Take Caution with the Classifieds!

[mark harrington]

Hi
I'm Mark Harrington from Darlington and until very recently I owned a 1991 Maestro. Some of you may have seen my adverts on the group classified section. Anyone selling a car please take heed of a scam being currently perpetrated. I received a reply, asking for price and condition. As I was selling for spares/repair, I said £30. The person again contacted me and asked me to clarify price and 'provide a photo for his client'. I thought 'He's having a laugh here' and posted a 5 year old shot I had on the HDD.
I never heard anymore, and had to scrap the old girl after she was stolen the other saturday night. Anyway, this weeks 'Computeractive' magazine says this is a genuine scam, where they purpopt to send you a cheque for your car, then 'change their mind' and, to 'speed things up', ask you to send them a cheque in return for the same amount. The cheque YOU receive is stolen or fake and bounces.
They were obviously not bothered about a small amount like mine, but may well fiddle someone on this forum. They have been reading the board, as it was the only place mine had been advertised. Please pass on this message if possible.

TAKE CARE!

Regards
Mark

[John S]

I know:mad: Someone e-mailed me yesterday with the same type of scam. I advertised my dad's Maestro pickup ages ago and since have been given an offer of 4500 pounds of which I am to take out the 300 and give back the rest - dodgy offer or what?

[MGTurbo]

This is very very common at the moment. Seems they scan classifeds all over the internet via a search engine. I recieved 5 Emails of this type when selling a friends car, i wouldnt have been stupid enough to fall for it but others maybe less fortunate.

Gareth

[Jonathan]

Yes I've heard from several selling cars through the classifieds who've had this. There are lots of email scams, viruses and spam going around at the moment. If you ever come across anything even remotely suspicious whether through email or otherwise it's not worth getting involved. It's a shame to have to say it but it seems you really can't trust anyone beyond closest family & friends and certainly not a complete stranger by email.

[tony]

everybody is trying to scam everybody else, we are lucky that we all just want to buy maestros/montego and then not sell them :laugh:
my mam use to say if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.

[D87 SMW]

I was very interested in an advert for an MG Maestro 2.0 EFi going as a donation near me. I waited weeks for each reply, and nothing ever came from it! I felt so angry at this, and thought it was 'too good to be true.'
Anyway, if Oliver Smithson from Sheffield reads these forums - I am very greatful for F170 GGT!!! :) :) :)