potential scam?? thoughts welcome

I've been trying to sell my car privately and so far have had nothing but time wasters and ignorance.

However, my suspicions have been raised by a recent caller who seems very keen on the car.
While i realise a scan of the v5, photos galore, hpi checks etc are all par for the course his insistence that i bring the car to him so he can view it is worrying me.

This would involve a ten hour minimum round trip as he claims he needs his mechanic to see the car.

Despite offering alternatives such as a full service from a main dealer close to me his insistence remains.

Im suspicious, would you be?

a scan of the v5 is all that would be required to order a replacement v5 in his name.
relieving you of the car during the night and selling on with 'legitimate' documents.

HPI check needs registration and chassis number IIRC.
I certainly wouldn't go out of my way to show someone the car... thats your time and petrol. If he is genuine he'll make the time.
10 hours is unrealistic, a reasonable offer is to have a local 'RAC' style PPI done at his expense but locally to you.
I would however be more wary now and maybe offer to meet in a mutual place (away from your house)... supermarket car park for example.

maybe thats a bit OTT, but you really can never be too sure these days.

Chassis number/Vin Code are on the V5.
I am actually quite worried now.

If he's that keen on the car, he'll come to you.....i wouldn't do a 10 hrs round trip on the off chance.
And don't let anyone plug anything into your car. My neighbour has just had his RRS nicked. They came to look at it and said they brought a mechanic to check it over and wanted to check it wasn't clocked or anything.
They then tried to sell him a spare wheel(we had just had our stolen, Haqd mine taken from my D4 too).
they then left and said they'd think about it. They phoned later and said they wanted a second look. he aranged to meet them at his office, and told them the time he'd be there with the car. Next thing he knows is that they don't turn up and his car is gone.
Police told him they prob cloned the key code and walked up and drove it off round the corner, changed the plates and an hour later it's being loaded on a container for shipping abroad.
To make matters worse, until it's been officially declared stolen(at moment listed as missing), he still has to pay finance, and he can't put his personal plates back on retention for another year

Sorry to tell you, but it's a SCAM. The scammers could use your cars details on a blank V5 document, either stolen or forged, to clone another car with your details.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8487381.stm

If you are going to make a scanned copy of your V5 or any other important documents many scanners now have the facility to add a "watermark" across the document, like COPY - I have a self inking rubber stamp that reads COPY, they cost peanuts from a good stationer. Even sticking a strip of "Post-it" note across some of the important data will spoil any fraudsters efforts to clone the docents

seems very likely this is the intention and grabbing the car from me is an added bonus

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ok damage limitation time - who do I need to contact about this?

(14-03-2012 10:46am)XFullFatTim Wrote:  Even sticking a strip of "Post-it" note across some of the important data will spoil any fraudsters efforts to clone the docents

Writing 'copy' on the V5 won't help however as you say, covering key areas of it such as the barcode is a must as that's the hardest part of the scammers to obtain as the VIN & Reg are on public display anyhow.

(14-03-2012 10:47am)Daglass Wrote:  seems very likely this is the intention and grabbing the car from me is an added bonus

I very much doubt they are after you car, just all the details. However, with a copy of the V5 they could obtain duplicate keys from a main dealer.

(14-03-2012 10:47am)Daglass Wrote:  ok damage limitation time - who do I need to contact about this?

There isn't anyone to contact as no crime has been committed.

I very much doubt they are after you car, just all the details.

Not so sure about that as he has just emailed again asking me to bring the car over

Another mail asking yo to do the 10 hour trip?

as for the V5, it'll be the serial and doc number they're after - if sending a copy (albeit it's probably too late), I always blank these out with a post-it note... it's always been a tick box exercise to prove I have the paperwork.

Sadly, as said up there ^^ no offence has actually been commited.


On the flip side, it could well be genuine!!