Advice please - Suspicious call about an ad in autotrader.

Last night someone called about SWMBO's Clio that's up for sale in Autotrader.

The conversation went something like this:

Caller: Hi I'm calling about the Clio in Autotrader Me: Yes? Caller: When can come and have a look at it? Me: Tomorrow lunchtime, or maybe the weekend? Caller: How about Sunday? Me: Sunday's fine. Caller: What's your address Me: Caller: I'll call you when I set off then, what's your name Me: Provides name Caller: Repeats name Me: Yes. What's your name? Caller: Errr, Mark Me: Well, see you on Sunday then, Mark Caller: Thanks, bye

I felt well suspicious about the call and did almost as soon as the conversation started. Wish I hadn't provided the address now, instead offering to tell him when he called back to say he was setting off.

It didn't help that he had a thick scouse accent (I know there are scouse accents and there are scouse accents and his sounded like it was deep out of scumbag scallyville).

It might be nothing and I might be paranoid but has anybody had or heard of dodginess following a call like that?

It's just that I had a terrible gut feeling during and after the call. The feeling lasted all evening. SWMBO who was sitting beside me also felt weird about it and she was on another call at the time!

Reply to
fishman
Loading thread data ...

Daft question, but is there anywhere away from home that you can store the car for a few nights?

Just to be on the safe side.

Reply to
NeedforSwede2

you have a car to sell someone calls you up about coming to have a look at it you tell them your name and address then you wonder if you should have or not? perhaps you'd rather not sell the car eh ;)

Reply to
dojj

As a precaution, we've parked it at the back of the drive, bumper against the garage (garage full of landlord's crap so can't be used), with another car parked bumper to bumper in front of it, so it's not going anywhere. Nothing of value inside save for the CD changer (and that's worth less than =A3100, even less in a pub). And the numberplates can't be accessed or nicked for cloning purposes.

Reply to
fishman

Dojj wrote

-snip-

I know you're being sarcastic but I couldn't put a tape of the conversation on the net to provide context. He sounded well shifty, didn't ask anything about the car and when I asked his name there was quite an Errr before it (as written in my transcript), as if he was thinking up a false name.

Reply to
fishman

What's he going to ask that a) isn't already in autotrader and b) he doesn't need to confirm in person? Completely non-paranoid person won't want to ask anything, and a completely paranoid person won't believe anything you say.

TBH the conversation sounds fine. If it were something more flash, you could worry about it being nicked to order, but for a clio? (assuming it isn't one of the barking ones)

cheers, clive

Reply to
Clive George

I wenr' being sacry mate, sorry if it's come across like that if you've got a car to sell and don't give out the info as to where and when to view it, it then becomes a little difficult to sell on the other hand, if everyone who you speak to on the phone sounds the same sort of suspicious, you are never going to sell it

did you ask for a contact number from the potential purchaser? or from whereabouts they would be travelling? no haggling over the phone?

Reply to
dojj

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Bigus" saying something like:

The Nigerian scam by telephone is around. Couple of years ago a bloke phoned me up about a van I was selling and asked me to take a cheque in excess of the amount... the usual bollocks. I told him to f*ck off and try it on somewhere else.

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

True words, a lot of info went into the AutoTrader ad, even more provided in a web page referred to in the ad also.

You just get a gut reaction sometimes, you know? I've sold several cars in the past (TI is my tenth car since passing my test 4.5 years ago) but never had a call like that before. It's hard to put it across in a transcript on a usenet post. I'm probably just being paranoid, which is not something I'd include in a list of my usual character traits.

Reply to
fishman

Don't you live in High Legh? Couldn't you arrange to meet at the church carpark and then take it from there? Well, yeah, it's a shit idea now and all, but maybe for the future?

Cheers.

Reply to
conkersack

Isn't the standard advice to buyers don't buy from somebody who's only prepared to meet you in a carpark?

cheers, clive

Reply to
Clive George

Did you do 1471?

Reply to
Nicky

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.