Ireland & UK Auto Payments Fraud- I'm victim as well..

[marta27]

I just found this web tonight.. I see im not the only one who was "done" by the same guy i think. Found lovely VW Passat for E 3000. fell in love with it. Guy contacted me by email. Evertyhing looked so good, so legal, so simple. He was from Belgium, he's just moved from ireland to london to study piano at London Music Academy, he wanted quick safe transaction. car didn't have NCT that's the reason for low price. I sent the money (bank transfer) and never heard from him again. went to the bank next morning tried to cancel the transaction, informed Gardai - but there's nothing they can do for me. bank told me it is not a fraud because i handed the money, that was my wish so nothing they can do about it. as far as i know money got to the bank in UK and its "frozen", but without police and bank actions - it has to be realised at some stage. please contact me if You think You were done by the same guy. name he's used is Benjamin Messick, he had german kind of accent, very nice likeable and chatty on the phone. thank You so much

[lightfair]

Hello,

I'm very sorry to hear that you fell for this site. I'l address the various points in detail.

I just found this web tonight.. I see im not the only one who was "done" by the same guy i think. Found lovely VW Passat for E 3000. fell in love with it. Guy contacted me by email. Evertyhing looked so good, so legal, so simple. He was from Belgium, he's just moved from ireland to london to study piano at London Music Academy, he wanted quick safe transaction. car didn't have NCT that's the reason for low price.

OK, so far it all looks like "standard procedure"; I've seen this or similar stories dozens if not hundreds of times. One thing is sure: The guy is not from Belgium, and he is most likely not in London. Most of this fraud is done by people from Eastern Europe, mainly Romania.

I sent the money (bank transfer) and never heard from him again. went to the bank next morning tried to cancel the transaction, informed Gardai - but there's nothing they can do for me. bank told me it is not a fraud because i handed the money, that was my wish so nothing they can do about it.

Well, this sounds pretty strange to me. One of the typical signs of fraud is that the victim enters the agreement "on his or her own wish". If it was against his or her wish it would be extortion. "Fraud" means that the perpetrator pretends to make a deal but never plans to to actually come through - but the victim does not know this. So whoever said this isn't fraud needs to look up the common definition.

as far as i know money got to the bank in UK and its "frozen", but without police and bank actions - it has to be realised at some stage.

If the money was actually it frozen it would be really good news. So what you need to do is to put real pressure on this so it doesn't get released.

I'm not sure if you already filed a police report. If you haven't done so please do this immediately. Make the police aware that this is organized crime and that this is an ongoing fraud. It is likely that the same scammer (or group of scammers) is operating the following sites:

iesecuredeals.com
database entry: http://escrow-fraud.com/index.php?page= ... ta&id=9976

irishcartrade.com
database entry: http://escrow-fraud.com/index.php?page= ... ta&id=9999

britishonlinevehicle.com
database entry: http://escrow-fraud.com/index.php?page= ... a&id=10002

You might also want to look at http://escrow-fraud.com/index.php?page= ... layout=171 so show that this has been going on for some time already.

So once again: This is organized internet crime; it's important that the police gets this.
If you have a copy of the police report you go again to your bank and ask them to fax it to the receiving bank. Ask nicely but insist this to be done.

please contact me if You think You were done by the same guy. name he's used is Benjamin Messick, he had german kind of accent, very nice likeable and chatty on the phone. thank You so much

And please post all the relevant details: email address, phone number of the scammer, bank details...

[marta27]

Hi Lightfire
Thanks 4 Your replay. So Im typical victim then... I've tried to do everything to stop the money from being realised but its so hard to do so. banks and police aren't helpfull. they don't know how to go around it, i heard so many excuses that their hands are tied, without police report we can't do nothing, its up to the bank in UK, police reckons its between banks. they dont want to have anything to do with this - thats my personal impression.. takes ages to get anything out of them and time's runnig out. maybe thats why scammers make a fortune every day, they know they're untouchable there's few details : car: 2002 VW Passat 1.9 TDI light green, e-mail address i've been responding with: bennymesick@gmail.com, banks details: Account Holder Name-Irish Vehicle Pay, IBAN
GB42BARC20293733940438 , ACCOUNT NUMBER 33940438, SWIFT CODE (BIC) BARCGB22 , SORT CODE 202937 , BANK NAME Barclays and his phone no: +441414163041.I've more no stored in my phone i"ll get it for You later. thanks again 4 replay.

[lightfair]

Hi Lightfire
Thanks 4 Your replay. So Im typical victim then... I've tried to do everything to stop the money from being realised but its so hard to do so. banks and police aren't helpfull. they don't know how to go around it, i heard so many excuses that their hands are tied, without police report we can't do nothing, its up to the bank in UK, police reckons its between banks. they dont want to have anything to do with this - thats my personal impression..

It's a sort of crime that many police stations are not really familiar yet. I can somewhat understand the bank's position: "locking" an account without proper legal authorization could open up a real can of worms. That's why the copy of the police report is so important. Over here the police is legally required to take your report and file it (don't know the exact terms in English, sorry). So if your police stations refuses to acknowledge the fact that you've been a crime victim I would rise hell with them.

takes ages to get anything out of them and time's runnig out. maybe thats why scammers make a fortune every day, they know they're untouchable there's few details : car: 2002 VW Passat 1.9 TDI light green, e-mail address i've been responding with: bennymesick@gmail.com, banks details: Account Holder Name-Irish Vehicle Pay, IBAN
GB42BARC20293733940438 , ACCOUNT NUMBER 33940438, SWIFT CODE (BIC) BARCGB22 , SORT CODE 202937 , BANK NAME Barclays and his phone no: +441414163041.I've more no stored in my phone i"ll get it for You later. thanks again 4 replay.

Thanks for the details.

[daz]

I nearly became a victim too yesterday. The seller came out with the same story that he was Dutch and moved from Ireland to London to study Music. He was selling a 03 audi for 3400 which i thought was a bargain. He was suggesting going through the escrow company. Thank god I done my research and found out it was a illigitimate escrow company. The name he is now using is Abel Manser.

Something needs to be done about these con artists before more people get scammed. I concidently came across this website when I was doing my research and was shocked to read this article. What can we do. Is there any fraudulent agencies that deal with this kind of thing since the gardai do not help????

ps sorry to hear of the people on this website that actually got scammed

[JaxHot]

I nearly became a victim too yesterday. The seller came out with the same story that he was Dutch and moved from Ireland to London to study Music. He was selling a 03 audi for 3400 which i thought was a bargain. He was suggesting going through the escrow company. Thank god I done my research and found out it was a illigitimate escrow company. The name he is now using is Abel Manser.

Something needs to be done about these con artists before more people get scammed. I concidently came across this website when I was doing my research and was shocked to read this article. What can we do. Is there any fraudulent agencies that deal with this kind of thing since the gardai do not help????

ps sorry to hear of the people on this website that actually got scammed

What was the URL of the site you were aked to use?
What is the scammer's email?
You'll help others by posting this data!!!!

[marionhal]

hi, i nearly got caught dis evening aswell.... had seen a lovely 01 Audi A4 on the buy and sell, contacted the seller by email because there was no phone no., so he was selling his car for €3000 because he was moving to london to study in Londons Academy of Music, but he had to live with his girlfriend because he couldnt afford his own deposit so was selling the car to me at a reduced price of €2,600! this wen i doubted it was too good to be true! he was living in london at the moment and had his car over with him wel so he said! the email he is using is amanserpianos@gmail.com, even put pianos in the name to make it sound more real!

so this was next:- "Hi Marion, I spoke to my girlfriend but the problem is that I have classes almost every day and since I said that I can bring the car personally I don't want to take a day off, pay for the ferry and maybe come for nothing. The thing that concerns me is that you might not show up, not because you will not like the car because in my opinion, that's out of question. My room mate advised me to use an escrow company for this sale because of the distance. He used the following escrow company last year: www.irishmotorspay.com for a car purchase on autotrader and he was very pleased. I've read their terms and they can also take care of the necessary paperwork in order to register the car in your name in case you decide to keep it. All you have to do is to register at their website and then I need your user name so I can set up the transaction. You can read their terms here: www.irishmotorspay.com/howitworks.php. I give you seven days to test the car and only if you decide to keep it, they will release the money to me so, I believe this is the safest way. Let me know your decision because there is another person who wants to buy it and I need to know which way to go. The car will come with the service book, manuals and two remote controls for the alarm. One more thing I saw that they accept paypal and bank transfer as payment method which I believe is 100% secure as for the car it has 76,000 miles and no accidents.
Let me know your decision as soon as possible"

[lightfair]

As you might have noticed it's a sort of "standard story" that the scammers use again and again.

Thanks for the information; I've added the site to our database.

[FIDO]

Hi, i too have also nearly been duped into buying a 05 black Opel Astra for 3300 on The Buy & Sell just yesterday using an illigitmate escrow service (UK & IRISH AUTOPAYMENT/vehichlepaysite.com) here's a list of the following messages that he sent me, please note he's now using the name Benjamin Manser and the email address he's now using is Benjaminmanser@gmail.com, his stories are typically the same as the others i've read, here is a list of emails that he sent :

Hi,
I'm Benjamin, you emailed me few days ago regarding my 2005 Opel Astra on buyandsell,I couldn't reply sooner because your email reached my bulk folder and just saw it now. It's still available and my asking price is €3300. My girlfriend listed the car for me so, I'm not quite sure if she specified at the ad that it has 59,000 miles and no accidents. Let me know if you're still looking and check some pictures below:

http://www.sourimage.com/pictures/fc8f6 ... d58e4c.jpg
http://www.sourimage.com/pictures/9267a ... 539d9e.jpg
http://www.sourimage.com/pictures/239a4 ... 54d777.jpg
http://www.sourimage.com/pictures/239a4 ... 54d777.jpg
http://www.sourimage.com/pictures/83162 ... d8e7d4.jpg
http://www.sourimage.com/pictures/e8dbd ... 35102f.jpg
http://www.sourimage.com/pictures/cbc3d ... 0494ee.jpg
http://www.sourimage.com/pictures/7d82b ... 855dfd.jpg

Hi, the car is still available but we have a problem because I'm in London now. I study piano at the Royal Academy of Music in London and the car is here with me. Currently I stay with my girlfriend at a friend of mine here but I just found an apartment to rent and the owner asked for a 2 months upfront payment plus a deposit and since I don't have that money now...I'm forced to sell my car, that's the reason for the low price. Anyway, if you want to buy it I can bring it to your address if you decide. One more thing, this car has no accidents and it comes with full service history. Please give me a quick answer.

Cheers,
Benjamin


Hi, the car is still available but we have a problem because I'm in London now. I study piano at the Royal Academy of Music in London and the car is here with me. Currently I stay with my girlfriend at a friend of mine here but I just found an apartment to rent and the owner asked for a 2 months upfront payment plus a deposit and since I don't have that money now...I'm forced to sell my car, that's the reason for the low price. Anyway, if you want to buy it I can bring it to your address if you decide. One more thing, this car has no accidents and it comes with full service history. Please give me a quick answer.

Cheers,
Benjamin


Hi,
I need to speak to my girlfriend about it, and find a way to take a day off and make a road trip to Ireland because I have classes every day. I'm thinking about using an escrow service for protection, do you have any suggestions regarding this matter?
Benjamin

Hi,

The NCT is due to expire in Sept 2011. I spoke to my girlfriend but the problem is that I have classes almost every day and since I said that I can bring the car personally I don't want to take a day off, pay for the ferry and maybe come for nothing. The thing that concerns me is that you might not show up, not because you will not like the car because in my opinion, that's out of question. My room mate advised me to use an escrow company for this sale because of the distance. He used the following escrow company last year: http://www.vehiclepaysite.com for a car purchase on autotrader and he was very pleased. I've read their terms and they can also take care of the necessary paperwork in order to register the car in your name in case you decide to keep it. All you have to do is to register at their website and then I need your user name so I can set up the transaction. You can read their terms here: http://www.vehiclepaysite.com/howitworks.php. I give you seven days to test the car and only if you decide to keep it, they will release the money to me so, I believe this is the safest way. Let me know your decision because there is another person who wants to buy it and I need to know which way to go. The car will come with the service book, manuals and two remote controls for the alarm. One more thing I saw that they accept paypal and bank transfer as payment method which I believe is 100% secure. Let me know your decision as soon as possible.

That was when i decided to check it out, the website seemed ligitimate but as i dug deeper i came accross this forum and was absolutely shocked, i also noticed that his phone number had one too many digits and he was very reluctant to give the registration number, i'm just sorry that some people have been scammed out of their hard earned money, i believe that people like this get whats coming to them, i'm going to notify Autotrader and The Buy & Sell which seem to be this scammers usual choice of site, i only hope this stops someone from falling into this trap!!!

[bignicky88]

Hi everyone,


My name is Nick

I'm from Australia, and I too have had dealings with "Benjamin Manser"

It was your forum that saved me from entering into a deal for a 1998 Mercedes C200 Elegance.
Several days after sending an online enquiry for an ad, I got a reply from "Benjamin"
The first thing that struck me about the email was the fact that his footer suggested he was a pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force.
It mentioned he was an FA-18 Hornet pilot.

So I Googled his name and found your lengthy forum.

Here is his email:

Hi,
You emailed about my 1998 Mercedes C200 in the weekend, I couldn't reply sooner because your email arrived in my junk folder. The car it's up for sale at $5900 now and I believe it's a good price for a car with 174,000 km and no accidents. Let me know if you're still looking and please tell me where are you located
Cheers,
Benjamin

--
Benjamin Manser - Air Corps Pilot
Army email: benjamin.manser@royalairforces.com
Personal email: benjmanser@gmail.com
Royal Australian Air Force
Aircraft Type: F/A-18 Hornet Fighter
--

It's not a very convincing footer.

I got caught up in a similar scam in a more serious way several years ago. Eerily it was also for a C200 Elegance.
A Romanian national went to the effort of creating an imitation eBay webpage, and stupidly I went along with it.
I learnt a lot through that experience so I will not fall for the same tricks.

That's just my contribution to what could be the tip of the ice-berg.

Ah the joys of the world wide web.

Regards,

Nick