I've just been the victim of a scam, but oddly I can't help smiling and admiring those who 'had me'! Thought I'd share it with you.....

Until this evening I had a car, an old MPV. I'd owned it for a few years, it had a dodgy gearbox, high mileage, drank fuel like water and wasn't cheap when serviced. Back in March 2018 the exhaust started blowing so I took it into Kwikfit. The guy did the usual trick, whistled through his teeth and gave me the bad news. Exhaust had seemingly blown right next to the catalytic converter and would cost 4 figures plus to repair, far more than the car was worth.

I declined his offer and thought I'd get a local mechanic to give me a second opinion. Basically I got very lazy, needed a smaller, cheaper car so bought a bargain which I've still got. MPV sat on my driveway ever since and I forgot to get a mechanic to look at it.

A relative who's out of work offered to look at my MPV and fix it, I'd have happily let him have the car for nothing if he could've taken it away. Anyway, he moved away then the lockdown struck and it never got sorted.

A few weeks ago, a couple of blokes called round offering to buy my MPV. They were, I suspect, from a 'travelling community' but polite and nice guys on the face of it. I said I'd think about it. They called back last week and we agreed a deal. Looking back now, they settled on a price about £100 more than the car would be worth as scrap. I was happy and agreed they could buy the car this evening if they could start it, bearing in mind it had sat in my driveway for more than 2yrs without moving or being started. Looking back now, the price they agreed on was an extremely good deal for me. Little did I know it was too good to be true.

The same 2 gents turned up this evening, adamant they'd be able to start my car, which they did. Understandably the car was suffering from a noisy, blown exhaust so they put it up on a makeshift ramp using wood planks they fortunately had in their van and took a look underneath. Lo and behold, they pointed out with what seemed like genuine shock and horror, someone had nicked the cat converter and the exhaust was now just hanging down where the CC had once been affixed.

The nice men shook their heads and muttered something about not being able to trust anyone these days, and even suggested that Kwikfix had probably nicked it. I told them I didn't think that was what a big company like them would do, so they suggested anyone could've nicked the CC while the car was in my drive. "Thieving B##tards they are, you can't trust anyone, they're always looking to nick CCs for their scrap value" the gents told me as they took pity on me. Yes, I'm sure that's what happened, someone had half-inched the cat from my driveway. The gents now told me they wouldn't be able to pay the agreed price, got on their phones to source a price for a replacement cat converter which, they showed me, would cost them £180 to buy.

Have to say I was surprised a second-hand cat converter was so cheap given that Kwikfit had quoted me £1300+ to replace, fit, and sort a new exhaust part with a new cat thrown in.

By this stage I'd started to strongly suspect the 2 gents with me might just, possibly, maybe, probably had something to do with my missing cat converter. Clearly I had a few problems now - 2 burly gents stood on my driveway looking disappointed with what was now a practically worthless MPV without a catalytic converter. Plus I had a car without a CC so I'd have to hope a scrap merchant could tow it away. I was almost certain they must have popped round to my house a couple of days ago and nabbed the CC at night without me knowing, although I had no evidence of this, plus I'd have expected the family dog to have heard and barked the house down. The gents knew I had a dog as they commented on how nice he was when they last called.

Said gents clearly took pity on me and said they'd offer me what we'd agreed less £115, which was a few quid more than I'd have got for the car as scrap. Feeling a bit stupid I agreed, knowing I'd finally got rid of the car without doing much. As I helped the guys put the planks back into the back of their van I couldn't help noticing several used cat converters in the back of their van. I'm like Mr Bean when it comes to car repairs and, 2 hours ago I wouldn't have known what a CC looked like but these bits of rusty metal definitely looked like the sort of cat converters they'd shown me on their phone.

The gents even asked me for a receipt for the transaction, they gave me their name and address but couldn't recall their postcode. I memorised their van registration number. If they live at the address they gave me then I'm Donald Trump.

Clearly I've been had big time and should wear a dunce's hat to go with my covid face mask over a shiny red clown's nose. But rather than feel annoyed I stupidly can't help admiring their work and the effort they've gone to - from doggedly persuading me to sell my car when, in truth, I'd have rather given it away to someone I trusted, to making me a good first offer for my car, to (most likely) nicking my cat converter making my car worthless and then taking it off my hands knowing I had no options left.

Sitting here now typing this, I'm sure I've even heard of this sort of scam before!

Valuable lesson learned - never do business with these sort of gents.

Does sound like you've been had mate

Put it down to experience i would

I’ll buy you a new one when my share of $12m comes through from a Nigerian prince. Can’t afford it yet as I had to give him £5000 to arrange the release of the funds

Thanks fellas.

Been wondering whether to 'put it down to experience' or play my relatively poor trump card. I still have a spare key for the car, wait for the scrotes to fix my cat converter back on the car, fix the exhaust then I turn up and drive it away.

DeePeeNCAFC wrote:Thanks fellas.

Been wondering whether to 'put it down to experience' or play my relatively poor trump card. I still have a spare key for the car, wait for the scrotes to fix my cat converter back on the car, fix the exhaust then I turn up and drive it away.

Now THAT would be quality

Many many moons ago I gave my old Vauxhall to a work collegue of a few weeks for nowt as he agreed to carry on paying the monthly fees on it.
He left my company shortly after
Several months later when I got legal threats from the finance company I realised the toe rag had not paid any instalments.
I knew his address and had a spare key so in the dead of night with my late brother in law we journeyed to a rather rough area of Cardiff.
It actually started albeit with a virtually empty tank and we got back to civilisation.
Next morning it was sold with enough to cover the balance.
All good fun

Exile 1976 wrote:I’ll buy you a new one when my share of $12m comes through from a Nigerian prince. Can’t afford it yet as I had to give him £5000 to arrange the release of the funds

A couple of years ago,my partner had a email saying that there was a large amount of money waiting to be transferred into her account.All she had to do was send a handling fee with her account details.This kind person wasn’t a Nigerian prince but none other than Michelle Obama,we didn’t take her money.

Percy plunkett wrote:

Exile 1976 wrote:I’ll buy you a new one when my share of $12m comes through from a Nigerian prince. Can’t afford it yet as I had to give him £5000 to arrange the release of the funds

A couple of years ago,my partner had a email saying that there was a large amount of money waiting to be transferred into her account.All she had to do was send a handling fee with her account details.This kind person wasn’t a Nigerian prince but none other than Michelle Obama,we didn’t take her money.

That’s nice of Mrs Obama
Over the last 6 months I’ve had two letters from people who work for ‘Chinese Bank’ who have tracked me down due to ‘a family member‘ of the same surname who recently passed away and left a sum of US$18m in their account. If I contact him I can sort out getting a 50/50 share as he is ‘taking all the risks’ as they ‘don’t normally release money to people not named in the will’ .. Suffice to say, I’m yet to contact him.

I often get a letter from S C C showing my pension payment and how much tax I pay on it .......now that really is a scam