Is this a con??

[trem1]

Want your opinions on this please people, a friend of mine on another forum is in the market for a car and seen one in autotrader BUT its a couple of hundred miles from him, this is the ad
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/ ... atform=DFA
anyway he got a reply from him as follows

Originally Posted by Con Man

Hi Jazz, sorry for the delay.

I spoke with my wife and we can arrive there on Friday evening so we can have our meeting on Saturday if this works for you.
Before we come to Durham, we want to be sure that you will be there and we will not drive for nothing. ... There is a risk which we want to avoid. I spoke with my wife about this and we have a proposal for you. If you accept our proposal, we can come to the meeting as we agreed...

My wife will go tomorrow to a local Western Union. She will transfer £2090 to my name to UK, Durham. The transfer will be done by my wife to my name and I will take back the money from Western Union in Durham. As soon as the transfer is done, we will send you the transfer document. This will be our proof that we will come to Durham and meet you. We will have to take our money back, so we will have to come there.

The same thing we want from you. A relative or a friend of yours can go to the Western Union in your city and transfer £2090 on your name to Durham using "Western Union Same Day Service". This is a service where you do not need a bank account. It's a transfer from a person to a person. The transfer is instant. You will take back the money from any Western Union in Durham at the moment when we meet. When the transfer is done, you must send us the transfer document as proof that you will come to Durham.
You can find a Western Union location near you using:
http://www.westernunion.co.uk/WUCOMW...e=agentLocator

Please understand that I am not asking for an advance payment, the only one who can pick up the money in Durham is you.I do not have access to your money, I just want to see that you are the receiver in Durham.
This transfer will cost you about £40. As soon as we meet I will pay you back this money. It doesn't matter if you will decide to buy the car or not. This way you have nothing to lose.

We hope you understand our message and also we don't want to seem rude but it's a long way for a blind date. Please inform us about your decision.

Thank you!
James and Joanne

pretty certain this is a con, but what do you think??
cheers

[plod]

Walk away I say

[trem1]

yea my thoughts exactly, stinks of a con doesnt it

[lozz]

Err what are they Implying ?
transfering there money into your account or you transfer moneys into theres,
western money transfer is used by Nigerian Scammers,

why transfer money if your buying a car idont get it,
id tell them to forget it sounds dodgey to me,
the tactics normaly used is scammer pays cheque into an account, victim sees X amount in there account as suspects its koshir and hands them the Deal amount of cash back which will come out of there pocket,
the amount paid into the account will show up but it will be a Ghost once the cheque as prosesed it will be a bent cheque,

ask them for there name and address and check them out on the voters list,

[lozz]

The chap Named Paul
is trading as a car Dealer,
there location, Houghton le spring tyne & wear
DH4 5RJ.
Tel: 0191 385 3971,

seems koshir,
but there on Facebook as this, see link,

http://en-gb.facebook.com/pages/CoShakh ... 282?v=info

location Iraq

[omega]

no, no, no.
its a con
once you pay money to western union it can be picked up and you wont see it again
there are lots of cars out there.

[lozz]

http://dealerservices.autotrader.co.uk/ ... ontact.htm

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/used-cars/b ... 3383140215

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/used-cars/n ... 3389607602

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2007-HYOSUNG-GV-6 ... 20b7e06149

hes been busy if hes a scammer

[robb]

a bit contrived to me, if he can,t trust your mate to meet him sod him . He,s the one selling the car he should take the risk if there is any

[StevieboyTD]

Old WU scam, you pay money into WU and they use the details you send them as "proof" to take the money out (even though they say they won't)

Walk away.

[FarmerPug]

thats got con written all over it, £2000 just to avoid the potential of a wasted trip.

[plod]

Am I stupid, but the seller says about coming to Durham? Yes?
Yet he's only at Houghton le Spring?
That's just down the road last time I was there

And am I stupid again?
Down as James on response, but paul on auto trader

Or have I read it completely wrong

[DiscoPol]

Con Con Con Con Con Con Con Con, do i need to go on?

[sirwiggum]

CON

With big feckin massive bells on.

Walk away.

£2k on western union for <whatever reason> is a classic con.

Just because they have other stuff listed, of course a scam artist is going to try and spread the scam as wide as they can!

[no2lurch]

i read with greatb interest and vigour your thread, but stopped at 'western union'!

[sirwiggum]

lozz is right, Houghton-le-Spring is a few miles away from Durham. Just turn up at the dealer's address. Some sort of scam. Perhaps the dealer's email account has been compromised?
I would imagine they probably have ways of printing fake utility bills and birth certificates to fit the name provided on the WU form.

Drive those couple of miles up the road, quiz the dealer.