Malaysian Trademe/Paypal Car Scam

[sandra]

These people are profuse arent they. Thank you for giving us the latest email addresses to watch out for Megang.

[enduro]

signed upto here to share my dealings with this scam-

Thought I was lucky getting a buyer on my car... lukcily I contacted trademe and google'd the use of paypal and came across this thread.

Firstly, recieved a txt from "adellaadell" on my iPhone:
"Do You Still Have The Car on Tradme For Sale. Get Back To Me On : sobolas16@hotmail.com"

Same story as everyone else really, not interested in viewing the car and straight away accepted the buy now.
Their response:

Subject: RE: BMW trademe
From: "George Cabral" <sobolas16@hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, July 17, 2013 9:54 pm
To: **********************

Hello ,
Thanks for your response.I'm satisfied with the condition and Agree with the price,I need to let you know that my shipping agent will be coming for the pick up as soon as the payment has been complete and approved by PayPal and the shipping agent will be the ones to help me handle all other necessary details to complete the deal when they get to your home address for the pick up. .so i'll be buying the merchandise without seeing it, i'll arrange the pick-up of the merchandise with a Private Courier Service as soon as you get your payment and if you don't have an account with paypal, its pretty easy, safe and secured to open one. Just log on to http://www.paypal.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, I need you to provide the following details so that i can proceed with the Payment...

Your PayPal e-Mail Address :
Your Full Name:
Your Mobile Number :

Soon as i make the payment and you get the funds, the Courier Service will come and pick up the merchandise at your home at your convenient time also the courier will help me sign the required papers.

Have a nice day.

I responded a little skeptical and requested payment to be passed by direct deposit or cash on pickup.
I havn't had a response from them yet, but I've decided I'm just going to waste their time and play along with it... I reckon I could waste a good 3-4 weeks atleast of their time. Wonder what else I can get them to buy.....

Anyway, just wanted to make aware the email address being used by them... no doubt it constantly changes, but hey.

[Foggyone]

Always plenty of scammers trying it on.

I hear the "Ring, ring, we're from Microsoft. You've got a virus" is rife again.

They must get a sufficient supply of suckers to make all these scams worthwhile.

[elou]

My partner and I just got done by this scam today! We transferred $1050 NZD to a man named Indran Mayavan in Malaysia. The original text came from an NZ number: 27613548703. The "woman's" name was Julian Tepper (email: tepperjulian@gmail.com), a mother of a son studying in Malaysia who wanted to buy the car and ship it to Malaysia. We set up a paypal account so she could transfer the money. An email arrived from "paypal" (email address: service@intl.paypal.com ® <fastservice@email.com>) telling us to pay part of that money to the shipper ($1050 NZD) so that the remainder of the payment could be released ($3000). We sent the money through Western Union today. The payment was collected in Kuala Lumpur within 4 hours, which is about when we realised it was a scam as the next email asked us for more money! Too late, the money is gone and we still have a car sitting in the driveway which we now have to relist on trademe! BOO HOO HOO!

[Foggyone]

Bummer Estelle. Kudos to you for having the courage to post your loss, most victims just hide in a corner.

Be extra vigilant with emails coming in now. You could well be on the scammers hit list to try other scams. A favourite is scammers posing as law enforcement claiming to be working to get your loss back and of course you need to pay a "fee" such as claim lodgement or paperwork fee.

[Mondie]

Here appears to be the another name and scumbag. Can't be bothered responding but THANKS to Scambusters for helping identify.

Thanks for responding,my name is Kathryn Howes and like i did say,am interested in buying this from you now for my boyfriend who just moved overseas to Malaysia and has expressed his interest to own this.
I would want to know if there is anything else to add to the description apart from what you have on the advertisement and also could you please give me your final price as i am looking for a decent bargain.
I will arrange pick up through a shipping company,so you need not worry about this.
PS: Due to work and other commitments,eMail communication would do best for now if you don't mind.

[cabalnz1]

With all these scams you should remember that it is virtually impossible to export a New Zealand car to other countries - 1) the pricing is all wrong considering the freight cost and 2) A lot of the countries don't allow imports from any country 3) Many of the countries the scammers are talking about are Left Hand Drive and worst of all check the Paypal email they send - it is NOT from Paypal!!! Always check this site for known scams - I have sold about 200 cars on Trade Me (being a registered Trader) and they have tried every way but fortunately have given up - Ha Ha

[Lulu_NZ]

I received this email pretty soon after I listed my car for sale on Trademe. I'm just glad I listened to my gut and decided to check for scams. Interesting story too considering the NZ Provincial Reconstruction Team have withdrawn from Afghanistan

Hi there, Thanks for getting back,

A friend in my camp has this type of car and I am genuinely obsessed with his car, I always wanted to take his car for a ride so I decided to buy one for myself, I would have loved to come for an inspection and test drive of this car but I am working away from the country at this time as I am a member of the Defence Force which was recently deployed to Afghanistan with the Provincial Reconstruction Team.

I am willing to buy the car at your requested price and arrange the pick-up of the vehicle with a Private Courier Service, I do not have internet banking over here, buy my Bank account is linked with my paypal account so I am able to send payment to your PayPal account directly and I will pay the paypal fees too, I had used them a couple times on eBay and they seem quite secure, in order for me to secure the payment of the vehicle, I would require the details below from you;

Your PayPal EMail Address :
Full Name :
Your Mobile Number :

I might send my drivers license with the courier so you can do the change of ownership at the post shop. Does the car require any work at all ?

Cheers

[cabalnz1]

They are getting more clever every time..........

[almostdone]

Yet another - almost word for word. First contact was a SMS 8222 text, then suggestion to use email only.
the email address was:-
kathnhowes@gmail.com
Kathryn Ruth Howes
22 Aug (5 days ago)

and the message to me was:-


Thanks for responding,my name is Kathryn Howes and like i did say,my boyfriend and i are interested in buying this from you now as we just moved overseas to Malaysia precisely from Auckland and he has expressed his interest to own this.

I would want to know if there is anything else to add to the description apart from what you have on the advertisement and also could you please give me your final price as i am looking for a decent bargain.

I will arrange pick up through a shipping company,so you need not worry about this.

PS: Due to work and other commitments,eMail communication would do best for now if you don't mind.

Regards

[digidog]

Thanks for posting your experience Philip. The scammers are slowly refining this scam and making their wording more believable all the time. By posting the email address and text here, you've ensured that Google will record the scam and you will hopefully save others from losing a lot of money in the future.

[cooperharley]

We have just had a very similar experiance to this, started off with a text message just after we listed the vehicle, from 8222, asked us to email them, the address was Lynne Burley (thehippis20@gmail.com)

The 1st email response was:

Thanks for responding,my name is Lynne Burley and like i did say,am interested in buying this from you now and would want to know if there is anything else to add to the description apart from what you have on the advert and also could you please give me your final price as i am looking for a decent bargain.
Regards

They refused to call us and were even happy to accept a price of $15000 when the car was only listed at $5800 (we did this to test them as we were very suspicious)
So clearly a scam

Previous to this when we listed the car the 1st time a few weeks ago and had another scammer contact us ( I see this person is mentioned above)
julian tepper" <tepperjulian@gmail.com

Thanks for the prompt reply. My name is Julian Tepper,i believe my Son
sent you a text message to email me for the sale. I will like to know
the lowest price for it and i want you to get back to me with more
pictures and its current condition because i can’t come over to
inspect it. I am buying it for my Son that is studying/working in
abroad (Malaysia).
I work at sea as i am a marine biologist (I work on South Pacific
Ocean in East of New Zealand ) and due to the nature of my work, phone
calls is restricted,i can only communicate via email with my Ipad.
My Son will be very happy if i am able to purchase it from you
because this is what he want and chose from all the AD.
You need not worry yourself about how it will get to him there in
Malaysia as i have a contact of shipping company there that will be
handling the pick up and all the paper work.


And...just had another one this morning another text message from 8222 asking us to email them; email address is abolaso14@gmail.com, not even going to bother with any contact this time, just wanted to let people know

[cabalnz1]

A new one from TXT 8222 - trying again - email thehippis20@gmail.com ........when will they learn!!! They are getting more experienced!! Scammers never learn....

[beautiful]

This forum is the only thing that came up on Google when I searched " Kathryn Ruth Howes ", thanks guys!

Within 10 minutes of me listing my car she texted me from 027 952 4939, asking me to email her at kathnhowes@gmail.com.
Her first email reply said:

"Thanks for responding,my name is Kathryn Howes and like i did say,am interested in buying this from you now off TradeMe (as am i not an everyday TradeMe user) for my partner,as we just moved overseas from Auckland.

I will want to know if there is anything else to add to the description apart from what you have on the advert and also could you please give me your final price as i am looking for a decent bargain.

I will arrange pick up from you after i have paid and all necessary documentations will be handled as well before pick up.

Regards"


I was really excited to have a potential buyer, but I felt a bit odd because of things like her wanting to pay by Paypal, and also asking for more photos of the car (when I already had plenty of photos).
Thank you Google and thank you guys!

***NOTE***
I HAVE REPORTED THIS TO http://www.theorb.org.nz/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
YOU CAN REPORT ALL KINDS OF SCAMS TO THIS NEW ZEALAND SITE DEVELOPED BY NETSAFE.

[chas58]

Yes, I have just had a listing expire and received 3 sms messages along the same lines. Have replied to two of their GMail addresses and have two replies so far. One from Lynne Burley and one from Veronika Hossen. Have answered that I've had a lot of interest in the car since the auction closed and final price is now $25,000 (listed at $4,250) and that it's worth every dollar as it is in mint condition and only driven to church by a little old lady on Sundays. Any advice on how to wind them up a bit more?

Email addresses are:
Veronika Hossen - vernhossn2@gmail.com
Lynne Burley - thehippis20@gmail.com