This brief text is extracted from a genuine email exchange between an honest seller and a fraudster posing as a potential buyer. The exact methods used to enact this scam may vary, and this serves only as an example of how it can operate. Names and personally identifiable information have been changed or removed, and some of the badly worded text used by the fraudster is edited for ease of reading.

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Advertiser:

"Please find attached the pictures that you requested.

The car is still available. It would need to be transported, but otherwise the car has genuine low miles and is in relatively good condition.

The car has been owned by us for many years. I am looking for £550 due to its low mileage."

Buyer:

"Hello,

Once again, I thank you for your reply towards my enquiry to :Renault 4) from you. Indeed, I want to buy the Renault car and would like to inform you once again that the mode of payment is going to be by check. This check will be sent to you by my client who lives in the U.K and he is owing me some amount of Pounds which is (£1,300) so I decided to use the money to buy the said item from you.

So as soon as you get the check you are to deduct your selling price and forward the remaining excess fund to the Shipping agent. You may wonder why did I not receive this check directly from my client. Yes, I could have receive it directly from my client but for the fact that it will take 30-32 days to clear in the bank here in spain, so decided to use to buy the said item from you. To make this payment available to you, I will need the following information from you: your name, address and telephone number.

As for the Shipping my shipping agent will come down to your place for the immediate pick-up.

Thanks,

Mr Fraudulent Git"

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This particular scam involves the buyer sending an additional sum of money on top of the asking price, and requesting that the seller send this surplus on to a shipping agent via a fast money transfer. The advertiser is led to believe the original cheque has cleared, but the buyer then pulls out and asks for the money to be returned. When this happens, the cheque bounces, the account has already been closed and the advertiser is left out of pocket.

Here follows another dodgy email that you can expect to receive as a result of advertising on the Internet and possibly elsewhere, this one being more obvious and in its raw, unedited state (i.e. full of spelling and grammatical errors):

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Dodgy buyer:

"Goodday,
I want to inform you that i saw the advert you past and i am intrested in purchasing your R4 GTL model, . .. ,And once again i we like to know if it is in good condition okay,once again i want you to know that the payment we be made by cheque ,And as soon as you get my mail i want you to get back to me asap today with your full name and your postal address with your cell phone number okay take care of your self and god bless you and your family.

Regard
johnson."

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At any time there will be a number of different scams doing the rounds, and this is just one such example. I can only advise all advertisers to be wary of entering into any irregular activity involving payment for goods or other services, such as the money transfer described here. With the majority of Renault 4-related items sold through this website being of relatively low value, I suggest that any persons who are concerned about such issues make the not unreasonable demand in these circumstances of a straight, cash-in-hand deal with no added complications.