Skip online deals if they are 'too good' to believe

Fraudsters seem to trying to lure online customers with fake advertisements to sell expensive products at very low prices.

A user of dubizzle.com, the classifieds web site for buying and selling in the Gulf and Middle East, said he was attracted by the price of Dh26,000 for a four-wheel drive vehicle but later realised that the car, which was claimed to be in the UK to be re-exported to the UAE, is part of a bigger fraud.

Dubizzle has warned customers about dealing with advertisers from abroad, which is illegal according to the UAE law. It has also reiterated its stand not to send money in advance for any online deals.

"I am a regular visitor to the dubizzle website and found the offer to sell a 2010 year model Mitsubishi Pajero at an attractive price of Dh26,000. When I contacted the advertiser through email, he responded, explaining why he wants to sell the vehicle at a throwaway price.

"I realised later that the guy was trying to get the money paid in advance for a car that he claimed to be parked in Britain,” says Moncy Philiph, a finance professional based in Dubai.

According to him, subsequent communication proved that the vehicle with a UAE registration number was already exported to the UK. “The seller insisted that I pay some money through E-bay which he claimed is a safe transaction mode. He did not answer some questions that I raised about the deal,” Moncy added.

An advertiser named Manuel did not give his local contact number or mobile number and wanted the entire transaction to be made through e-Bay. He claimed in his email replies that “I moved with my family to Newcastle, United Kingdom. The car has UAE papers and titles. I sell the car so cheap because I need a car here with the driver's seat on the right side. I want to do business with e-Bay, because they have protection for buyers and sellers,” said one such email.

Several photographs of the car with the UAE registration number are uploaded in a photo uploading site outside dubizzle. Moncy said his questions about the reason why the vehicle was exported from the UAE without clearing the pending traffic fines amounting to Dh2,500 remained unanswered and he has backtracked from the deal, fearing that it is a scam.

“The advertiser insisted that I send money in advance to an e-bay account through bank transfer. The money would remain there until the vehicle is inspected and the money would be released only after the deal is through,” said Moncy.

“You have to register on eBay and give me your eBay user ID. I will give all the details to eBay and they will start our item transaction. They will prepare the car for shipping, and the papers and contracts that you must sign. eBay will make all the papers for us,” the car owner said in e-mails.

“After everything is checked, they will give you all the details of the transaction. At this point, you must pay the sale amount to an eBay protected account. The money will remain there for the security of the transaction until you receive and inspect the car. eBay starts the shipping and you will receive the car in 79 working days,” he said.

“Once the car is in the UAE, the customer is promised five days’ inspection period to test the car. Afterwards, an eBay agent will come to you and you must tell him your decision. If the car is not in good working condition, has damages or it is not as described, eBay will transfer the money back to you and they will bring me the car. Please note that the return is included so we will not have to pay anything extra,” said the communication.

“If the car runs great and it is as described with no damages, sign the papers that the shipping employee will bring you (contracts, titles etc.). Also, the shipping agent will sign instead of me because I will give him the rights.  The payment method will be bank transfer. I will pay all the eBay's costs from here. You must pay only the bank transfer fees (40-50 euros I think). If everything is clear for you, please send me your eBay user ID and I will start the eBay transaction,” the car seller said.

The management of Dubizzle said if a deal looks too good to be true, then it could be a scam: “The ad that you have responded to "MITSUBISHI PAJERO 2010 MODEL BRAND NEW LOOK SINGLE OWNER DRIVEN" has been identified by our users and the Dubizzle administrator as a scam. This listing is fraudulent and the poster is attempting to scam Dubizzle users. We strongly suggest that you do not enter into any sort of financial transaction with this person and that you end all communication with him immediately,” the website managers told Moncy Philiph in an emailed warning.

“We encourage you to only deal locally with people you can meet face to face. If something seems odd or "too good to be true" it almost definitely is,” Dubizzle said.

“Scammers will try anything to sound legitimate so you'll send them money. They'll say they've just moved back to the UK, they'll pose as a company, they'll even pretend to be Dubizzle! Don't believe it. So long as you make it a rule to never send money to anyone you meet over the Internet, you'll be fine,” the Dubizzle alert said.

“The case is probably a fraudulent attempt to scam someone out of money. We take a number of steps to both protect and educate our users. We encourage buyers to meet face-to-face when engaging in a transaction because this eliminates the chances of a buyer being scammed. Ads that are found to be fake or/and attempt to deceive a buyer into sending money abroad are immediately removed and the individual's account is suspended,” said Dubizzle’s regional marketing manager.

“It's illegal to sell an item on Dubizzle from abroad. Sellers must validate their account through their UAE mobile number. So this drastically reduces the chances of fraud taking place. If a buyer finds a deal which is too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true. We recommend using common sense in this area and if in doubt contact Dubizzle with your concern and we will investigate this immediately,” he added.

“We have a team of individuals dedicated to controlling our content and enforcing Dubizzle's terms of use.  The general public can at any time, and often do, report ads to us that they believe contravenes our terms of use, which in turn, is reviewed by our support team,” he said.

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