Recently put our XJS on the market through Jaguar owners classified ads sites and immediately received several offers at or above the asking price, but, as work pressures etc mean they can't view the car, the purchasers offer to pay the full price in advance, cleared into our bank account before they would send someone to collect the car. All very urgent, we must respond immediately with bank details so they can transfer the money to our account. They have, unasked, sent copies of passports or other ID, and their address as proof of sincerity. They say the person collecting the car will bring power of attorney along with signed purchase contract and details for transferring ownership. There must be a catch somewhere - presumably, once the car has been taken away, they may claim they didn't receive it or it is not in the claimed condition and try to recover part or all the purchase price? Possibly sending in "debt collectors" or taking legal action? Perhaps I'm being over suspicious and cautious, but the responses don't ring true! One of the offeror's street address doesn't match the postcode, which is clearly a red flag, but the others addresses do seem to exist.
Anyone had similar experiences? Any thoughts as to how to protect ourselves from future claims if we proceed with selling to one of them?
I do have one genuine offer from someone who has seen the car, but at considerably less than the asking price - the alternative, of course, would be to use an auctioneer, but with the obvious costs.
Ken
Ken Current 2003 +8 35th Anniv. Model 2014 Porsche Boxster GTS Previous 1996 Jaguar XJS Celebration
Scammers! No body with any sense would buy a car like that unseen and offer above the asking price. I would put it to auction with a reserve, some auctions, e.g. Collecting Cars don't charge a seller fee, 'best of luck !
1969 4/4 1995 plus 8 2002 Aero S1 2013 M3W 2014 Plus 8
Why would they offer above asking price ! That is to draw you in. The scammers are very clever.Just watch BBC programmes about them. Just sending Bank details is not a good idea and if they ask you to install a programme they will take control of your computer. Remember the old saying “ if it is to good to be true it isn’t’ Look at Classic Car auction a recent +8 Morgan which could not be sold for 27 k fetched 41k at auction. If you type scams in the TM search engine there was a similar scam written about. The member was selling a Range Rover
I looked into this when I sold my Morgan. I had a few similar offers so spent a little time googling scenarios
One fraud revolves around identity theft. With a name and address (possibly from a discarded utility bill put in the recycling) the fraudster will set up fake bank accounts and may even deposit a small sum of money enabling and overdraft facility and credit/debit card to be obtained. These are the used to buy high value items (cars/watches/jewellery) which are then resold at a much lower price but produce ‘clean’ money. Hence the term ‘laundering’. It’s also a method of disposing of large sums of ‘dirty’ cash (drugs/theft/another scam).
Either way the seller unwittingly becomes part of an illegal chain of events and is at significant risk of having the payment returned to the victim (bank who provided the initial funds) and has to make an insurance claim to recover the value of the fraudulently sold item which may or may not be successful.
Other scenarios are considerably more complicated.
Ps. My bank allows me to have several accounts so I have one account (which I call a transit account) specifically for receiving payments that may be less than 100% trustworthy. It carries a very small balance and any payments made into this account are transferred as soon as they become available into one of my regular accounts. I set this account up so that it can only receive inward payments and can only transfer out to specific accounts and the outward transfer is also password protected.
I must be one of the lucky ones sold my mg on line car and classics got full price with out looking at car sent deposit check picked up car week later paid cash .
I would be very wary about accepting any cash above say a grand as money laundering (unwittingly) is a serious offence in it's own right. You have no traceability with cash which you could be challenged over !
I use a separate account for incoming money transfers that has a minimal amount of £1-17 in at all other times, as soon as the transfer is in I shift it to our "normal" current account so it acts as a quarantine in effect and at zero cost to me, it is in my name only unlike all our other accounts so herself is totally protected from any potential fallout.
The OP post is a classic scam.
Regards Richard
1999 Indigo Blue +8 2009 4/4 Sport Green prev 1993 Connaught Green +8 prev
