Due Diligence

[Alan de Enfield]

14 minutes ago, Mike Todd said:

Although what has been said about a broker being an intermediary is correct, buyers need to check as some places offer to buy for cash and I presume that they they sell them on rather than scrapping them or giving them away. As such, the usual rules about sales by a business most surely apply.

Although what has been said about a broker being an intermediary is correct, buyers need to check as some places offer to buy for cash and I presume that they they sell them on rather than scrapping them or giving them away. As such, the usual rules about sales by a business must surely apply.

Repetition to add emphasis ?

[Horace42]

17 hours ago, Robbo said:

Apollo Duck and EBay..

Thanks Robbo & Rusty69.

 

I didn't get on at all well on the Gumtree site - couldn't find 'narrowboats' heading & no time to spend wading through hundreds of ads for outboards looking for a boat like mine for comparison.

Apollo was much better - but no boats matched mine - although many similar - difficult to judge what price to pitch at.

I could use eBay if I got desperate.

17 hours ago, rusty69 said:

Gumtree & boatsandoutboards

 

[WotEver]

When I advertised a caravan on Gumtree all it elicited was a gaggle of scammers wanting to send me too much money so that I could send them a money gram for the balance because they were in the armed forces and couldn’t visit...

 

Loads of complaints about Gumtree on the same subject. Personally I wouldn’t consider selling anything through them again. Just a waste of my time. 

[Athy]

54 minutes ago, WotEver said:

When I advertised a caravan on Gumtree all it elicited was a gaggle of scammers wanting to send me too much money so that I could send them a money gram for the balance because they were in the armed forces and couldn’t visit...

 

?

How does that work?

[Alan de Enfield]

7 minutes ago, Athy said:

?

How does that work?

What a sheltered world you live in - various scams, here are a couple of examples :

 

If you are selling something online, as a business or through classifieds ads, you may be targeted by an overpayment scam.

The scammer will contact you, make you an offer—often quite generous—then make payment through credit card or cheque. They will be for an amount that is greater than the agreed price.

The scammer will contact you with an apology for the overpayment, offering a fake excuse. The scammer might tell you that the extra money was included to cover agent's fees or extra shipping costs. Or they may just say they simply made a mistake when writing the cheque.

The scammer will then ask you to refund the excess amount or they will ask for you to forward the amount through to a third party. They will ask for this to  through an online banking transfer, pre-loaded money card, or a wire transfer such as Western Union. You then discover that their cheque has bounced or the credit card had been a stolen or fake card.

 

A newer variation on this scam involves online sales, usually through classified sites, where the scammer pretends to have made a payment for a larger than agreed amount through services such as PayPal by sending a fake receipt of payment. The scammer will claim that the money is being held until you forward on the extra money.

[Athy]

21 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

What a sheltered world you live in.

I'm not sure whether that's a compliment or a condescension, but thanks for the explanation anyway. One might, of course, wonder what sort of world a person who was familiar with such criminal activity lived in, but I wouldn't do that.

What I didn't get was, why do members of the armed forces particularly do this sort of thing?

[matty40s]

21 minutes ago, Athy said:

 

What I didn't get was, why do members of the armed forces particularly do this sort of thing?

They don't, its just a perfect excuse for the scammer to use.

[WotEver]

21 minutes ago, matty40s said:

They don't, its just a perfect excuse for the scammer to use.

Just so. 

 

“I’m on a tour of Iraq/Afghanistan/Nasty Place currently but I really want to buy your widget. I’ll send x amount more than the asking price to cover shipping. If you can send the balance to my brother at <far eastern email address> he’ll come and collect the goods as soon as he receives it”

 

The simple answer is “No, you send the money to your brother and when he comes to me with the cash then he can have the goods.”

[Horace42]

15 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

A newer variation on this scam involves online sales, usually through classified sites, where the scammer pretends to have made a payment for a larger than agreed amount through services such as PayPal by sending a fake receipt of payment. The scammer will claim that the money is being held until you forward on the extra money.

It might have been remedied by now, but until recently a buyer could pay via ebay/paypal and ask for a refund of the difference of a mistaken over-payment - with a promise to call and collect the goods  later. By which time you have made the refund in good faith. The buyer then makes a claim for the whole original amount for goods you failed to supply. You will be asked by eBay for proof of sale - (a receipt for the goods) - that you do not have because you are still waiting for collection. Or worse, you handed over the goods with a receipt. 

That does not matter to ebay/PayPal because without proof - a refund of the full amount is automatically made to the buyer. The over-payment refund is a totally separate transaction and nothing to do with with eBay (they say).

It is essential for the supplier to get a receipt for the goods. Especially on a private collection.

'Caveat emptor' has been replaced by 'caveat vendor'.

 

[ditchcrawler]

I set up a new online payment last month through Lloyds and one of the security questions was "Is this payment a refund" the other was "Have the police or other organisation asked you to make this payment" or words to that affect