cochin and that I can talk to him.

A nice gentleman, I thought and within a minute I received another number with a name. My colleague called up the guy and found out that he too was not a Malayalee , but was an Indian ( by his accent ). He started talking to his broken English and this is the summary

The car is parked in Trivandrum Airport. It has been there for 40 days and thus accumulated a parking fee of Rs.82000. He is the customs officer there and will give his account number. I should transfer the parking fee to his account and then with the receipt , I need to go and meet the CRPF security at the airport and they will show me the car. The owner has signed all documents and it is with him. He said the car will only be shown after the payment of parking fee.
My friend said he shall get back to him cut the cal. When he checked the number in true caller, it Showed different names for same number.
No further talks with the guy, but for me this seems nothing other than a scam in the lines of the Nigerian lottery etc. I may not be 100 percent true, but all the talks with these guys add up to a cheating formula. Any of you guys faced or heard something on similar lines?

N.B. I do not wish to add those number or the olx link here since there is a 0.1 percent chance of this being a genuine case.

I had a similar experience in Bangalore a couple of days back.

There was (still is) and unbelievable deal for a 3 year old Range rover Evoque, highest variant, which should cost 80L for the new on road, for 35L.

He has even put up many photos of the light green Evoque dynamic HSE variant.

The offer, which sounds too good to be true was on Quikr, and when I called the number, the guy with a thick African accent, first asked details of what I do etc, (I told him I am a doctor), and I asked him if he was the owner or a dealer, he said he owns the car, and said he was currently very busy and I should text him my mail ID, to which he would send all details of the car.

I had a feeling he was a fraud, looking for a gullible caller whom he could con, but was carefully choosing his potential 'victim'! Any way I texted him my less used mail ID, and as i suspected there is no further mail from him.

[avira_tk]

There is an existing thread on this and surprisingly someone asking if the deal actually went through. I have no sympathy for people who fall for such scams, their greed is what drives them to even consider such obvious scams.
Cars are the second most expensive item you buy in this country, unless its a distress sale they aren't going to be cheaper than furniture. The only good deal I've heard of was an RS Octavia, a little over a year old with modifications that cost nearly as much as the car going for 10 lakhs. Reason was that the owner had to shut down his startup and pay off his creditors and he wanted cash. 10 lakhs is a good deal but not chump change. Carwale is where you can see more such scams, BMW 7 series for 7.5 and a Q7 for around 12, the photos themselves are giveaways.

[D C]

We recently came across a fraud / scam targeting used car buyers. I am not exactly sure what their intentions are, as this didn't go that far.

Last week, a friend called up and asked me to check out a Q3 listed in OLX for him. The listing looked just as any other listing and the vehicle was good and the price was lucrative- 18 Lacs for a 2 year old Q3 that clocked 21k kms.



The owner, who has a not so familiar accent, indicated that he is a doctor with a hospital in Chennai and he is selling the car as his contract with the hospital is over and he is returning to his home country – USA. Well, that justified the price tag a bit. He indicated that his father is from Mumbai and his mother is from the US. Since he was in Bangalore at that moment, he promised to send me the details of a local person in Chennai so I can go see the vehicle. The vehicle, as per him, is parked in the Airport parking and I may have to pay the parking charges if I need to take it out for a test drive. He further asked me for my address and email that is required for him to send the documents of the vehicle. That statement raised my alertness to the next level. Why would someone need a potential buyers address and email that early?

I got suspicious, and decided to understand if he is a genuine seller. I asked him specific questions from then on and here are some interesting points that came up during the discussion.

• The owner stated that he is in Bangalore for processing his travel papers with his country’s (US) embassy. There is no US embassy in Bangalore and the closest one for South India is in Chennai.
• He is not aware of the flood, which swept Chennai off its feet, in December 2015! In fact, he doesn't even recognize the word flood.
• A doctor who worked in a hospital in Chennai, does not remember where the hospital is located. A few minutes later, he stated the hospital location is HBR Layout, Chennai. Later, I did some research and found that the hospital he claimed to have worked is in Bangalore (not in HBR Layout, though). Looks like he is a bit familiar with Bangalore.
• When I asked him about his specialization, he said he is a doctor and does not seem to understand what a specialization means.
• He send me the number of a local contact in Chennai and stated that person works as an Admin Controller Officer, “Foreigner” Department at Chennai International Airport. Now, I really wish I could use more smileys!
• We checked all phone numbers he provided, and all of them are registered in Karnataka.

I immediately reported the post to OLX, and they promptly took it down. I was very impressed with that quick response from them.

Luckily, this one didn’t go anywhere as he was not smart enough. However, I do not believe that this is an isolated incident. There may be smarter people engaged in these type of scams elsewhere who could be a potential risk to someone.

[get2bid]

Bumping up an old thread for the benefit of the forum users.

Apologies for the long post, but this is something which is happening more and more these days and scamsters are finding newer and innovative ways to scam people.
__________________________________________________ ___________

This is also based on OLX and I was selling something, not buying.

The scamsters these days have become so advanced that if you are not careful, you will definitely fall for their tricks.

I had placed an advertisement on OLX to sell a personal item of mine. I received a text from a buyer showing interest and stating that he is interested in buying the item for the same price.
As is the usual trend, he said he is in a hurry to buy the item and wants to gift it to his sister. Now the item being a household item, did not ring any bells at this time.

He then mentioned that he will transfer the amount right away (NEFT) and then have someone pick it up. I was fine with this and provided my bank account number and IFSC code. He then asked me if the same phone number has been linked to this account. When he asked me this question, I had a few alarm bells ringing.
Now as a practice, I have linked a different number to all my bank accounts which I have been using for the last 15 years. I do not use this number for anything else. Only a few people are aware of this number and for any online/ offline communications, I use another number.
But I did not tell him that. I told him that he does not need to know about that since the phone number is not required for transferring the amount.
Even after that, he insisted on knowing that if it is the same number which is linked to the account. Now, by this time, I was sure that something is not right. So I told him that yes, this is the same number which is linked; just to check what happens next.

After a few minutes, I receive an SMS on my phone which says that your account has been credited with Rs:xxxx.

Now there are 2 things which happened.
1. The guy calls back and tells me that by mistake he has transferred more than the agreed upon amount and requests me to PayTM him the extra amount.
2. The SMS I received looked exactly like it was sent from my bank except that, every time I receive the same SMS, the SMS also contains my current balance.

Had the same phone number been listed with the bank, it would have been very difficult to identify that this is a fraud SMS.

So now, by the time he called me, I already knew that this is fraud and he is trying to con me. So when he asked me if I received the amount, I said that I will have to check with my bank to see if the amount has been credited since I am having trouble with my network related to SMS. He said that the SMS from the bank should have reached me and insisted that I should transfer the extra money to him via PayTM.

In a very polite language, I told him that I will check with the bank and get back. Since then, he never called me back and goes without saying, no money was deposited into my account.

So fellow bh-pians, please be aware that newer technologies are being used to scam people. An SMS from your bank about money being credited into your account might not be from your bank and might be a scamster trying to dupe you out of your hard-earned money. Stay safe and be vigilant.