NSW
2115 posts
I'm selling a car and had and offer within 10 minutes of placing the ad without the guy even seeing it! He wants to pay via paypal. Its sounding like a scam but does anyone know how a paypal scam would work.
NSW
862 posts
Scam works by you sending him money to set up the freight for the car. They ask you for a hundred bucks or so, then you never hear from them again. In my opinion, you should never sell a car to someone unless you meet them, or at least speak on the phone.
Michael
NSW
7757 posts
The answer to this is depends. Is he actually paying for the car with Paypal? The money is simply transferred to your account and you hold the money and give him the car. The only real scam is if he claims a problem with Paypal after the fact and gets his money back and has your car. EBay/Paypal[same company] do have a good record for returning money when there is a problem so there is scope for scamming.
I recently bought a '99 Mercedes off eBay, sight unseen from Melbourne. I paid a $500 deposit with Paypal and picked up the car and paid the rest in cash. I was prepared to lose the $500 or squabble over it with Paypal. As it turned out the car was immaculate and the seller was an Afghani uni student/school teacher, been in the country 3 months! Plenty of opportunities for this to go tits up!
Paypal always seems to favour the buyer.
I would take a deposit with Paypal and cash when collected. Do not organise freight unless you have all the money in your hand.
If you think its a bit fishy then there is a very good chance it is.
NSW
2140 posts
The other way the scam works is that the buyer is overseas and can't pick up the goods himself so he organises for an agent to pick up the goods from you.
The sting is that the "agent" needs to be paid for upfront, by you. Bye bye money.
I was selling a BMW on Allclassifieds.com.au and had scammers come out of the woodwork to "buy" my BMW. There was just that upfront payment of $800 for the agent's fees that needed to be paid. ha ha ha ha ... nice try scammers.
