AIBU to think DH was scammed

[Cath2907]

We were selling our old car yesterday through autotrader. I took out kid and dog to reduce distractions. DH was dealing. He rang to tell me car was sold for £450 less than advertised but to some lovely people.

I got home later to find they'd had trouble transferring money to our account. He'd seen them set up the transfer on their side but that the payment was delayed until today. Basically he let them drive away without paying.

No money has arrived today. Have emailed them to express concern there's been a mix up and ask them to confirm the details of the transferred money and no answer.

DH said he saw their drivers license, checked it had the same address they'd asked the car to be registered to and overall they seemed a lovely couple. He is sure the money will show up and this is all a mix up. I think they have scammed him and am quite upset and frustrated that he let someone drive away with a few grands worth of our car without actually handing over a penny.

Please tell me I am a suspicious whatsit and this is bound to be a mix up?

Does the car need to be registered for the transfer of ownership to be effective?
If so, get in touch with whichever government department as soon as possible.
You might also be able to report the car stolen.

I'm very sure this is fine. However as you know it's not the way to sell a car. You can't just trust strangers to give you thousands at a later date.

When my husband sold his privately once he did it at the bank in.a main branch. He asked for it in cash, then handed over the keys and documentation, then put it straight in his account. Yes it was thousands, Banks have cctv so they were all on camera. One of the staff said it was very common for car sales to occur on the premises due to the added security available. You could also have them transfer the money in front of you and then hand over the documentation and keys.

But you don't do it the way your husband did it. All scammers come across as lovely people. That's why they get away with being scammers.

Regarding bank transfers, my bank (in Canada) has two options, instant, which costs a $1, or the standard, which is free but can take a couple of days.

Iternet transfers can take a few days in my experience.

okdok
That's not true now, maybe years ago.
Banks have become very efficient when transferring money.
I do online banking with NatWest and internet transfers are done right away, if it's a week day and before 6:30 p.m.
On weekends, the money leaves your account first thing Monday morning.
The bank also tells you that.

you've potentially been conned OP by very nice people.. call the Police..

I really hope these people are legit. There are good people around and hopefully these are some of them

I think the money will come through OP. Fingers crossed anyway.

To do this, the new owner has to complete their name, address & signature on the V5. I therefore presume your DH didn’t give them the log book V5 and hasn’t posted it off yet?

If so, you are still the legal owner.

Total crap. The registered keeper has nothing whatsoever to do with being the legal owner.

@Merryoldgoat my understanding is that the banks aren't allowed to tell you if they've held up your transaction for a fraud check. (At least, not while it's held up.)

Logbook changes can be done online nowadays and on rereading the OK if sounds like it's already been changed

I think this might have a happy ending, I really doubt a fraudster would have bothered picking up the phone to you.

Hopefully your husband has learnt a very important lesson!!

@ThePants999

They were allowed - they gave me £50 for failing twice to tell me when I called.

Supposedly they hold it and call you for verification but that second bit never happened. They said if I called then I should’ve been told so the payment could be released.

Has it come through yet OP?

Really hope you get your money

I think I would be driving 2 hours to take the car back until funds had cleared. I would be afraid that the call back was stalling for time to cover their tracks.

Having said that banks do have glitches and I have had large payments held up when I haven't called the bank to notify them in advance and they see it as suspicious activity on my account so a fraud alert is raised.

Good luck OP

I have heard of a similar scam where services were rendered after being shown a bank transfer and it never came through. I have heard of it happening on at least a dozen instances. Same thing: vendor saw the transfer on the clients' phone or laptop.

I'm not sure how they do it. Perhaps a fake website?

Op for that amount of money it would be sent as a faster payment and would clear in 2 hrs. The only time this wouldn't happen is if they had already trf 25k out of their account on that day. Even then all they have to do it trf the remainder after midnight.

I really hope they are genuine but working in a bank I see this every day and there is very little you would be able to do without going down the legal route and I'd imagine if they were professional scammers there will be no way of getting your money back. They really are scumbags

Hope it comes through.

How it has arrived?!

Hope*

Keeping my fingers crossed for you OP, I hope it turns out ok.

Hope the money has arrived for you!

It arrived last night. Not a scam, just a slow transfer. Am hoping DH learned his lesson!

Hurrah a happy ending