I often advertise cars for sale on Thai Visa Classifieds. Sometimes they are my cars and sometimes they belong to friends and colleagues and I allow the buyer to deal directly with the seller. It's not really a business, more of a hobby/favour for friends as I already have a decent salary from my day job and the commission I take is peanuts. Some a**hole called 'Hugo Stark' has been sending me spam mail with messages like this:

"Deal direct with the owner! Good idea! Do you got a Work Permit to sell so many cars???"

For one thing, there is a huge difference between the number of cars I advertise and the number I actually manage to sell (this year = 1). For another, although I do in fact have a work permit, as far as I know I don't think you need a work permit to sell a second hand car in Thailand. Correct me if I am wrong.

If anyone knows anything about this moron, can they let me know? He's starting to irritate me. Anyone else had spam from him? Is he selling cars himself and is trying to scare off other sellers, or is Hugo Stark just a troll?

I have also had mail like this fom other sources, which is clearly SPAM. I'd like to warn sellers about these kind of mail, If there is any mention of 'shipping' or 'cashier's cheques' and they don't mention the details of your car specifically then it's pretty much a hoax.

"Good day,

I love to buy from you if you will please beat down the price a little bit because i ll still have to ship it and that will cost me an extra.Please tell me the present condition and get back to me with your decision.I am also aware of the fact that there are a whole lot of people unreal people here but please be rest assured that this is Legit if you accept cashier check or pasonal check as your mode of payment.."

OK, back to the day job.

Thanks

bangkokeddy

Tis last message is obviously a Nigerian Scam as they have extremely excellent fake Cashiers cheques that they use to rip off hundreds of people in the US.  

The way it works is they say to the seller they have a Cashiers cheque that is slightly more than the value of the car will you accept the cheque and they can ship the car to Nigeria.   

Of course the cheque never clears as is fraud and you lost your car!

Beware

BB

"Good day,

I love to buy from you if you will please beat down the price a little bit because i ll still have to ship it and that will cost me an extra.Please tell me the present condition and get back to me with your decision.I am also aware of the fact that there are a whole lot of people unreal people here but please be rest assured that this is Legit if you accept cashier check or pasonal check as your mode of payment.."

OK, back to the day job.

Thanks

bangkokeddy

Tis last message is obviously a Nigerian Scam as they have extremely excellent fake Cashiers cheques that they use to rip off hundreds of people in the US.

The way it works is they say to the seller they have a Cashiers cheque that is slightly more than the value of the car will you accept the cheque and they can ship the car to Nigeria.

Of course the cheque never clears as is fraud and you lost your car!

Beware

BB

"Good day,

I love to buy from you if you will please beat down the price a little bit because i ll still have to ship it and that will cost me an extra.Please tell me the present condition and get back to me with your decision.I am also aware of the fact that there are a whole lot of people unreal people here but please be rest assured that this is Legit if you accept cashier check or pasonal check as your mode of payment.."

OK, back to the day job.

Thanks

bangkokeddy

Actually, that's not quite the way it works. They Fedex you a bank draft or similar for more than the value of your item (usually car or boat) and ask you to remit the balance. The money appears in your account (but not cleared) and you send them the money (always by Western Union, by the way) and when the cheque is found to be bogus the bank debits your account leaving you high and dry. The scammer never has any intention of getting your car and it's a variation of the 419 advance fee fraud typically set up by Nigerian crooks.

For more info visit Antiscam.net

eddy, have you received these spam messages in your PM box here on Thaivisa or in your email? If in your PM box, please send those on to admin.

As for Hugo, if you feel he is stalking you then please send the offending PM's on to admin with your complaints as well.

They are quite clever, I've even had fake messages via Facebook.