Irish sellers - and buyers - of cars are urged to take great care with whom they're dealing, reports Donal Byrne
The European Consumer Centre in Dublin has warned buyers and sellers of cars on internet websites to exercise considerable caution after a number of complaints recently.
Some sites are being targeted by criminals in an effort to get buyers and sellers to reveal financial details, which can later be used to try to defraud them, to accept suspicious bank drafts in order to hand over cash or to hand over cash for a deal that will never materialise.
One woman who has spoken to Motors described how she instantly received a reply to her ad on carzone.ie, but became suspicious when she was offered a bank draft immediately, and without the "buyer" even seeing the car. In another case, the European Consumer Centre has this week been alerted to a case where a buyer saw a car advertised on a car website and thought it represented good value. The car involved was a luxury Irish car being sold in Spain. When the buyer was asked to deal with a shipping company for the sale, he became suspicious and contacted the ECC. On investigation, it was found that contrary to the claims of the seller the "shipping company" had not been founded in 1967. Nor had it 1,600 employees.
In fact, its website was only registered last Thursday. The only contact number was a mobile phone registered in Spain, the internet provider location was in Malaysia, and the domain administration address is in Holland.
"Our advice is never to part with financial information in these situations. Reputable companies won't ask for it. If it looks like a scam, then it probably is. In this case, the buyer was asked to pay the shipping company which would hold the money until the car was delivered. We can't say for certain the company is not legitimate, but it would not appear to have good credentials, to say the least," says Rosaleen Quinlan of the ECC in Dublin.
The ECC also says it has had a number of complaints about cheque over-payment and bank drafts being offered which are in some case much more than the asking price of the car being offered for sale.
One reader who contacted us, decided - like a lot of sellers - to take the direct route when it came to selling her five-year-old car. She did not require a trade-in, having the option of another car to drive once she sold her own and she was keen for a cash deal. She was pleased with the online pitch prepared for her by a friend for use on the extremely popular carzone.ie website, and was even more pleased with the almost instant response she received from a potential buyer responding from a yahoo.com web address.
The buyer wrote that he needed the car for his personal use and was keen to have details. His first e-mails inquired about the lowest possible price for the car, but they also mentioned that he would like mechanics from his shipping company to come to view and inspect the car.
UNFAMILIAR WITH THE BUSINESSof selling second-hand cars, our reader responded with her lowest possible price and did not think a great deal more about it. Then came a request for more photographs.
A further e-mail saw the potential sale become a good deal more interesting and its structure become more bizarre. The potential buyer said that a deposit for several thousand euro was on the way to her.
This would be in the form of a bank draft, despite the fact that no deal had been agreed, to "show that am serious (sic) in buying the car". Then came a request for "full names, address and telephone number where the draft would be sent to".
This e-mail then went on to say that as soon as the draft cleared into her account, the "engineers/mechanics would come down for inspection and viewing the car" and the balance of the purchase price would be paid in cash when "coming for the final shipment of the car".
It would seem, therefore, that someone was quite prepared to buy our reader's car and to provide a substantial bank draft in advance.
There followed more requests for personal details and she twigged that this was not quite the way of normal commerce, even in the second-hand car business.
Then came the e-mail that said the draft had been issued but an "inspection fee" of some €5,000 had been added to the initial deposit. The deal then was that she would hand over €5,000 "to the mechanics for the inspection and shipping".
So, she would be in receipt of a substantial bank draft which she should lodge to her account, and then pay €5,000 to "the mechanics for the inspection and shipping" and hand over the car. She would keep the balance, and then have the final payment in cash from whoever it was who would turn up to collect the car.
At that stage, the car had been sold and the potential buyer informed by e-mail. Could this have been a genuine attempt to buy our reader's car?
One Garda source is deeply sceptical: "It looks like a right set-up to me. People seem to forget how vulnerable they are on the internet.
"Online criminals are constantly scanning sites to see how they can scam people.
"Once they have details about you, they have a potential to either get you to try to lodge a dodgy bank draft to your account and hand over some cash in the meantime, or to try to fleece your bank account.
"It happens all the time, and often it is too late by the time people realise what has happened.
"Never, ever get involved with online exchanges of information unless you know exactly who you are dealing with, or there is a recognised payment procedure. You could be committing financial suicide."
Internet users are given an e-mail address to contact www.carzone.ie.
When our reader became concerned, she used it to alert the company but received no reply. Two further e-mail queries, and phone calls from Motorshave so far gone unanswered.