Too good to be true?

Spottyappy

Spottyappy

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Following on from some threads about ebay scams, I have tonight been doing some detective work. If you were to buy this horsebox you may be thinking you have an excellent buy. You will never take possession of it, and will loose your money. Here is the link to the advert
http://www.horsemart.co.uk/horsebox_carries_2_stalls_09_reg_london/Horseboxes-Trailers/262756

This is a prime example of too good to be true, and it is. You will loose every penny of your money. The scammer will persuade you to part with the whole sum, as they use tactics similar to brain washing, so seem totally and utterly believe able.
Here is the proper advert and price:
http://www.barlowtrailers.co.uk/Bar...uo-weekender-horsebox-35t-wagon-in-white-u934

I have informed both the selling website, and the proper owner of the vehicle, but so far have not seen the advert pulled.
I hope this will help even one person avoid the type of scams mentioned in the other threads.
 
Unbelievable. Granted the price is FAR too good to be true. Interestingly, this is not a free email account they have used either.

Great fat thumbs up for pointing this out. Think the board should keep this up... and actually think H&H would be doing all a favour if they made this thread a sticky. This would help both potential buyers, vendors and anyone sensible enough to google search the details.
 
Cobs, the fraudsters will seem totally genuine,emphatic and believable over phone or email.
They profile their victims,and work in a way I liken to brain washing,so you are totally taken in and trust them.
Victim is so taken in that they willingly send the money,by bank transfer. Even without seeing the goods. After all, the vendor is lovely, helpful and friendly and the goods a bargain!
This payment method can not be recalled by the banks,and The fraudster vanishes along with your money.
I see it almost daily at work, in a bank. Very sad, customers often loose life savings to some of the scammers.
 
Spottyapp it may help the police to see this. Would be great if it didn't get pulled. Got police officer to come and see me on Thursday about my fraud case. Could show him that .... might get the catch some of these b****ds :)
 
Cobsgalore what they do is ask you to pay buy directly into a bank account. They use one of 2 tactics.
1) They say they have had huge interest in the horsebox & that you need to pay a 'refundable' deposit ASAP & they will not let anyone else view it. Obviously once deposit is paid you never hear from them again.
2) They tell you they will deliver the horsebox to you. You pay the
Money into a supposed 3rd party 'holding account'. The seller tells you that the money will only be released to them once you are happy with the horsebox. Obviously the 'holding account' is no such thing & once they have your money you never hear from them again.
:(
 
glamourpuss said:
Cobsgalore what they do is ask you to pay buy directly into a bank account. They use one of 2 tactics.
1) They say they have had huge interest in the horsebox & that you need to pay a 'refundable' deposit ASAP & they will not let anyone else view it. Obviously once deposit is paid you never hear from them again.
2) They tell you they will deliver the horsebox to you. You pay the
Money into a supposed 3rd party 'holding account'. The seller tells you that the money will only be released to them once you are happy with the horsebox. Obviously the 'holding account' is no such thing & once they have your money you never hear from them again.
:(
Click to expand...

SCARY really how many already know about this scam and YET nothing is been done about it. I had to go to my MP to get the Police involved!!!

Thanks for sharing these details, glamourpuss :)
 
some people are stoopid, like my dad! he got scammed on ebay, he asked a question about a quad bike type vehicle, which was about £1k less than it should have been!

The guy emailed him back and said he could have it for less for a quick sale, he'd invoice my dad, via ebay and would arrange for delivery! my dad is a very intellegent person, runs two of his own businesses but some how fell for this mans lies!

The dude emailed a very real looking ebay invoice to my dad and asked my dad to transfer the money into his account! which he stupidly done! funny enough the quad never arrived! £3.5k later my dad had nothing to show for it!

They then showed me the emailed etc and the first thing I noticed was that there was no security badge next to the email that said it was safe but all the other ebay emails in his in box! we then noticed the email address was different to the other emails he'd received!

over a year later the police found the account that the money went to but my dad never got his money back as he transferred it online! ebay wouldnt help as there was no connection on the website as my dad never actually bid on the item! he literally just asked a question!

makes me really angry!
 
Kerrieberrie your poor dad :(
I emailed about a stable block that were very reasonable. The invoice was perfect, you'd honestly not know it wasn't from EBay!
The only thing that made me suspicious was it only showed up in my Emails there was no evidence on my EBay account or EBay messages.
I dread to think how many people got ripped off by it :(

I contacted the police regarding mine even though I didn't lose any money, they were the ones that told me about the other ways these scams work.
 
The ad is for a Vauxhall - the vehicle is clearly a Renault!
The unladen wight is also unbelievable - its a UK record I think :rolleyes:
It also doesn't need anyone with even half a brain to see that a 09 plate is worth a heck of a lot more.

Are people really that daft?

Well done for spotting it OP tho - hope the person who owns the vehicle gets to know they are having their box scammed out in pics :mad:
 
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glamourpuss said:
Oh & the police said that people aren't stupid that get ripped off. These are organised criminals, they are clever & deceitful.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Galmourpuss. I am normally a very careful person, but I am not very eBay savvy (or internet for that matter).

The eBay invoice looked very genuine to me and they said all the right things :(


Thanks for your apology, Kerrieberry :)
 
While I am sure your case was plausible Bille I do think people have the right to give their own thoughts on an open forum. I'm not directing the following directly at you..

Some of these cons are plausible and I feel very sorry for the victims but the majority (including this one) are simply too good to be true. if people used their common sense these obvious cons wouldnt exist - buying something unseen is one of the obvious pitfalls in this situation, I just dont understand why someone would hand over a large amount of money for something they havent even seen let alone checked over

I think the cons artists rely on people's greed I'm afraid to say
 
I think what people who are asking 'are people really stupid enough to fall for this' are forgetting is these people know what they're doing.
I can guarantee if you emailed asking why it was so cheap there would be a seemingly plausible reason:
A divorce
Money needed very quickly for a vet bill
Money needed quickly because job lost
Sudden relocation abroad with work
Owner is very ill

In the case of the stables I enquired about the vendor claimed he had a contractor coming in to start a new building & he had been let down by the last seller.
 
Welsh D,although some people have an element of wanting to get a bargain,I have dealt with many for whom that is far from the case.
They have even met the fraudsters,and so know they exist.
They are then sucked into many,many lies but these often involve sob stories of people needing money to help ailing relatives,or soldiers and immigrants.
These con artists are very very clever,profile their victims and will sometimes take months to get to the actual con,again brain washing if you like.
Hopefully for those who saw the adverts,it has alerted them to the fact this type of scam happens and victims are often ordinary,sensible people who are just in the wrong place at the wrong time, in a sense.
 
glamourpuss said:
I think what people who are asking 'are people really stupid enough to fall for this' are forgetting is these people know what they're doing.
I can guarantee if you emailed asking why it was so cheap there would be a seemingly plausible reason:
A divorce
Money needed very quickly for a vet bill
Money needed quickly because job lost
Sudden relocation abroad with work
Owner is very ill
.
Click to expand...

Absolutely but its up to the buyer to be more aware, if its too good to be true but is backed up with an explanation that makes it plausible its worth the money to travel and see surely? There arent many parts of the UK that cant be travelled to within a day. If you cant make the journey you simply say to yourself its not worth the risk and walk away.

Even if its genuine it could arrive and have ripped seats, a broken ramp, broken partitions, no spare wheel etc... its a lot of money to spend on something you havent seen. If there arent any similar boxes at a similar price closer to home you have to ask yourself why.

Spottyappy, I can see your points completely and as I said before I feel sorry for victims of clever fraud but this is a 'straightforward' con aimed at a quick transaction and blatently too good to be true
 
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Basically don't ever use a bank transfer to pay for something online and certainly not something you haven't seen/isn't already in your possession.

I struggle to see it as rocket science tbh and am amazed that people would even consider the above on significant amounts of money regardless of how good the fraudsters are.

How do they profile their victim when they don't know who will 'buy' it?
 
Ester,have no idea how these fraudsters profile their victims,it is very clever in the sense they know who is likely to be their victim,from a simpe Phone or email conversation to start with. They then build on that.
They are highly skilled at what they do and that is what makes them believable.
 
Ok,so that ad was pulled, but the same people, I don't doubt, have relisted with a slightly different user id.
I have reported it, but seems we need the power of many HHO ers to get it removed as several hours in it is still live.
I have also reported it to action fraud on 0300 123 2040 which is what the police suggested.
http://www.horsemart.co.uk/horsebox_carries_2_stalls_09_reg_london/Horseboxes-Trailers/262807
The genuine owners emailed me and Said they were aware of their boxes being used for the scams, too, so suggested they also use action fraud.
 
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