Groundhog Day - Scamwatch Mk 2

This is the actual car. It would be a good buy.

Regular readers may remember this post back in 2012 when I was selling a car on line.

I'm at it again (selling a car, that is) and so are the scammers.

Not much has changed. The 2022 pitch is similar. The narrative involves a prospective buyer working remotely who can't make phone or text contact because he's working in an area lacking mobile coverage.

It makes you wonder how the men and women in FIFO situations stay in touch with their families. Apparently Facetime is popular. I'll have to let these people know. I'd be doing them a favour.

Here are the two emails I received via the Carsales website -

First one (Monday 14th February) -

    Glen Young <gleenyoung3@gmail.com> wrote:

Subject:Re: Mazda 3

        Thanks for your response, confirm the asking price again, where is it located at       the moment? Why are you selling it? Does it need anything to be replaced or              repaired? I'm cool with the condition as described on the advert. I work on a             remote mine site in  WA presently. and the reception is terrible. We do not have         access to a phone at the moment, which is why I contacted you with an internet          messaging facility.


       Regarding the payment,I can pay you through direct bank deposit (EFT), using           PayPal instant bank wire transfer service. I will need your Account name, BSB,        and Account number. If you are not comfortable with that, you can set up a               PayPal account properly at www.PayPal.com.au and I will make the payment           through PayPal, this way, all I will need is your PayPal email address.

       I have also contacted my courier who will come to pick up and deliver it to my           place in Darwin after the whole fund has been cleared into your account. As               regards the papers, all I will need is a receipt, the rego will have to be done in          NT Darwin at my place of residence, so there will be no use for the existing Reg          and RWC and i can buy it Unregistered


      Cheers

       Glenn

Second one - (Thursday 17th February) -

           Joanne Boughton <joanneboughton01@gmail.com> wrote:

Subject:Re: Mazda 3

        Thanks for your response,I am okay with the price, where is it located                        at the moment? Why are you selling it? Does it need anything to be replaced or         repaired? I'm cool with the condition as described on the advert. I work for Fly          In Fly Out (FIFO)Mining, Oil and Gas and we are presently in a remote area.           We do not have access to a phone at the moment and that's why I contacted you          with an internet messaging facility.

         Regarding the payment,I can pay you through direct bank deposit (EFT), using         PayPal instant bank wire transfer service. I will need your Account name, BSB,         and Account number. If you are not comfortable with that, you can set up a                PayPal account properly at www.PayPal.com.au and I will make the payment            through PayPal, this way, all I will need is your PayPal email address.

        I have also contacted my courier who will come to pick up and deliver it to my            place in Darwin after the whole fund has been cleared into your account.                   With the issue of my details, transferring the name of ownership and signing of           all paperwork will be done by the pickup agent. If you are not comfortable with        that, you can cancel the registration and I will buy unregistered because I am           taking it interstate.

        I have limited time on the computer, your quick response will be appreciated.

        Cheers

        Joanne

The scammers probably use bots, so replying to vent your spleen is a waste of time, but reporting them isn't. I did both. 

Feel free gentle reader, to use those email addresses to hassle them a little. It will waste their time. They're thieves, so should be wasting time in jail.

These scams have persisted (in my experience) for at least ten years, so they must work occasionally, and the scammers don't get caught.

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An Interesting Encounter

            Pic Courtesy The Guardian

Sunday was interesting.

It was my sister's 70th, and she was celebrating with extended family in a resort out of town.

So we could catch up with her, my bride and I arranged to meet her and BIL at a country pub for lunch on their way back from the resort.  It also meant we were able to take advantage of some interesting roads out that way. These things demand to be driven.

The pub was empty except for about half a dozen blokes with big lumpy and shiny bikes, tatts, and leather embossed with club insignia.

There was nobody else in the lounge except the four of us and these guys. They were obviously having some kind of semi-official club meeting.

It's ill-mannered to listen in to others' conversations, but on this occasion, we didn't have much choice. The beer flowed - the conversation at the other table (interspersed with lots of profanity and colourful descriptions) rumbled on and we ate our lunch as we listened. It was, to say the least, entertaining.

They were discussing ways of increasing and maintaining club membership, which, by the sound of it, was declining. I remember thinking that they were having much the same problems as were other enthusiasts' groups, as the demographic aged, and machines like bikes and sports cars are no longer seen as engaging by Millenials.

I did harbour some suggestions but decided to keep them to myself. Discretion, after all, is the better part of valour. Besides, my bride wasn't keen on getting involved. This may have had something to do with the fact that besides my sister and her, the only other female on the premises was the middle-aged woman behind the bar. 

What really surprised me was the continual references being made to "inclusion" and "participation". These terms are used more often by social justice warriors than bikies.

We left before they had resolved anything. The biggest issue seemed to be organising working bees to renovate the clubhouse. 

I was thinking that they should employ a stripper or two, and perhaps some jelly wrestling after a day's work on the renovations.

I shared that thought with my bride but she didn't think it was a good idea.

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The Hitchhiker

 

Pic Courtesy The Sun. Not my hitchhiker.

Every now and again, something entirely unexpected and blessed happens.

This morning, as is my habit, I drove to my local Coffee shop for a takeaway. As I was getting back in the car, coffee in hand, I was addressed by an elderly woman who was looking quite agitated.

She asked me whether I was turning right or left when I left the car park.  It was left, which turned out to be the wrong option for her. She had missed her bus and was hoping I could get ahead of it on the route, which would have involved a right turn.

I asked her where she was going. She was on the way for an important appointment with her optometrist in the CBD. As I had nothing pressing to do, I offered to give her a lift, wondering whether she'd, first of all, be able to get into my car, and then get out of it at the destination. 

MX5s are AIF* vehicles, after all.

I must look pretty harmless as, after a small protest, she accepted my invitation, although I had to convince her that I actually enjoyed driving the car. It was only a few clics out of my way. 

And I had the top down, and it was pretty cool (-1, the coldest day so far this year).

 I put her walking frame in the boot. Fortunately, it folded, although it took me a minute or two to figure out how it worked. The MX5 has a very small boot. 

We set off for the CBD, and then followed an amazing conversation. This woman was 93, apparently in good health apart from cataracts (the reason for her appointment), and had lived a remarkable life.

She was the mother of three, had two postgraduate qualifications, had started her own successful business in partnership with her lawyer husband, and was a pioneer in the development of a very active Toowoomba charity.

Her husband died about ten years ago, and she had only retired from active work at age 92. That retirement was forced on her because her failing eyesight meant she had to hand her driver's licence in. The paucity of public transport in Toowoomba was an ongoing problem for her, and a barrier to an independent life, and it was quickly apparent to me that her independence was very important.

She had published two books and told me she was in the process of writing another.

We arrived at the optometrist, and after I had retrieved the frame from the boot and reassembled it on her instructions, she got herself out of the car without needing my help.

I told her I had also written a book which was on sale at Dymocks and she promised to buy it. I'm not sure that a memoir about national service would be all that interesting to a nonagenarian, but there you go.

I sincerely hope I'm as spry if I get to 93.

*Arse In First.

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A Ghost in the Machine (II)

 

My MX5 is making a new noise.

That is not as worrying as when the smoke comes out, but it is not a good thing. (Cars run on smoke - that's why when it escapes you're usually in trouble).

Anyhow, no smoke has yet appeared, but the noise is a worry.

It seems to emanate from the water pump housing, isn't obvious on idle or when the motor is cold, but appears with a vengeance on the overrun when it's warmed up. 

My fellow members in the local MX5 owners' club have provided a range of suggestions from a sick alternator to a problem with the timing chain tensioner.

I know nuffink.

That is why I took it to my local mechanic who had just replaced a water pump on my son's Mazda 323. Interestingly, it has covered a similar distance (about 120000 kms). Maybe there's something about Mazda BP-ZE engines and water pumps at 120000 kms. Or perhaps there is some kind of perfidious virus. They shared a garage for a time. There was no social distancing.

MLM* (whom I trust) had a listen and reckoned it was nothing to worry about. When I asked him if it would be OK to drive to Canberra (which had been my plan) he said "sure".

I trust him, but not that far. I have changed my plans.

Yesterday I took a deep breath and drove it the 146 kms to Automotive Plus (free plug) whose boss mechanic, after complaining that the motor was hot (it was - after driving from Toowoomba), declared that it was most likely a water pump bearing.

It got me home, and the noise is no worse. 

So now, I have to decide whether to get the job done locally, or at the specialist's setup in Brisbane. The latter will require two days. You can't expect people to work on a hot motor after a 146 km highway run.

I'll keep you posted.

NB - This is the second time I've used this title.

Hence the II.

*My Local Mechanic.

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