Buyers, Vendors, secure your transactions!
Recently, the number of fraudulent transactions of vehicle sales on the Internet has risen considerably.
Below you’ll find the most typical cases of fraud; a few elementary rules can protect you against them: buyers and vendors should secure their transactions.
You are buying a vehicle on-line : don’t pay before verification!
Buyers should assure themselves that the vendor doesn’t fraud: don’t pay before you are sure of the vehicle and its delivery. You should also be aware of suspicious offers.
Be aware of too attractive ads:
if the price is largely under the market price, it could be attempted fraud.
You should never make suspicious transactions (in advance or unsecured)
Buyers should never enter into suspicious transactions, such as advance payments for the reservation of a vehicle, or payments via Western Union.
Fraud via Western Union
We don’t recommend the use of a wire payment service for your purchases on the net. These wire services are safe and fast way to make payments to known parties. They are not adapted for making payments to unknown persons. Beware if a seller only accepts on-line wire transfers as payment method. The majority of serious sellers will accept more than one method of payment. Also, beware if a seller asks you to “hold” your purchase by making a payment using the name of a friend or parent, or if you are asked to set up a “question test”. These actions will not protect you from fraudulent sellers.
You sell a vehicle on-line: verify the payment of the buyer
Vendors, you should make sure of the buyer is a reliable person, before delivering of the vehicle. You should also be aware of fraud.
Be aware of uncertain payment methods
Prefer a cash or a transfer payment more secure than a cheque. Cheque can be bounced several weeks after it has been deposited on your bank account, it could be stolen, falsified or without-fund.
ATTENTION: You have to verify bank cheques by calling the bank, because they can be falsified.
Our advice : Ask the buyer a few hours before the transaction which bank he uses in order to call them directly and verify the account is in good standing. To avoid problems, never arrange for a transaction with a direct buyer over the weekend or on holidays.
Avoid the tricks
If you receive a cheque (especially a foreign cheque) for an amount exceeding the sales price, you should consider the possibility of fraud. In no case should you pay back the difference, because there’s a strong chance the cheque will turn out to be either stolen or falsified, even if a preliminary check hasn’t revealed anything suspect.
Fraud example
A seller places an ad on our website, a buyer presents himself. They reach an agreement on the transaction (in this case for 17,000 €). The only problem is that the buyer is in Senegal and can only pay through Western Union, which will cost 1,000 € for the transaction. The buyer requests that the seller shares these extra costs by sending him 500 €.
What to do
If you want to sell your vehicle in spite of your doubts, we advise you to lower the price of your vehicle (in our example 500 €) rather than send money.
Be aware and don’t hesitate to report us your doubts concerning ads or buyers, using the form below