selling a car -aibu to think this is a scam?

[Narnia72]

We are selling our car through autotrader. Twice now someone has rung up, said they're coming, turned up over 2 hours late, ended up viewing the car in the dark, not driven it, not asked to see any of the documents, then agreed a price and offered a bank transfer. We've said no and only cash. They've said they don't have enough cash and will come back tomorrow. Then don't. Both times it's been 3 eastern European blokes (different people each time). What's the scam? Can you get a bank transfer refunded if you dispute it? Getting so fed up with this, we're asking a reasonable price in line with Parker's, have put all info on the advert and only seem to be attracting dodgy time wasters. They're now lurking around the corner, the last ones did the same. OH is walking round the block as he doesn't want them to see where we live in case they're checking out the house or something. We want to know what the scam is, really worried now about selling to dodgy people who will do something weird and scam us somehow.

I've no idea what the scam could be but it does sound dodgy . I think you're right to be wary . I wonder what they're hanging about for ?

Did you just give them the street name?

Sounds dodgy to me. Absolutely don't do it until you have cash in hand and they've signed the V5 so the vehicle is off your hands.

Did they suggest an actual BACS transfer or have they mentioned PayPal? If it's the latter it's very easy to pay an 'eCheque', which appears similarly to a regular payment in your PayPal account but can be revoked or not cleared.

If they continue to lurk or refuse to leave, or if you feel in any way threatened, I'd call the non-emergency police number.

I've heard of this and believe that the first scam element is you will feel under pressure to sell by them arriving late. They are then hoping you will believe the bank transfer has taken place legitimately and allow them to drive away the car. They will either "fake" you observing them making a bank transfer through a fake Internet/mobile banking transfer or send you money from an account they are fraudulently accessing.

Yep, what user said.

Or it might be that they'll send an email 'from your bank' claiming a deposit has been made.

Out of interest OP, what did their messages say? Usually you can tell by what they say to an extent.

All these sites have scammers, but I've had success personally on Gumtree with a super easy and quick car sale to a really nice guy.

We've just given the name of the road and OH has waited outside until he's seen someone go up to the car. If they bothered to look at the v5 obviously they'd see our house number but no one has looked. We haven't got as far as identifying the type of transfer they want to do, have just said no it's cash only. I hadn't thought of the whole pressure thing by turning up late, luckily, OH is impervious to pressure.

Good call about gumtree, we'll try there. We just want it gone for a reasonable price. Not too much to ask, surely?

Yes its a scam. I think they can either fake the bank transfer or get it back, something like that which is why they won't pay cash like a genuine buyer would.

In future make it clear it's cash only before agreeing to them coming around.

I think it does sound a bit dodgy but some folks do buy without test driving. We once sold a car that was covered in snow! We weren't trying to rip anyone off but I honestly couldn't believe it when they bought it.

Don't let your car leave your possession until you either have the cash in your hand or you have had the money transferred to your bank account AND you have independently verified on your own device that the money has been received by your bank account.

Last time I sold a car privately I was given cash and I asked the buyer to come with me to the fish and chip shop so I could check the notes in their machine. If the buyer is genuine I don't see why they would have a problem with this.

(I doesn't have to be a fish and chip shop by the way any shop with one of those UV machines will do.)

Op, as a PP said you also have to wary of cash. I was in the queue at the bank once when someone was paying in £800 cash after selling his bike; he ended up in floods of tears when finding out most of the notes were fake. Apparently the notes on bottom and top of the pile were real but the majority of the rest weren't.

Ok what they'd do (if scammers) is they'd transfer money to your account, but it would be more than agreed "by mistake"

They'd ask you to transfer back the difference but what's really happened they'll have lodged a cheque or similar and that will bounce, leaving you without the original transfer amount AND with you having transferred out the differing amount

And of course, your car

Gumtree worked for us. Cash only, test drive with my DP in the car, V5 signed over there and then.

And yes, it's a scam. I had several such would be buyers phone to view, arrange a time later in the day then call 15 minutes later saying they were on their way and wanted petrol money because it wasn't the time we had arranged and so we weren't home. They had no intention of buying the car and only stopped calling when I threatened them with police.

get one of these www.amazon.co.uk/Quality-UV-Counterfeit-Money-Detector/dp/B000P8VWCW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1472279378&sr=8-2&keywords=uv+note+checker