Be aware of scam and fraud

There used to be a company in the USA called Paul's Autohaus that sold vintage Mercedes parts. I would not exactly call them scammers but I suggested that I come to their place of business to pick everything up and they refused. I found out that once they had my money, they would order the parts from Germany and then send them on to me. I found out who they bought parts from and after that dealt with the German vendor directly and got the parts in a timely manner.

A buyer contacted me about a car I had for sale -- with all the normal questions, etc. The buyer said he would send his agent, with a cashier's cheque -- on the Friday of a Monday bank holiday. I checked out the buyer further and it became obvious the supposed buyer was a scammer -- someone would show up with a counterfeit bankers draft, etc. I contacted the police, thinking they would be happy to enter into a sting. Rather unbelievably, the police told me there was nothing they could do because "a crime had not yet been committed." That was hugely disappointing.

There are some good stories as well. Several years ago, I purchased a Peugeot 402, not a really high dollar vehicle, from a dealer in the south of France. Even though I was in northern Europe at the time [I live in the US], I figured it would cost me $3-4,000 to go down and have a look. I figured that if something were wrong, it probably would not amount to that, so I took a chance. What convinced me was the fact that they offered a 12 month guarantee on all their cars. I thought that if they offered that to buyers in France, the car couldn't be too far off description. I picked up the car in Houston, TX, sight unseen. Everything went smooth as silk: the car was exactly as described.

I - and a neighbour of me - and another old car friend had intresting expiriences with a medium sized dealer for german pre war cars and parts.
At all orders at least one medium priced item (appx. 20 €) was missing in every of the parcels sent to me.
Fourtunatly I had a good friend as a whitness with me while unboxing , because we wanted to do an "old car repair" weekend. (That then got messed up because of missing parts...)
I then got these "problems" confirmed by a car restorer living nearby and a really well connected club mate regarding that company with their shiny webpage and adds.

So a nice alternative to the "nigeria connection type scam / cheque fraud" and the "we don't have it in stock
but pretend to have it" is the possibility to "just not send an ammount of medium priced parts" ....

Best regards and good luck

hello, for me and other people it is clear that not correct people advertise in prewar cars at abnormal prices. I suppose that also the clever people of PREWAR can notice this, and must take special info and controls before putting the low priced goods in the PREWAR magazine.
As interested buyer, always ask when you can visit the seller to see yourself the goods, in which you are interested.
PREWAR should register all incorrect advertisings and exclude them forever as advertiser.
thank you for your attention.

Fortunately, some fraud is easy to spot. Several years ago, I placed an advert on a now-defunct website, looking for WO Bentley parts. About a year later, I received an email from an enterprising gentleman in Nigeria, informing me that he had many vintage Bentley parts for sale, as he was breaking a complete car. I asked for a picture of the car and was sent an image of a nice, shiny Peterson fake. I asked my contact if he had available from this car, a sprodget knocker, a dinksbumps and a gizinter and a square wheel. Imagine my delight when he replied that he did indeed have all of these parts available, if I would care to pay by Western Union money transfer!

i had one from France today, to stop it just ask for a paypal deposit they go away very quick

I could not agree more, when selling a Classic Car, one has to be particularly vigilant.

Over the last few months I have become even more aware of the security required when involved with our hobby.

As reported in the international press, Dutchman
Ad Branderhorst’s Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 and trailer were stolen from outside a hotel in Italy just before the Mille Miglia. A clear case of theft.

I have had two recent experiences of attempted theft, by ‘scammers’.

I decided to clear out and sell one or two vehicles in my old car collection, via the internet. As a result of my adverts, two classic scams were attempted.

The first incident happened when an enquiry to my advert arrived in my email inbox, asking for additional information, history and more photographs on my car for sale. All quite normal.

The name given in the email, when I checked, tied in with information available on social media and the internet. The enquirer said he lived in London and gave an address, which I verified on Google earth. It looked a respectable apartment block. All seemed OK so far.

After a few days, another email arrived from the same man saying he would send his representative to look at the car. Nobody came.

In the next email, he said he was terribly sorry for the delay, and had been very busy. He had discussed the purchase with his advisors and had decided to pay the asking price and would send a cheque in my name.

I replied, I did not accept cheques. For payment, I would only accept cash (up to the legal limit, naturally) or a bank transfer direct to my UK bank. I know from experience that a bank transfer cannot be bounced or cancelled.

No reply for some time.

Then, out of the blue, I received an envelope posted in the Irish Republic containing a cheque, drawn on a French bank in the South of France (I live in Northern France) for the asking price plus £5,000 more. When queried, this is always said to have been an administrative error! Then pushing the scammers stupidity to the limit, I noticed the French cheque was filled out in English! Single figure IQ’s without doubt.

The scammer’s idea is that you receive the cheque, and are then asked to pay the difference back to the driver when the car is collected. The car disappears plus the £5,000. The cheque paid to you for your car bounces and you have lost your car and your £5,000.

On the second occasion, an enquiry arrived, this time in the form of a missed call on my mobile phone. Then I received a message via the internet. Usual thing, history, more information and photographs please. The buyer purported to live in a Central European country. The telephone number and country code confirmed this.

I then received another call on my mobile from the same man, who wished to speak in French. I speak French, so no problem. During the call he asked all the right questions but said as I was obviously English, he would ask his friend’s son, who spoke perfect English, to email me. He also added that his friend was a very important garage owner in that country. He named the company, which proved correct on a Google search.

I duly received the expected email in excellent English. I was offered a reduced price (no surprise there) on my car. I replied stating the minimum price I would accept, as one does. But the clincher… I would only accept payment via bank transfer.

Not another peep!

Both attempted scams were reported to the relevant police forces.

Just recently, I came across a spare parts scam.

We have all been there. I needed a part for my unusual early, foreign vehicle. I searched the internet, and found a company site that said it could supply the parts I required.

Looking carefully at the web site, all seemed kosher. The parts were said to be “in stock”. So I clicked on all the little boxes, paid with my credit card and awaited the delivery.

I waited, and waited. I sent an email asking for an update on my order, no reply.

In the meantime I went back to the original web site and noticed that there were no photographs of the parts I had ordered. Odd.

As a result, I decided to send a ‘forceful’ registered letter, (never phone, you have no record of what was said). Then two of the three items I had ordered, arrived. One of these parts was wrong as it transpired the site search engine did not know one part from another!

Finally, I sent an email giving the company owner 24 hours to refund my credit card or I would be contacting the French fraud police and the press. The mention of “press” appeared to be the key word.

This produced a phone call from the company owner (confirmed by me immediately by email) that my credit card would be refunded, and confirmation that if I returned the wrong part supplied, I would be refunded for that as well. Plus an admission from the company owner that he never had the parts in stock, and the last part of my order was unobtainable.

Although there are many excellent parts suppliers/specialists in France, this appears to be a common business model. Underfunded companies keep up an image of a big successful concern, but they are in reality keeping afloat on the cash received from customers’ orders. They actually seem to stock very little. Once they have received the customer’s money, they then search for the ordered parts.


So there you have it, a quick peep into the sleazy world of classic car fraud.

Whether it is selling a car, buying spare parts, investing in a company or replying to a hard luck story, do your research. Treat every situation as a possible scam, and you have a chance of avoiding becoming yet another crime statistic.

Tony Hillyard
29/05/2018

Yes. A great shame when dodgy people take advantage.
Trust no one and never spend or send any money unless you can afford to loose it.
If you are investing in high value stuff - go and see it. ( I'd rather be dissapointed loosing a lesser ammount.)
Unfortunately it has become common place for photos to be copied and fictional stories added. - No website is immuned.