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There is a growing car shipping scam on the internet which has
been
targeting sellers of cars, boats, motorbikes
and other single
high value
items, even horses !
We first came across this in January when we
were approached
by a car dealer in Australia who had been
directed to a
website purporting to be on of 1st Move International's car shipping sites.
Car Shipping Scam: The hook
Fraudsters had copied aspects of our site and were advising
potential victims that they would buy their vehicle
and ship it via their
approved shippers, pointing the victim to this so called shipping site
which they had published themselves.
Once the seller had been "hooked" the fraudster then sends a
cheque to
the seller for the cost of the vehicle
and, very kindly,
includes in this
payment the costs for shipping the vehicle overseas.
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Car Shipping Scam: The Con.
Say the car is being sold for £ 4000.00 and the shipping costs are
£1000.00, you, the seller, get a nice little
cheque for
£5000.00 which
you duly bank. The bank may even advise you that the funds are in your
account,
cleared and safe.
Car Shipping Scam: The Sting.
Within a few days you will be asked to send a slice of this money to
the shipping agent in order to pay for the shipping. ( the shipping costs
of £1000.00)
You are requested to send this money by Western Union or Moneygram which you do as you have
been paid..
This transfer is untraceable and cashed immediately.
Meanwhile your bank tells you 10 days later that the original cheque has
bounced and promptly takes the
money out of your account.
You have been conned For £ 1000.00 !
or dollars, yen, euros whatever, this scam is worldwide.
NEVER SEND MONEY BY WESTERN UNION, LEGITIMATE COMPANIES HAVE BANK
ACCOUNTS. BANK ACCOUNTS ARE TRACEABLE.
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Latest Scam
Warning:
Criminal gangs target car buyers through online car traders
and auction sites.
Beware of individuals or websites offering to sell you a car
below market price.
These scammers advertise great deals
on car trading websites
and will ask you to
send money before they ship your car. They will tell you the
car is with their shipping agent and point you to a website
which claims to securely hold your cash while they ship the
car to you. They
will even direct you to, what looks like, a
reputable car shipping website, or money escrow site, but
one they have simply copied from the web and changed the
contact numbers to their partners in crime.
Copying a website is a very simple cut and paste job and
some of these criminal
websites can look very, very
convincing. However, they are
simply copies of
genuine websites with the contact details changed. Phone
numbers
listed are to untraceable mobiles and emails sent to
you via bulk email accounts. If an email comes simply from
an email account or an internet service provider be very
suspicious.
Genuine companies will email you through their website:
example:
jim@autocarshippers.com is good,
autocarshippers@hotmail.com is
a con.
Always check your email headers by looking at
the properties
of the email sender.
Tip: simply right click any email address, look at
properties and you can usually
see exactly where the email has come from.
We currently
receive over 10 emails a day from victims of this fraud,
this is now
big business and easy money for fraudsters. It has also been
the subject of a BBC investigation. You can see the news
report on the
BBC News: Car Shipping Scam...
See the report
here. See also IC3
warning on
auction fraud here:
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- Don't get
caught! Good advice.
Be cautious of overcomplicated transactions involving shipping agents,
business partners, middle men and so on, all designed to leave you
seriously out of pocket, and the crooks with your cash.
- As with all online transactions please check the credentials
of who are
you are dealing with. If it sounds to good to be true, then it normally
is. Please also be aware that anyone can just copy and paste a
website, change a few contact details and they are in business.
Always check out the website URL and contact the real site owners if
you are suspicious.
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- If you receive an email from someone check
that the email is coming from a reputable website.
If it is coming from just an
email account and not a genuine company
be very, very suspicious.
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UK shipping companies, or Freight Forwarders, belong to the British
International Freight Association (BIFA).
You can check
their site here:
www.bifa.org.
Better still why not call
the
shipping agent personally and check them out.
They do a
good job and
will be happy to help and advise on all things shipping. If you get that
itchy feeling in the back of your neck
and say Hmmmm. Then walk away.
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