Woman's car a scam target

NATASHA MARTIN/The Timaru Herald

INTERNET FRAUD: Jackie Sheddan got an unpleasant surprise when a vehicle matching the description of a car she was selling on Trade Me turned up on another website.

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A Timaru woman is warning web users to beware of fraudsters after she was targeted by a scam.

Jackie Sheddan placed her 2006 Mazda 3 MPS for sale on Trade Me last month but it was not long before she got a response she did not expect.

The vehicle had been listed for about two weeks when Ms Sheddan received an anonymous phone call informing her that her vehicle had been listed on another website by someone else, using false contact details.

Ms Sheddan could not believe her eyes when she discovered the car listed on carfair.co.nz with matching details, photograph and licence plate number.

The only difference between the auctions was the contact phone numbers and the price – her vehicle was listed on Trade Me for $27,500 and the vehicle matching its description on carfair.co.nz for $6400.

"I was flabbergasted. I immediately recognised it as the same car from my Trade Me advertisement."

Her attempt to find the perpetrator came to nothing when she dialled the phone number given on carfair.co.nz, only to find it connected to a fax machine.

Ms Sheddan contacted Timaru police and both websites and reported the incident. After further enquiries, Carfair.co.nz subsequently cancelled the listing.

"I'm perplexed," Ms Sheddan said. "I'm actually quite concerned that someone could do this."

Carfair.co.nz spokeswoman Angela Corbett said it was a rare event for fraudulent sellers to list vehicles on the website, which was constantly monitored.

Advertisements were paid for by credit card, but the information was encrypted when it was received by financial controllers, she said.

Staff were checking if the credit card that was used to pay for the auction was legitimate, but the rest of the investigation was now in the hands of police, she said.

"It happens occasionally but sometimes it's hard to know what's a scam and what's not."

Potential buyers needed to read the warnings and fine print on websites and be aware of overseas buyers, she said.

Trade Me trust and safety manager Chris Budge said internet scams were a global phenomenon.

Mr Budge said 14 staff were working on keeping a "pretty deep footprint" on the Trade Me website. "We record every auction and extract data at the back end."

Staff had the resources to contact people who had viewed auctions, he said.

Anyone searching auction sites was advised to look at a number of details when considering a transaction."Ask questions, let us know if you see something funny, look at the feedback and if you don't like it, don't trade it."

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