Am I Being Scammed?

[ratchart]

Admin, feel free to move or delete this if it's not appropriate.

So yesterday I had a DM on instagram asking if I could draw somebody's car. I replied yes - send me some photos of your car and I can give you a quote. This person replies straight away with some photos of a modern supercar and an offer to pay a reasonable amount of money for my work before I could give them a price. within the normal range of what would have charged for this sort of job.

But Something feels a bit "Red Flaggy" about the whole thing. 
a. He's got no pictures on his instagram
b. He says he's Australian yet the car is a left hand drive, and also has no reg plates despite being photographed in a public place. 

So basically is this a con and if so how badly could I be ripped off if I agreed to it aside from the wasted time?

[grumpybadger]

It's possible he just wants a drawing of a car that's not actually his.

Ask for payment or part payment up front via PayPal.
If he says he won't use PayPal It's probably a scam.
Don't give out bank details and don't download the super secure new app he suggests as the best thing ever.

[bmcnut]

If it doesn't feel right it's probably not. Couple of weeks ago I got some messages on fb from a mate saying he had a good idea to make money and had bought a new car with it. Seemed a bit off somehow, then he showed me a pic of the vehicle he'd bought. Matey would never've bought that and doesn't live in America. Scam.

[stealthstylz]

There are a lot of weird scams about at the moment where I can't actually see what the scammer is set to gain from it, apart from it being some sort of introduction or precursor to a later scam involving more money just to see if you'll comply due to built up trust.

[ratchart]

Jun 18, 2023 11:03:07 GMT grumpybadger said:

It's possible he just wants a drawing of a car that's not actually his.

Ask for payment or part payment up front via PayPal.
If he says he won't use PayPal It's probably a scam.
Don't give out bank details and don't download the super secure new app he suggests as the best thing ever.

He's asking me to use something called skrill which I've never heard of but a quick google brings up some pretty shady reviews. 
I'm inclined to agree with you, if he won't use paypal then it's no deal.

[grumpybadger]

There are a number of "payment" apps currently doing the rounds and most (probably all) contain a programe that gives a scammer remote access to your device.
They then use this to
A, drain your accounts
B, set up new accounts using your identity.

It's industrial scale fraud based in foreign call centres. They pluck images off the internet and use fake or hacked accounts.

There was a story a few years ago where a guy was almost lured into an online romance until he realised the filtered photos he'd been sent (again plucked from social media) were actually of his sister.
Not strictly relevant but kind of amusing.

[Dez]

You’re the seller, you set your terms.

If he won’t meet them, tell him to jog on.

[ratchart]

Update- Having asked a few more questions I'm convinced it is a scam and I've blocked him and the fake "action needed on your paypal account" email which I nearly fell for until I read the address properly.

[colnerov]

Jun 18, 2023 13:26:50 GMT stealthstylz said:

There are a lot of weird scams about at the moment where I can't actually see what the scammer is set to gain from it, apart from it being some sort of introduction or precursor to a later scam involving more money just to see if you'll comply due to built up trust.

Hi, Yes some of them are a gullibility check, perhaps for your details to be sold on.

Colin

[akku]

A lot of the "there's this scam on the internet" stories are fanciful, so I check reputable sources before I repeat them...

Most of the scams on the internet are the guys on facebook who want to sell you some car parts, you pay bank transfer or PayPal friends and family and then they disappear. Nothing more fancy than that.

But they are getting more complex and well thought out

There was one a while ago where TV Licencing wrote to a load of UK people to say that they had been incorrectly charged for their TV licence and were due a refund. In the whole "I have nothing to lose" idea a lot of people provided the payment details and recieved a refund of £15 or £20 into their bank a week or so later. Hurrah! they thought. Then maybe a month later they get an email from TV licencing asking them to check they got their refund OK and to confirm this on a "secure link" which they did. A month or two later they then get an email saying that to avoid potential over charging in the future they need to set up a TV licence account on the uk.gov portal on the following link...

Thats when a whole lot of people opened up thier bank accounts and many were taken for thousands.

Some of these guys are playing a long game and are slick.

[Quasimoto]

Bit like these low life who reply to for sale items on Facebook Market Place saying they will send round a courier with cash.
don't know how that works but sounds dodgy / always just delete.
Usually they work on an oil rig or are out of the country and offer DFS or some like minded courier to collect and pay you the cash. Spelling gives it all away for me or maybe i m cautious after reading about scams etc.

[akku]

TBH some of the worst spelling and written English comes from born and bred Brits so I can't really use that as a filter. I got almost a complete interior off a guy just now and his written English was rotten but hes a proper sound bloke.

Use of weird phrases not used in British English is a red flag though. "splitting out this car, many useful pieces available at your convenience" - I ran my native language through Google translate and posted the results...

Also also check how long the person has had their Facebook account if its Marketplace. I admin a group and so many people with an account a week old have cars they are "splitting up" - also flicking back through profile pics, so many where they have a profile pic of a middle aged white guy with an England flag (or stars & stripes, confederate flag, etc.) and them with their car, them with thier white middle aged wife and then the next 20 profile pics shows someone in their 20s who is usually of a different race and maybe different gender... Looking at their likes and check ins, they are somewhere way else in the world. Simple checks. If someone says they are Ted Johnson from Illinois then why are all their facefriends in the Philipines. etc.

I'm not suggesting racial profiling, just that if stuff doesn't align, then theres a reason.

[ironmighty07]

It used to be "Buyer beware" but nowadays it's also "seller beware".

Think your gut feeling was the right one by the sounds of it. On the rare occasion I've sold stuff overseas via the auction
sites it's mainly to folk who have asked in advance and have good history etc. if somethings feels sketchy then I'll ignore the messages etc or stay firm with position of no international shipping. Bit trickier in the UK but first adage of "If it feels too good to be true...." and if its such a great deal then I'll jump in the car to view etc and if it "sells" in between times then so be it.

[v8ian]

The route to a cashless society is fraught and full of pitfalls some of it dubious and vague in many ways,
Yesterday, my beloved managed to fill the far with petrol, drive a mile or so and call me to say the Tiguan wont drive properly, Oh Joy, did you put diesel in it, cos thats what it needs, the silence was palpable, followed by the memorable.... OH SH-IT,
it was Sunday evening, after a hot day and it was now raining stair rods, I eventually found somebody who would come and flush the car, first, the phone call to say we want a £50 deposit, paid on the phone from a company I had never heard of, so she has to read out her number over the phone, to a stranger, paid out of the wifes account.... I sent her home to feed the dog in the other car, I sat there for 4 hours waiting, and starting to get panicky ,when a fella turned up with a pro looking Van and tidy kit, he very professionally drained, flushed and reset the electronics, especially as the hazards had dropped the battery down to about 9.6v, gave me a jump, then wanted another £250 for the service, from a machine he dragged out of the van, I'm still waiting to see if my account get raided over the next week, so is the wife!!!!!, and the £70 she had deposited in the tank.
I had been at a car show and jumble most of the day, and had a wadge of cash in my pocket, which he refused to accept for payment............

[akku]

Jun 19, 2023 16:57:43 GMT v8ian said:

I had been at a car show and jumble most of the day, and had a wadge of cash in my pocket, which he refused to accept for payment............

People* don't want cash these days. I have paid a selection of tradesmen of late, not one of them wanted cash, nor would accept cash. I remember when the usual thing was that everyone wanted cash. I asked one guy if he wanted cash for the £1200 or so job he had done me and he was offended, gave me a lecture on how he is an honest business, not some tax dodging cowboy, etc. etc. Times are changing. Cash payment has a negatrive connotation and some businesses pay more bank fees on cash, and it takes them more effort to deal with. I much prefer to TBH. but we are running into a wildly off-topic topic.

Plenty of ways to scam people on a cash sale and theres no paper trail then either. Not that it always helps when there is.

[slackerTHEpinstriper]

Jun 19, 2023 21:10:54 GMT akku said:

Jun 19, 2023 16:57:43 GMT v8ian said:

I had been at a car show and jumble most of the day, and had a wadge of cash in my pocket, which he refused to accept for payment............

People* don't want cash these days. I have paid a selection of tradesmen of late, not one of them wanted cash, nor would accept cash. I remember when the usual thing was that everyone wanted cash. I asked one guy if he wanted cash for the £1200 or so job he had done me and he was offended, gave me a lecture on how he is an honest business, not some tax dodging cowboy, etc. etc. Times are changing. Cash payment has a negatrive connotation and some businesses pay more bank fees on cash, and it takes them more effort to deal with. I much prefer to TBH. but we are running into a wildly off-topic topic.

Plenty of ways to scam people on a cash sale and theres no paper trail then either. Not that it always helps when there is.

It's the hassle of cash now.
If you are not close to a bank etc you could loose a morning just going to a bank or post office, parking up, queuing behind the old folk who just go there for a chat.

[mr2fc]

Jun 20, 2023 7:42:52 GMT slackerTHEpinstriper said:

Jun 19, 2023 21:10:54 GMT akku said:

People* don't want cash these days. I have paid a selection of tradesmen of late, not one of them wanted cash, nor would accept cash. I remember when the usual thing was that everyone wanted cash. I asked one guy if he wanted cash for the £1200 or so job he had done me and he was offended, gave me a lecture on how he is an honest business, not some tax dodging cowboy, etc. etc. Times are changing. Cash payment has a negatrive connotation and some businesses pay more bank fees on cash, and it takes them more effort to deal with. I much prefer to TBH. but we are running into a wildly off-topic topic.

Plenty of ways to scam people on a cash sale and theres no paper trail then either. Not that it always helps when there is.

It's the hassle of cash now.
If you are not close to a bank etc you could loose a morning just going to a bank or post office, parking up, queuing behind the old folk who just go there for a chat.

Fewer branches as well. Also, cash carries the old-as-time risk of someone knocking you over the head for it! (Usually mates of the person that gave you the cash in the first place!)

[Ryannn]

My business account charges me to deposit cash, so once I’ve taken an hour out of my day and paid for parking just to get to the machine, there’s very little incentive to accept it.