Fraud Alert Advice   - Vehicle Virus

Key advice if you are involved in sales transactions:

1) Be particularly wary of any sale where:

The ‘buyer' appears to want to remain distant from you (such as not wishing to meet you or see the goods prior to purchase or by their using a third party as an intermediary or ‘shipping agent')
You receive a cheque or banker's draft in payment that is for more money than your asking price At the time of receipt or later you receive a request to send all or some of this difference to the ‘buyer', a third party or a ‘shipping agent' by way of money transfer (irrespective of whether their cheque or banker's draft has already entered your account).

As it is most likely an attempt at FRAUD with you as the intended victim. This is because a stolen cheque or bankers draft can be recalled by the bank even after the funds have gone through the clearing cycle and are showing on your account. Any money transferred by you cannot be recalled once sent.

You will not be reimbursed by the bank for your loss

2) If you do become concerned during a sale:

Don't be afraid to ask questions of your ‘buyer'

Don't be hurried along by your ‘buyer' - This is often a tactic used by a fraudster to get you to make a mistake

Check the details of any payment received- Do they correspond with what you know of your ‘buyer’. If payment is by way of a company cheque or banker's drafts try to contact the company directly to verify its legitimacy

Talk to your bank – They will be able to give you guidance and clarify the status of any payments received ultimately, don't be afraid to turn down a suspect ‘buyer'

3) If you do lose money to this type of fraud report the matter to your local police.

4) Help us by passing this method of fraud on to others to reduce its chance of success.

There are many examples of attempts around motor vehicles due mainly to the value of these transactions creating room for ‘profit'.

For example;

Sale of a car -
A woman advertised her Porsche 911 cabriolet for sale for £37,990 in ‘vehicle virus' and was contacted by a ‘buyer' purporting to be in Holland on E-mail. She was then asked to accept a UK banker's draft for £43,680 from a third party in the UK who owed money to the ‘buyer' and send the £5,690 difference by way of a money transfer to a ‘shipping agent' once the funds cleared.

Sale of a Commercial Van -
A man advertised his van in ‘vehicle virus' and was contacted by a ‘buyer' purporting to be in Spain. He was asked to accept a bankers draft from a third party in the UK for £14,300, £4300 more than the asking price, on the understanding that once this cleared his account he would forward the difference by way of ‘money transfer' to a shipping agent.

Sale of a Motorcycle -
A man advertised his motorcycle for sale last week in ‘vehicle virus' for £3800. Within one week he had received three different approaches from ‘buyers' abroad offering to purchase it by banker's draft or UK cheque for a sum significantly above the asking price on the proviso that he transferred the difference via ‘money transfer' to a ‘shipping agent'.