Am I being scammed on Autotrader?

Got a scooter on there, I'm getting messages from people whose usage of English suggests they are foreign.

Hello Mark,

Thank you very much for your email,i want you to know that i'm okay with the price of the bike,i will really appreciate if the person coming to look at it is no more interested in it any longer.

I want you to know that i will be making payment through Cheque and i want you to get back to me with below information for the Cheque

Your Full Name:
Full Address To Mail The Cheque to Including Post Code:
Phone Number:

I will be looking forward to read from you.

Regards

Why mail the cheque? And why a cheque anyway? Cash on collection please!

Second buyer:

Message:
Hello Seller,
I saw your advert regarding your (Bike )and am very interested in buying it.So i will want you to get back to me with your last open offer for it asap.Looking forward to read from you.
Regards....David

Then he writes...

Hello Mark,
Thanks for your mail i have already contacted a shipping company that will come over to your location for the pick up of the Bike after the payment have been done and all the necessary documentation of the Bike like the sale contract and the change of ownership,expenditure will be done by the shipper when they get to your location for the pick up. So Concerning the payment, i Will pay you £350 because i really like the Bike and i don't want you to sell it to another person, and the payment will be done with a Bank Cheque which would be send to you via post and I shall require your

Full Name.....
Contact Address:-..
Country:-....
Your Moblie Number:-.....

So that the cheque will get to you by next week and upon clearance of the cheque into
your account, the shippment will be done by my shipping agent as they shall come over to your location to have the Bike up .I shall be awaiting for your response asap.
Thanks,
David.

My instinct is to avoid these two "buyers", what do you reckon?

Don't touch with a ten foot barge pole. Do not reply to their e-mails.

[maviczap]

Yes youre being scammed.

The way this scam works is like this

You'll pay the cheque in as normal, after so many days your account will be credited with the amount of the cheque.

But because the account its being drawn on, is a foreign bank, then when the cheque reaches the bank in the country its from, then this account will have insufficient funds to pay the cheque. It'll then bounce back to your bank.

Because it takes such a long time & initially you think you've been paid, you've handed over the keys & log book before the cheque comes bouncing back.

That's how it works or something like that

We had a similar scam when trying to sell a car

[maviczap]

Originally Posted by ClunkintheUK

Don't touch with a ten foot barge pole. Do not reply to their e-mails.

No, string them along for ages, just don't accept their cheque

I could insist on a bank transfer

Originally Posted by maviczap

No, string them along for ages, just don't accept their cheque

Heh, "could you send me the following details as i gave the shipping agent the wrong keys:
Full name:
Address and post code:
Country:"

[maviczap]

Here ya go, here's our version of the scam & our bit of fun

http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.p...hlight=umbongo

Originally Posted by maviczap

Here ya go, here's our version of the scam & our bit of fun

http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.p...hlight=umbongo

Haha, that is class

Just been the target of a fairly well put together scam; Seller posted on autotrader, great offer so immediately had the "if it's too good to be true..." alarm bells ringing. However, everything seemed to be fine, seller insisted on using eBay's buyer protection scheme, which is perfectly legitimate... if done via the eBay website. Instead I was sent a series of very convincing emails allegedly from eBay;
clicky clicky click
But with no actual link to any official eBay website? No chance. Oh, that and I saw the exact same photos on a current eBay listing at 3x times the price from a dealer.

[speedyctr]

I don't know if you are aware because you blanked some things out but your name is on the top of that email still.