Bongo Fury

Hi folks.

Sadly we are selling our lovely, fully-equipped Bongo (brief details on the 'For Sale' page; fuller details and many photos available on request!); the intended upgrade is an Auto Sleeper Topaz.

A guy called 'Daniel William' emailed me to inquire about price. I was content to take what he was offering, and looked him up online; no record of him. I emailed to ask for his address and phone number; address in London, phone number in Newport. Wales. He emailed me a couple of times as follows:

-------
kindly send your names, address, and phone number. to enable prepare
payment to you for the bongo.
after payment confirmation, the transporter will be picked up the
bongo at your place
---------------

and

---------
The Van will be picked up at your place after payment must have
confirmed received by you. next week.
send your information to enable issue the bank cheque.
----------

Let's lay to one side the fact that I'm an English professor, and his prose is clearly poor. I rang the Newport number, and got a foreign ring tone. The gentleman who answered (and who had an African accent and speech pattern) seemed to recognise me before I introduced myself. He said he was acting on behalf of a client, and was sourcing a vehicle for him. I asked Daniel to send me a photo of his driver's licence by email. I also said to him that payment had to be by electronic transfer, in advance of the vehicle being picked up. He said he needed to consult his client, and would get back to me.

In the meantime I rang Ady Hurlstone (who kindly rescued us with a blown engine head many years ago!). He thought it was a scam. I am inclined to agree.

Any thoughts, anyone? I'm not sure if legitimate business is done in this way. Buying a vehicle unseen is possible, though not desirable.

Good wishes from Leon

I would assume by default they're scammers until/unless they can prove otherwise.

My client...

Would you really use an agent to source a used car, and pay for a transporter when you could collect it...

With the rest of the peculiarities I'm thinking, "If it looks like a scam, smells like a scam, and is written like a scam, then it's likely a scam'.

Just my six pennorth, but I would walk away, and block the phone numbers as I can see a lot of abuse coming.

As mikeonb4c said,
If it was me, definitely NOT worth the hassle, could go so wrong . If its a nice van there will be plenty of legit buyers who want to love your bongo as much as you did/do and pay a fair price

Could be wrong, but too many red flags, stay clear

kind regards

Thanks guys; points well taken.
I don't expect he will contact me again.
I will post the contact details he gave me when this affair is at an end, so that others are not ripped off!

Someone tried to scam us too when selling our Bongo. They said they'd pay by PayPal and pay the PayPal fees.
On googling their name it turns out they send you a fake PayPal receipt and then presumably collect the van having paid nothing. Their email had 'avlon' in it just in case you are subjected to something similar.
On a sadder note we have just sold our Bongo. We were all sad to see it go, particularly my wife, and we nearly withdrew it from sale more than once. Still, we were glad it's gone to a family rather than a dealer or (heaven fobid) a breaker or something.
Thanks for all the help over the years from all the forum members. Tony x

Glad you spotted that one coming.

Sorry to hear of Bongos going for addoption, but don't forget you guys are still very welcome on here and at Meets.