End of Week 2
The work on the van has proceeded steadily, but was
interrupted by a drawn-out email conversation with a man called Jans Millerson.
Jans saw my
advertisement for the demountable camper on AutoTrader and sent this:
Sent: 26 February 2017 00:32
To:
twynog@gmail.com
Subject: A
lead from Motorhomes.autotrader.co.uk (KD530AH MAZDA 2500 £11,200)
From:
janns61s@gmail.com
Name: Mr Jans
Millerson
Telephone 07748006895
Hello,viewed your listing and hope it is still up
for sale?
To which I replied:
On 2/25/17, twynog@gmail.com
<twynog@gmail.com> wrote:
Yes it is
– would you like to see it?
He replied:
From: Jans 08s
Sent: 26
February 2017 07:45
To:
twynog@gmail.com
Subject:
Re: A lead from Motorhomes.autotrader.co.uk (KD530AH MAZDA 2500 £11,200)
Thank you
for the Response,I am okay with the condition Likewise your asking price is
quite reasonable and affordable considering others I've seen lately , I'll have
it for your firm price and kindly consider it sold as seen am buying it as a
surprise gift for my Son who is schooling Abroad .Are you assuring me i will
not be disappointed? I work with the military air-force and presently in camp
serving the nation which is strictly no calls. My Mode of payment is PayPal
because i don't have access to my bank account online cause am out of town on
job duties, but i have it attached to my PayPal account. Since I'm requesting
this transaction to be done via PayPal, I will be responsible for all the
PayPal fees/charges on this transaction, if you don't have an account with
PayPal, it's pretty easy, safe an secure to open one. Just log on to www.paypal.co.uk I hope we can complete this
transaction as soon as possible. Less I forgot, I have a Mover that will come
for pickup once payment is cleared in your PayPal account and they will be
handling the title for me, as I look forward to hearing from you with your
PayPal information as requested below.
Your
PayPal e-Mail Address :
Full name:
Firm
Price:
Address
for Pick Up:
Phone
Number:
Awaiting
your response asap
To which I replied:
On 2/26/17, twynog@gmail.com
<twynog@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello Jans
I'm sure
you will appreciate that this is an unusual offer. Although I am keen to
proceed as quickly as we can, I need to be sure that the offer is genuine.
Could you send me more details about you? Do you have an online profile - eg
facebook, twitter etc?
If the
deal goes through, the person who comes to collect the vehicle will need to
fill in your full name and address (or that of your son) as the new keeper, so
it would be helpful if I had that information in advance. Assuming all is in
order I would send a PayPal request for payment to your email address. When the
funds arrive in PayPal I will transfer them to my bank account. Once the
payment is cleared in my account then I will get you to arrange the transport.
This can all happen quite quickly.
I hope
this sounds fair.
Richard
He then wrote back:
From: Jans 08s
Sent: 26
February 2017 09:20
To:
twynog@gmail.com
Subject:
Re: A lead from Motorhomes.autotrader.co.uk (KD530AH MAZDA 2500 £11,200)
Got a facebook account under the name Janssen
Millerson. I am okay with everything you said and if we are good to go, kindly
send a payment request to my email on here for payment.
At this stage I thought I should get some advice
so wrote an email to AutoTrader. The reply came quickly:
DearCustomer,
Thank you for reporting this to us. Auto Trader are committed to
protecting our customer’s privacy and I would strongly suggest that you block
the email address to stop any further communication with this person. Also you
can report the email address to Gmail there is a short form to report the user
here: https://support.google.com/mail/contact/abuse?rd=1 Please
take note that sellers who refuse to speak over the phone and refuse to meet in
person to view or show the vehicle are extremely likely to be scammers as well
as those who request you to email them on a private email address. Also, anyone
claiming to be abroad and with no phone access or wanting to pay with any 3rd
party, EBay, PayPal or Google Wallet should be treated with a huge amount of
suspicion.
Auto Trader takes this matter very seriously and we constantly review
the content of our safety and security pages on our website. We have a
dedicated customer security team who police the website day and night, 7 days a
week and any adverts that raise concerns are removed. We also report fraudulent
activity to the police. You can contact Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 and
provide them with these details. Action Fraud is run by the police and they
work alongside the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau.
Unfortunately scammers are professional criminals who will go to great
lengths to attempt to abuse the good nature of people buying or selling cars
using our website. For this reason Auto trader regularly updates the advice on
our website to inform customers how to avoid these scams.
We advise our customers about safety and security on our website,
please view the following links for information:
We have the ‘Report This Ad’ button on each advert page which customers
can use to report any fraudulent adverts.
If you have any more questions or queries, please get in touch.
Kind Regards,
James Hibbert
Customer Security Executive
Auto Trader
That seemed clear enough but I was still puzzled.
I could not see how I could risk being defrauded if I did not part with the
goods until the money was in my back account? Pay Pal may be a rip-off, but I’ve never felt
unsafe using their services. I replied
Hello James
Thank you for your reply. It’s good to know you are working for your
customers on Sunday.
For obvious reasons I don’t want give up on this man just yet. I asked
him for more information and he replied to the effect that he has a facebook
profile and is willing to wait until the money is in my bank account before the
sale is completed. On Facebook he is Janssen Millerson, a US Marine. I have
asked him to provide a permanent address and the address of where he is
stationed, and where his son is located. Is there anything else I could do to
find out if he is genuine?
Richard Turner
I had this reply from James. Interesting that AutoTrader has a
department called “scam enquiries”!
From: Scam
Enquiries
Sent: 26 February 2017 10:38 To: twynog@gmail.com
Subject: RE: Offer to pay via PayPal
Sent: 26 February 2017 10:38 To: twynog@gmail.com
Subject: RE: Offer to pay via PayPal
Dear Richard,
Thank you for your email. I would advise not going through with this
sale and waiting to hear from another enquirer. I would suggest that the
likelihood of this enquirer being fraudulent dwarfs that of them being a
legitimate buyer. Attempting to coerce somebody into accepting payment via
PayPal is a standard scam technique and so is suggesting you’re working abroad
or have recently gone through an operation. Please have a browse of security
advice at the link http://www4.autotrader.co.uk/safety_and_security_centre.
Kind Regards,
James Hibbert
Customer Security Executive
Auto Trader
My response was:
Hello again James,
Thanks for this. I had assumed that when
I asked the ‘buyer’ for his home address and didn’t hear back that he was a
potential scammer. However, he has returned with a home address. What I have
suggested as a way he could pay me is that I send a PayPal request for funds to
his email address. I would then not release the vehicle until I had transferred
those funds to my bank account. There are at present no funds in my paypal
account which could be hijacked. Could you explain how my accepting payment via
PayPal could be to my disadvantage? There isn’t any relevant advice on the link
you sent.
I would be very grateful for your help
with this. The vehicle (a demountable camper on a specially adapted truck) is
difficult to sell, and I would not like to lose this opportunity if it is
genuine.
Yours
RT
The response was negative:
Dear Richard,
Thank you for your email. I would advise not going through with this
sale and waiting to hear from another enquirer. I would suggest that the
likelihood of this enquirer being fraudulent dwarfs that of them being a
legitimate buyer. Attempting to coerce somebody into accepting payment via
PayPal is a standard scam technique and so is suggesting you’re working abroad
or have recently gone through an operation. Please have a browse of security
advice at the link http://www4.autotrader.co.uk/safety_and_security_centre.
Kind Regards,
James Hibbert
Customer Security Executive
Auto Trader
Still, I wanted to get to the bottom of this so I wrote again to Jans:
Hello again Jans.
I have
been advised by Autotrader to block your email address! I don’t intend to do
that, but I need more information.
In the
picture on Facebook you look too young to have an adult son. Can you send me
details of your permanent address, where
you are stationed, and where your son is at school. (I understand that in
America you use ‘school’ can also mean university.) Do you have a mobile phone
(cellphone) which I can contact you on?
Cheers
RT
This was his response:
From: Jans 08s
Sent: 26
February 2017 10:54
To:
twynog@gmail.com
Subject:
Re: A lead from Motorhomes.autotrader.co.uk (KD530AH MAZDA 2500 £11,200)
Will do
that once am back from church
Church eh? That doesn’t square with being a
con-artist – or does it? What had I to lose but getting more information?
On 2/26/17, twynog@gmail.com
<twynog@gmail.com> wrote:
Are you
still keen? I need to be assured that
you are genuine.
He replied:
Yes i am. Here is my home address Name is Janssen Harper Millerson
Address is
9 Clifford Close Sawley
Long Eaton
Nottingham NG103BT
Naturally I checked the address on Google and can
see that the house is a very ordinary suburban 20th C bit of
ugliness. Not everyone who lives in an ugly house has an ugly temperament. I
don’t give up easily:
On 2/27/17, twynog@gmail.com <twynog@gmail.com> wrote:
Thanks.
This is beginning to look like a deal. Before I send the Paypal request for
funds, could you explain where you are stationed and why you cannot make
telephone calls. I would also be glad of some information on your son. I’m
sorry to be difficult but I am following advice from Auto Trader.
RT
The reply:
I'm stationed in San Diego presently and i am in
camp. Calls are
highly
restricted in camp. My son name is Josh and same home address.
What else
do you need again?
Still not enough:
What would your son use the vehicle for? Tell me more about him. Where
is he studying, how old is he?
RT
Then I had a brainwave:
Second reply.
I’ve just realised there is a much easier way of doing this – simply
buy through ebay. That way we will both be protected. Here’s the link:
RT
And that was the last I heard from him. I’m still mystified, but have
no doubt it was some kind of scam.
No comments:
Post a Comment