Hi, I was looking to buy a motorhome and came across an ad. I have emailed and got the following reply:
The van will come with full service history,it was last serviced in February including a damp test( damp free - certificate present) As I wrote in the previous mail, the van is located in Netherlands but if you are interested to buy it we will drive it to Southport and get there on Saturday 28th March.is this ok with you?We hope you are a serious buyer because we had a bad experience with a buyer a month ago. He said he'll buy our van and we'll have a meeting in Surrey.We made all arrangements for travel,we bought tickets for the ferry and went to Surrey. When we got there,it was just an address of a shop, it was not the address where the buyer live, we tried to call him but the phone was not in use.We were very disappointed, we were very tired and lost a lot of money. We could not believe the people are so ruthless.After this experience we hope you understand that we need a guarantee before we came. We thought that the best solution for us is to use www.escrow.com. This service is the safest service and protects both buyer and seller. It is recommended by ebay, autotrader and most important auction sites . We read that they have launched a new service to their customers employing brokers in all countries in Europe to offer faster transactions. If you agree to use the service, our transaction will be managed by an UK broker.
If you agree to the terms above please reply.
I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole! There are hundreds of motorhomes available in uk. Ask yourself - would you be prepared to spend money and time driving your vehicle to Netherlands on spec that you just might sell it? Not me!
I'm somehow guessing this motorhome was priced at a fraction of its true value, yes? So next question, why did you even bother to waste the effort sending the email?
When I was selling our Holtkamper trailer tent, many of the enquiries were from the continent, and it was eventually sold to someone from the Netherlands.
I had always made it explicit that the unit was available for inspection in Essex. Two prospective German buyers and the Dutchman took the effort to come over to view.
If I had charged a guarantee deposit, then I would probably only had a reply from that nice Nigerian general that keeps e-mailing me.
Unfortunately the CC site has had more than one of these 'scams' lately. They are always those 'too good to be true' sales. Often they appear a bargain but are never able to be seen 'at home'.
If this is the case then stay clear.
I got all excited about a motorhome once it seemed too good to be true, a lady was selling it as she had been given it as part of a divorce settlement and wanted to sell it. Which is why she said she lived in Glasgow and the motorhome was in Nottingham. I did a HPI check on it and it all seemed ok. I kind of knew it was too good to be true so was proceeding very carefully with thoughts of buying it. The next day I received a phone call from the HPI company saying don't touch it with a barge pole as the van existed but the 'sellers' had just lifted the advert from an old ebay sale and her passport details which she offered me for extra confidence were stolen. So I'd say don't touch it, they always want you to pay through Escrow as well which is not a secure way to buy anything as once you hand the money over it's gone and you can't trace it and it's not insured. You will find a motorhome worth buying eventually but as some of the others have said if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. Good luck with your search for a motorhome.
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Topic: Motorhome sale scam
