Another one of these threads where we just need your helpful views on the situation to confirm whether we are or aren't being stupid!

So, my 19yr old brother is looking at Golfs on autotrader and comes across a 2009 Golf GTD with about 45000 miles for £3900. I know, cheap.

So I email the seller assuming there would have been something wrong with it, but they assure me there isn't, but they need a quick sale so price is slow. The car is currently in Sweden as they apparently moved out there taking the car with them, and the wife then got a company car with her job so they no longer need it. After exchanging emails (which were all in perfect English unlike most of the usual scams) they sent me lots more pictures of the car including a picture of a clear HPI check, and said that the car is already ready to be shipped to who ever buys it, and it would cost about £500 to get it delivered to me.

How much does importing a car usually cost? So overall they're asking for £4150 as they also said they'd cover half the cost of the transport.

It's a lovely car and it's probably worth twice the above figure by itself.

So, I've told my brother it surely has to be too good to be true -

Am I right? Is this just a better scam than the usual ones?

its a scam, avoid at all costs. common tactic employed by the scammers to say car is abroad. Don't pay a penny, there is no car.

Usual thing I'd suggest....if something looks too good to be true it usually is. I saw that HPI checks don't find cars that have been used as security on a loan either so that's another potential pitfall to try and avoid. Good luck in finding him an honest one.

Was the email address on the advert? Have you spoken to them on the phone?

 

Sounds pure scam to me... no one sells something that cheap... 80% market value would get you a quick sale.

Yes, to good to be true. If it was in the UK.. Still to good to be true.

Find another

Thanks. I just wanted the back up from other more knowledge people to confirm! Such a lovely looking car as well. Never mind!

If it sounds too good to be true, it normally is.

If you do a quick search on autotrader you quickly find it. Importing it seems a lot of hassle, even if it doesn't seem to good to be true.

Feel silly that I even considered it!

Thanks. I just wanted the back up from other more knowledge people to confirm! Such a lovely looking car as well. Never mind!

 

They are just pictures from someone elses advert, or ones found via google.

 

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201408026303891/sort/default/make/volkswagen/page/1/postcode/sg20qg/keywords/gtd/onesearchad/used%2Cnearlynew%2Cnew/model/golf/radius/1500/price-to/10000/usedcars/advert-type/Classified?logcode=p

 

If its this one, then its a hacked dealer account. Any advert asking for contact at a different email address or phone number from the dealer is a scam. Autotrader specifically say to avoid contacting such adverts.

Oh yeah, I hadn't seen the other dealer information!

If in doubt try a search online.

I typed in part of the email addy and came up with this.

http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&p=213424

As above, the very fact they have put their email address in the advert title (in an attempt to scam communicate with you outside of Autotrader) is the first obvious alarm bell after the 'too good to be true' asking price.

 

Make sure you report the advert to Autotrader.

There was another person on this forum not that long ago with a VERY similar story to you, chose to ignore the car and walk away. Wise choice if you ask me.

Tempted to setup a temp email address and waste some time for them. Not funny.

Tempted to setup a temp email address and waste some time for them. Not funny.

Go for it! See how far you get and make an example of it to make other Briskoda users aware of these scams

Tis done new address setup at Guerrilla Mail sent initial enquiry on if car is still available.

As it looks like a hacked dealer account why don't you call the dealer in question.

 

I wouldn't bother with the scammer - you will end up wasting a lot more time on it than they do.

Thanks. I just wanted the back up from other more knowledge people to confirm! Such a lovely looking car as well. Never mind!

Might be a lovely looking car - but you would probably never see it.

After reporting the advert Autotrader have now pulled it.

There was another person on this forum not that long ago with a VERY similar story to you, chose to ignore the car and walk away. Wise choice if you ask me.

I had the exact same experience - and in fact - the exact same bull poo attempted to be fed to me, 'the wife has been given a company car' 'it is best to use this shipping company' etc.

SCAM!  

Steer clear .

JRJG

Thanks a lot everyone. Just hope they haven't managed to get money off anyone else! Bet there are thousands of these adverts around. Sure my brother will find a good one soon.

He's looking at Golfs as mentioned, anything else really comparible? He's 19, A3's and 1 series are to expensive and costly to insure. Starting a new job soon so will be doing 35 miles a day (current job is only 1mile away) and often goes up to Liverpool which is a 500mile round trip so wants something which will comfortably munch the miles too. Around £6-7k to spend.

Exactly the same for me

That e-mail just doesnt read right.

There is some dodgey stuff about isnt there.

They stopped replying to me email when I said 'no thanks, I'll use my own transportation company' to see if they'd still try and persuade me to go along with it.

I guess they wouldn't bother doing it if there wasn't people out there who did pay them.

I wonder how much they actually make from doing this.

Quite depressing to think that they probably don't even work and are making more in 2 weeks doing this than I do in a year