By CAROLINE STRAINIG
Local car dealer uncovers national fraud attempt …
A PORT MACQUARIE car dealer has uncovered an attempted nationwide fraud by what he believes is an international gang.
The saga started when Country Wholesale Group director Stephen Rae received an email via the www.carsales.com.au website inquiring about a Subaru. The buyer said he lived in Rose Bay in Sydney but was on holiday in Queensland. He was buying the car as a surprise for his wife.
After further correspondence, the man agreed to buy the car and gave Mr Rae credit card details to debit $1850 immediately, with a further $1850 a couple of days later. He would pay the balance when he picked up the car. He also faxed a photocopy of his licence as proof of his identity.
Mr Rae debited the credit card but started to think more and more about the buyer. Several things started to ring alarm bells. The man had given the very English name John Smith but used broken English in his emails as if he were not a native English speaker. Both the phone number and postcode didn’t exist. And last but not least he had not tried to negotiate on the price at all.
“It would be unusual for someone to pay full price without asking for a discount,” Mr Rae said.
He Googled the email address, skyblue121, and the words “email scam” and discovered that skyblue was a name used by a gang of South African scammers.
Personal assistant Sarah Burch then checked the photocopy of the driver’s licence and noticed that the waratah flower on it had seeds, which was not normal. The Roads and Maritime Services Office subsequently confirmed it was fraudulent.
Mr Rae immediately called his bank, who voided the credit card transaction, so no money was taken from the credit card, which he presumed had been stolen. He also notified carsales.com.au, who immediately blocked the skyblue email address and notified other car dealers.
“It turned out 70 dealers had been emailed by them in total,” Mr Rae said. .
“We think what they were going to do was cancel the transaction after one or two payments and ask for their money back, to be paid into a bank account. The car dealer would then be out of pocket when the card later turned out to be stolen and the bank voided the credit card payment and drew the money back out of our accounts.”
Mr Rae said the attempt showed just how careful everyone has to be in day-to-day dealings, particularly over the internet.
“In my experience something too good to be true also usually is,” he said.
