Escrow fraud
Hi, I've been the attempted victim of a fraud, someone called Garret G Bennett advertised in Gumtree a 2005 Toyota Prius, for £2700. We contacted him and he came back saying he was a Royal Air Force pilot, based in Scotland and about to go to Afghanistan, because he wanted a quick sale he offered £2200.
The Car (reg. FE05WJZ) looked good from the photos and we discussed meeting up. He then said he wanted us to put the money in an Escrow – London-Autopay.com
Their website has logos from Ebay, the AA, AutoCheck and McAffee and seemed convincing.
Fortunately an internet search for the company found a warning that the company that London Autopay had only just been set up in September in Florida, the phone number just rings to a message and the address is not recognized by the post office.
I offered Mr Bennett to use a different legitimate Escrow, but unsurprisingly he has disappeared, I suspect not to Afghanistan?
The culprit uses a wide range of legitimate tags to hide behind, Gumtree, The Royal Air Force, Ebay, The AA, AutoCheck and McAffee.
It would be lovely if he could be stopped wouldn’t it!
Sincerely,
James Thomas
grgbennett@ukroyalairforces.comGarret G Bennett - Air Corps Pilot
The Royal Air Force Regiment
London Autopay – Escrow
Address: 125 London Road,
London, SW16 4FD,
United Kingdom
Phone: (+44) 08432890635
Fax: (+44) 08447747907
Email:
support@london-autopay.com Prius FE05WJZ
From:
grgbennett@googlemail.com [mailto:grgbennett@googlemail.com] On Behalf Of
grgbennett@ukroyalairforces.comSent: 28 October 2010 23:06
To:
james@thomasweb.euSubject: Re: Prius
I've spoke to my superiors and I can take 3 days permission to bring the car but I don't want to take this permission and ... maybe come for nothing, I mean that there is a risk of coming to your place and...you simply don't show up and I don't want to be embarrassed because there will not be a second chance for me to take a second permission since I have trainings every day and the departure is knocking at the door. One of my mates advised me to use a third party escrow company for this sale because of the distance and also because of the risks involved.
My friend used this escrow company:
www.london-autopay.com for a car purchase on gumtree and he was very pleased. 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 how escrow works here:
www.london-autopay.com/howitworks.php. I can give you two days to test the car at any inspection service you wish 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. I'll bring the car with the log book and we can sign the papers right away. One more thing I saw that they accept bank transfer as payment method which is 100% secure.
--
Garret G Bennett - Air Corps Pilot
Army email:
grgbennett@ukroyalairforces.comPersonal email:
grgbennett@googlemail.comThe Royal Air Force Regiment
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------