Serious fraud

Tennengauer ripped off when selling his car

The tricks are getting bolder and bolder: a man wanted to sell his car on the Internet and was asked to pay for transportation, customs and insurance in advance. The 21-year-old man from Tennengau followed the instructions of a woman in good faith and promptly became a victim of fraud.

"It's unbelievable what scams the fraudsters come up with," the Salzburg police department said. What happened? A 21-year-old man from Tennengau was the victim of a serious scam. The man wanted to sell his car online at the end of August. An unknown woman agreed. The agreed purchase price: 8,000 euros.

What sounds harmless quickly turned into a brazen scam. The woman asked the young man to have the car transported to Germany by a certain shipping company and to pay the costs in advance - ultimately promising to return his advance payment including the sales price as a full transfer. 

The man from Tennengau thus transferred 11,000 euros, in the good faith that this would cover transportation, customs and insurance. On September 3, he came to the sobering realization that he had been ripped off. When he contacted the shipping company in question, he was told that the email addresses in question did not exist. The man filed a complaint. The police are now investigating.