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Overseas buyer offers to pay for car with certified cheque, but despite assurances from the bank that the funds were in, the cheque had not cleared...
I am selling a BMW 325i on the Internet at the asking price of £1500. A foreign buyer contacted me claiming he had a business in Scotland and claiming he was owed £5500 by a UK company and that they agreed to pay me via a certified cheque drawn in the U.K. The person was to make the cheque payable to me on his behalf. As soon as the cheque had cleared I was to deduct the cost of the car and any additional costs and send the difference to a shipping agency via Western Union.T he cheque was sent from Cyprus and we attempted to cash it. At first it looked like it had cleared and then we found out it hadn't. The scammer even gave us a fake web address and a fake reference number to put into the website 'money tracking' on the site. It said money cleared and was available to draw down. My bank said the same. My dad even spoke to him on the phone. He told us his wife was dying etc etc and he needed the surplus money for her operation!
A UK drawn cheque is now guaranteed as good within 6 working days, but the same regulations do not apply for foreign cheques or bank transfers. Only every believe your bank that the cheque has cleared and in the event it is a cheque drawn on a foreign bank you should not accept their word for it. You want an irrevocable guarantee that it is in writing from them and that they will not attempt to claim back from you if it hasn't.
Certainly beware any deal which looks like it is too good to be true. Had this gone through then the vendor could have lost their car and a considerable amount of their own cash to the "shipper" who would have been in on the act.
Under no circumstances release any car unless you are absolutely certain you have value on the money.
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