The "I'll send my brother to collect the bike because I live out of town" scam

[eddy]

Simple way to do it.

 

Meet in a public place and inspect the goods.  If you are happy, seller asks the buyer to logon to his bank, specifies the cellphone number the POP must be sent to and observes him whilst he makes the transfer. If the POP does not appear instantly, let him buy you a coffee until it does, never giving him an opportunity to create a false one. Oh, and give him a specific reference which he wouldn't have known beforehand.

 

I'm sure a scamming buyer will find an excuse not to arrive if he is told he will be expected to logon to his bank there and then, so the process self-select the baddies out and provides further protection even if he pitches.

[wessie12]

Simple way to do it.

 

Meet in a public place and inspect the goods.  If you are happy, seller asks the buyer to logon to his bank, specifies the cellphone number the POP must be sent to and observes him whilst he makes the transfer. If the POP does not appear instantly, let him buy you a coffee until it does, never giving him an opportunity to create a false one. Oh, and give him a specific reference which he wouldn't have known beforehand.

 

I'm sure a scamming buyer will find an excuse not to arrive if he is told he will be expected to logon to his bank there and then, so the process self-select the baddies out and provides further protection even if he pitches.

Exactly ! I have investigated many fraud cases and the one thing that stands out is that people today only communicate via emails and whatsApp and then they blindly trust other people. In hindsight they probably ignored 100 warning signs . Even a phone call will normally be enough to determine if the deal is legit. Have a chat, talk about general cycling stuff and if you can`t relate to each other back off. 

[mon-goose]

I sold a car a few years ago and felt uneasy about giving the guy my car before my money was in and he didn't want to give me the money without the car.

 

My solution was I went with him to his bank and made the lady at the counter confirm to me that he had sufficient money in his account. Then he gave her the instruction to transfer I made the cashier confirm that the money had left his account and was transferred to my account and that there was no way for him to reverse the transaction. Seemed ok to me

[No Hare]

Hey Dwyis, is this you with your medical degree? 

 

https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/south-african-based-facebook-groups-stoked-coronavirus-fears-to-sell-face-masks-20200326

[Dadbod Racing]

I sold a car a few years ago and felt uneasy about giving the guy my car before my money was in and he didn't want to give me the money without the car.

 

My solution was I went with him to his bank and made the lady at the counter confirm to me that he had sufficient money in his account. Then he gave her the instruction to transfer I made the cashier confirm that the money had left his account and was transferred to my account and that there was no way for him to reverse the transaction. Seemed ok to me

 

Sold a car a few year ago, this aunty wanted it immediately but was upfront saying she doesn't have all the cash. I said no problem I asked for a 10k deposit gave her my address and then told her I will no longer drive the car and wait for the all the cash until she gets it. I thought it would be over by month end. I was so wrong. She'd gone through a divorce, her ex was a chop didn't pay her old cars license and she sold it, the buyer of her car wouldn't give her all the money until it was paid which was only fair. Two months later I get the moer in, I phoned her and asked what was going on, I asked her for her bank account so I could refund her money. She then asked me to give her a few more weeks which I agreed to. Then all of a sudden bits and pieces of money came through until the full amount was there, I checked if it cleared and phoned her up and asked when she would like to collect as I wanted to wash the car as it was a bit dusty and charge the flippen battery! She said she needs to find someone to drop her and then I offered to drop it off for her. On the day I drove through and asked her to drop me off so I can get a taxi/bus into work and that's when she gave me the whole story, the divorce, her getting a job after so long and that she was truly grateful that I'd kept the car for her. I felt bad for being a bit of a chop for phoning her but then also felt glad that we'd kept the car for this lady. 

 

A few months went by and I saw her driving it and it was still in pretty much the same condition I handed the car over to her in (that's never happened). Then about 3 months after that I get a phone call and it's her, she wanted to say that she recently had the car serviced and she and her kids drove down to see her family in the Eastern Cape and that it was such a great trip, I must have driven past a truck with chopped onions at that very moment cause my eyes started tearing! 

 

Anyway not everyone out there is a gremlin trying to con you we still have good people in this world, not really sure why I shared this story cause it's completely off topic, I'll blame #isolation