The ongoing cheap jeep scam

General Discussion
#1

Tis is really a continuation of James Emery's warning & my experiment to reel in a scammer.


The story so far...


I set out to find an advertisment for a car which was far too good to be true & being a military vehicle enthusiast for most of my life I chose to find a genuine wartime jeep. Before vey long I had come across a genuine 1942 example for 4000 euros. I know that a restoration project will cost more than that & a drive away example will be well over 12000 euros so this had "scam" written all over it!


Pretending to be a genuine customer I sent an email asking for more details & over a period of a couple of weeks - during which a genuine sale would have undoubtedly been completed - I received some details.










Classic Fan

31 Jul




Hello I send you some pictures to see the condition of car In case you want to reserve the car i will give my bank account
I wait your fast answer because i received 36 emails/offers .
Kindly decide in a timely manner as a few potential buyers have expressed interest
and my rule is first serious person with interest is first served.
You can pick up or i can delivery the car to your address after 13 August 2013 because now im in holiday.
You can call me on this number +44/7526015690
Thanks..












Mark Rimmer 1 Aug




Thank you for the photos of the jeep. It looks perfect! Is the engine good? Has it had a new cam belt recently?
When would it be possible to come & look at it? I am very interested in it.
Many thanks,..




















Classic Fan 1 Aug




Hi, Yes the engine work good Like i tell you in my first e-mail i have some customers interested to reserve the car
In case you want to reserve the Jeep only for you i will send my bank account where you can deposit 1000 euro
Please let me know your decision...




















Mark Rimmer 5 Aug




Hi , Is it possible to reserve the jeep? When could I collect it & where is it?




















Classic Fan 6 Aug




Hi If you want to reserve i will give my bank account to transfer half of money
After the car will be reserved only for you...




















Mark Rimmer 13 Aug (7 days ago)




Ok thanks, I look forward to getting the details. When & where can I collect the Jeep after payment?.




















Classic Fan 14 Aug (6 days ago)




Hi You can come after 1 September an pick up the Jeep So if you want to reserve the Jeep please tell me to give you my bank account...




















Mark Rimmer 14 Aug (6 days ago)




Yes, let me have your bank details.




















Classic Fan 14 Aug (6 days ago)




Hi Here is my bank details where you can pay the money for Jeep

Account name:Anton Livi LTD
account: 83584941
sort: 20-12-80
bic/swift code: BARCGB22
iban: GB78BARC20128083584941
Bank: Barclays
Bank address: 108 Upper Lewes road, Brighton , BN2 3FE
United Kingdom

After you done the transfer the Jeep will be reserved only for
I wait your payment confirmation to close all conversation with other customers...




















Classic Fan 18 Aug (2 days ago)




Please tell me if you done the transfer because i have other customer interested how want to pay


















Mark Rimmer 18 Aug (2 days ago)




Hi, I am waiting for you to let me know where the Jeep is as all I have at the moment is an email address!
When I have that I can send a deposit....

























Classic Fan

16:13 (17 hours ago)






to me



Hi

The JEEP is located in United Kingdom ,Stourbridge Rd 225, B61 0AT BROMSGROVE

Thanks




























Mark Rimmer


09:26 (0 minutes ago)







to Classic



Hi,

Do you mind if I have it AA inspected first? I can not do work on cars so need to make sure it will not break down!

If you could let me have a contact name & a convenient time I can arrange for them to visit you.

Thanks, Mark


I looked up the Bromsgrove address & it looks like a private house but it used to be an office address. Round the back, though, is 223b, which is currently the offices of some 13 companies, such as Trade Vehicle Sales Ltd & Special Operations Executive Ltd.


These 13 companies have a director by the name of Sir Adrian Vincent Roberts, who, apart from holding 14 current directorships (the 14th one being a "discreet, confidential and professional intermediary Worldwide service representing either Buyer or Seller" The Diplomatic Intermediary Service. www.mi6london.com - which is fake)


Sir Adrian - nationality unknown - has been involved with 94 dissolved companies & has resigned from 79 of them. Examples of Sir Adrian's broad knowledge base can be gleaned from a few of the names of these companies.


Euro Corporate Aid & Grants Ltd


C15 Ltd - probably knew Bodie & Doyle personally


The Guild of Millionaires Ltd - wishful thinking


Tyremafia Ltd


Medical Training Authority Ltd.


Mercia Cars Ltd


He is also apparently behind such . com websites as Xratedpornsite & satanswebsite. Tasteful!


The fact that all this is going on right next door to where the Jeep is seems just a little more than coincidence.


I have spoken to a body called Action Fraud but I must admit I got the feeling that nothing would be looked at as I had not yet lost my money.


Help, help, my friend is about to be murdered! About to be? No murder has taken place. Come back when he has been & we will deal with it!


It is so frustrating that this sooo obvious scam is not even going to be looked at!


Anyone know how to push an investigation?

#2

My last email to the scammer -

Do you mind if I have it AA inspected first? I can not do work on cars so need to make sure it will not break down!
If you could let me have a contact name & a convenient time I can arrange for them to visit you.

- has gone unanswered, surprise, surprise!

#3

Of course, but this time I got some info further than the original request for money. Because my work which made me very international and still in touch with people in a couple of dozen countries, sees me receiving a scam of one kind or another a couple of times a week. To actually get inside one as much as I did on this occasion is very interesting, partly because it raises serious questions about internet security.

#4

Brian - this is an extremely common scam - I must have received 4 or 5 over the last 2 years!

#5

A couple of weeks back I had an email asking me to help out a friend. The request was that he had had passport, money and all else stolen in Manila in the Philippines. The Embassy, so 'he' claimed had replaced his passport but could I send him some money. OK, it was totally clear it was a scam. In his professional field he is probably the leading 'expert' worldwide, works for the UN, large NGOs and has loads of support and would never send out mails like that anyway. I phoned his wife in London to alert her. Sure enough he was in Manila but no such problems.

He is back now. Last weekend I called him quickly. Thanks to his wife he was able to alert everybody. However, it appears that everybody in his address book on the email he uses for professional rather than personal contacts had been contact as I was with what appeared to be a one off message (no cc or list, anything to let it look like a mail to an entire list at all). Nobody fell for it and what with time zones and being weekend when some people do not look at work mails, his wife had told him and he had sent out a warning to everybody.

The question is though: How did somebody acquire his entire professional address list, know where he was at the time and actually manage to make it appear as if it was from him by sending from his address? In fact, close scrutiny showed it was not his real address but a 'clone' by missing out one letter. Nonetheless, since he never left the laptop unattended it was not somebody going into his hotel room or something of that ilk. So, the assumption is that somebody hacked into his mail and copied his address list. Mind you it was a bit clumsy in that the private list would have doubled the number albeit a few like my own address would have been duplicated, so the data thief was not absolutely on the ball. Philippines police, with whom he also cooperates as part of his work, looked into it at his end and seemed to be of the conclusion that it is an operation in Taiwan they 'know' of but have never been able to nail down and the Taiwanese police appear not to be at all concerned about.

I put it up on another thread on this topic to add it to the role call of scams that are becoming legion. It is, it seems, bigger than something we can just report and it will be dealt with and well beyond the resources of governments who are talking about internet controls.

#6

Had the same call a couple of months ago Beckie. Despite answering the call in french he then spoke to me in excellent english. He couldn't answer my question asking how he knew I had a computer except by saying "well have you......?"

#7

It's really bugging me all these scams that are out and about now, whenever someone wants to buy anything now they have to spend half their time trying to work out if it's real or not first.

Speaking of scams I had a bloke who said he was from Microsoft phone me up yesterday and said I was going to have a major problem with my computer and I needed to sit down in front of it while he tells me what to do. I told him I don't think so and put the phone down. It was weird as well as he only spoke English. I know someone mentioned some think about this scam before but can anyone refresh my memory please?

#8

I'm SURE someone will act if you give him 1000! (snigger)

Why not send all this to the bank??

#9

My husband decided to play along with one of these scammers - in fact most of the cars for sale on ebay France are scams. Eg 3-yr old top quality car for 5,000€. This chap supposedly had to sell because he needed the money for agricultural machinery. Was currently out of the country on business but had arranged for a friend to deliver the car to us, no extra cost, all the paperwork, carte grise, cessassion papers etc ready. Just have the 5,000€ cash ready for the day of delivery. We gave my mobile tel and of course guess what, on the day of delivery a chap rang to say that they wanted the money paid into a Western Union account first..... He kept ringing and asking for my husband and even spoke good English (my initial excuse was that hubby didn't speak French).... Kept ringing (I kept cutting him off) over a couple of hours before giving up. But it was fun to see how far it went. It's a well-known scam according to the local gendarmes (clearly others have been caught). There's no such thing as a free lunch. If it's too cheap to be true, it's a scam!

#10

heaven help us if they ever learn to spell and have good grammar - 'when you done transfer' - although I will admit that it's becoming more difficult with text language :)

#11

I believe Interpol will follow up as this is a European scam. You should call them!

I'm looking for a second hand small car for Nice and a 2002 Clio in immaculate condition if the photos were anything to go by - it was advertised on Facebook - the problem was that it was a 3rd of the Argus price it should have been, but when I asked if the Carte Grise N° corresponded to the VIN N° under the bonnet I got no reply! However, I didn't want a bunch of (foreign) car thugs turning up at my address, so didn't follow through. Buyer beware - as usual!!

#12

Good one Mark..... Has it had a new cam belt recently? - fabulous!

I've been looking for a LHD Mini for a few months and the net is full of this sort of thing. They are always cheap, but not too cheap and they always seem to want to deliver it to you. Funny that.

Of course this promotes suspicious behaviour by the buyer and I made some poor fella send me a copy of his passport, driving licence and a utility bill before I went to look at a nice Honda 350 Four recently. When the bike was at a different address and he wasn't on 192.com either this caused all sorts of suspicions. Turns out he was 101% genuine and had to sell the bike because of a divorce which was why he wasn't living at home etc etc. He must have thought I was mad but was very good about it all.

#13

perhaps they take the money and run.. perhaps they have a spare key, and re-steal the car after sale.. who knows.

the fact that this guy wanted money without letting Mark even see the car spells out scam.. sadly, many people fall for it.

#14

Don't think it was that Zoe as the same car was seen in various ads.My thought are that if you profess interest in buying, they as foa a deposit to reserve as it the above Jeep scam,could be wrong though.

#15

there was something up with the car..., they may have changed the motor, or other parts.. as soon as you run into difficulty, you'll find that the details, and addresses are all fake, and you are left with a very expensive pile of crap

#16

A couple of years ago I replied to an ad for a, suspiciously cheap ,Mini for sale. The reply told me the owner was female, French ex services ,who was going abroad to join her husband,and needed to sell the car,but because of the time factor,didn't mind taking a loss. She would arrange for the car to be delivered to us and then we would pay the delivery person. Now I know this has scam written all over it, but if no money was handed over until the car and paperwork was in our hands how would this work? I'm sure someone on here knows the answer.