Nimbusgb
Well-known member
Looking for something a little more suited to shoots grounds ( Southdown track for example ) I've been perusing the pages of Autotrader looking for a late model Mercedes Ml 320. Something I can use that won't cost £1500 every time there's a pot hole in a Sussex road ( so 17" rims and nice beefy all-terrain, high profile tyres ) I'll keep the blue monster for summer and the dry weather.
I have now had 2 serious attempts by rip-off merchants trying to separate significant wedges of cash from my wallet and several attempts to wheedle lesser sums.
Both went along similar lines.
Attempted contact via Autotrader anonymised telephone number) . No answer to call ( made from mobile phone ) but within an hour of that call get a text message back with email contact details. ( other party obviously 1571'd to get my number.)
The first one said she was deaf so couldn't use phone calls. ( I do know that a lot of deaf people now use either a speech-to-text convertor or a 'middleman' interface where someone does translations to a text display ) the email address 'she' was using is [email protected]
A couple of emails and I was told that the seller was currently out of the country and I was directed to a website purporting to be from a specialist car transport company. http://www.td-distribution-motors-ltd.co.uk/ which looks like a legitimate company until you start investigating their site, ( tracking service doesn't work, site only registered a few days ago, several 'odd bits about it )
The deal is supposed to be that you deposit money in escrow, they deliver that car and you get 10 days to decide on the deal at which point they release the money to the seller.
Now I know I may look like a mug but you'd be a fool to believe that I am that f....g dumb!
I dropped it like a hot potato and contacted Autotrader. We exchanged a few emails and they got back to me saying they had pulled more than 20 adverts placed by the same person.
Just today I had a very similar scenario start to unroll with a supposed independent middle man involved. Bugger another scam deal.
I have my suspicions of where the money might have ended up in both cases, suffice to say the middle east would be a good guess.
Last week I said yes to a local deal and arranged to finalise on Sunday. Sunday morning phoned up the vendor and she said the vehicle had been sold by her partner. ( No I hadn't given her a deposit thankfully but we had shaken hands on the deal , stupid cow! )
On Sunday I drove 70 miles to look at another vehicle. Lovely set of photographs from a vendor with street frontage and a decent showroom. Get there and it turns out that the photo's were quite skilfully taken to hide grubby carpets and there was no mention of the Engine Management light that was glaring on the dash. ( I carry a bluetooth diagnostic reader in my car, plugged it in and downloaded a litany of fault codes - looked like the mass airflow meter and perhaps one Oxygen sensor were on the fritz, oh and the last service had certainly not been done at a Merc dealer as hinted to by the service book.
)
Now for the latest one.
Car near Heathrow, excellent set of photos again, supposedly private sale. made an 'offer' through the website of 20% below the asking price which was accepted almost immediately ( red flag #1 )
I have no doubt that a meeting in some quiet car park somewhere will be arranged at which point I will probably be the target of a mugging ( in the hope that I am stupid enough to pitch up with £10k in cash )
Would it be prudent of me to ask say 20 of my fellow forum members to accompany me to said car park? Should they wish to bring their favourite gun along so that we can discuss the finer points of ribs, cast, trigger action and chokes while we wait I would have no objection!
I haven't had a response to my email about how they expect the 'deal' to be done yet, I'll let you know!
Be warned there are a lot of scams about these days. Be very, very careful.
PS: anyone got a ML 320 oil burner they want to sell me?
<edit> oohh just had a thought. Could arrange to meet at west london shooting school or AC sporting targets then I could legally have my gun handy! )
I have now had 2 serious attempts by rip-off merchants trying to separate significant wedges of cash from my wallet and several attempts to wheedle lesser sums.
Both went along similar lines.
Attempted contact via Autotrader anonymised telephone number) . No answer to call ( made from mobile phone ) but within an hour of that call get a text message back with email contact details. ( other party obviously 1571'd to get my number.)
The first one said she was deaf so couldn't use phone calls. ( I do know that a lot of deaf people now use either a speech-to-text convertor or a 'middleman' interface where someone does translations to a text display ) the email address 'she' was using is [email protected]
A couple of emails and I was told that the seller was currently out of the country and I was directed to a website purporting to be from a specialist car transport company. http://www.td-distribution-motors-ltd.co.uk/ which looks like a legitimate company until you start investigating their site, ( tracking service doesn't work, site only registered a few days ago, several 'odd bits about it )
The deal is supposed to be that you deposit money in escrow, they deliver that car and you get 10 days to decide on the deal at which point they release the money to the seller.
Now I know I may look like a mug but you'd be a fool to believe that I am that f....g dumb!
I dropped it like a hot potato and contacted Autotrader. We exchanged a few emails and they got back to me saying they had pulled more than 20 adverts placed by the same person.
Just today I had a very similar scenario start to unroll with a supposed independent middle man involved. Bugger another scam deal.
I have my suspicions of where the money might have ended up in both cases, suffice to say the middle east would be a good guess.
Last week I said yes to a local deal and arranged to finalise on Sunday. Sunday morning phoned up the vendor and she said the vehicle had been sold by her partner. ( No I hadn't given her a deposit thankfully but we had shaken hands on the deal , stupid cow! )
On Sunday I drove 70 miles to look at another vehicle. Lovely set of photographs from a vendor with street frontage and a decent showroom. Get there and it turns out that the photo's were quite skilfully taken to hide grubby carpets and there was no mention of the Engine Management light that was glaring on the dash. ( I carry a bluetooth diagnostic reader in my car, plugged it in and downloaded a litany of fault codes - looked like the mass airflow meter and perhaps one Oxygen sensor were on the fritz, oh and the last service had certainly not been done at a Merc dealer as hinted to by the service book.
) Now for the latest one.
Car near Heathrow, excellent set of photos again, supposedly private sale. made an 'offer' through the website of 20% below the asking price which was accepted almost immediately ( red flag #1 )
I have no doubt that a meeting in some quiet car park somewhere will be arranged at which point I will probably be the target of a mugging ( in the hope that I am stupid enough to pitch up with £10k in cash )
Would it be prudent of me to ask say 20 of my fellow forum members to accompany me to said car park? Should they wish to bring their favourite gun along so that we can discuss the finer points of ribs, cast, trigger action and chokes while we wait I would have no objection!
I haven't had a response to my email about how they expect the 'deal' to be done yet, I'll let you know!
Be warned there are a lot of scams about these days. Be very, very careful.
PS: anyone got a ML 320 oil burner they want to sell me?
<edit> oohh just had a thought. Could arrange to meet at west london shooting school or AC sporting targets then I could legally have my gun handy!
)
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