A driver has issued a warning to other motorists after a group of scammers allegedly poured oil into his car in order to purchase it at a cheaper price. Watch the CCTV footage he captured below:
John Rico, 56, put his black BMW X5 for sale on eBay and decided to meet the potential buyers at his home in Dagenham, East London, as per The Sun.
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The 56-year-old was offered £2,550 for his beamer and came to an agreement with the buyers that they could come and look at the car prior to offering the final sum.
As shown in the footage, John said that the group were distracting him whilst they opted to scam him by pouring the oil into his car.
He said: "They asked me to move the car, just to check that it was functional and I agreed.
"But as soon as I parked up one of them started saying that oil was coming out of the exhaust.
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"Then smoke started billowing from the engine, so we opened the bonnet and more came out. The blokes then said that the head gasket is gone.
"I wasn't thinking straight, I was panicking as my perfectly fine car had suddenly stopped working and they didn't want to buy it."
John claims the group poured oil into the exhaust and engine while he wasn't watching.
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John added: "It was only then that I realised I had been scammed. They have made me think that the car was devalued in order to knock down the price.
"But then, they said that they had a garage and they could fix it but for a lower price because it would cost so much to fix it."
"I tried to find the garage that they had said they owned but it doesn't exist. I had all of the details to give to the police but they just were not bothered by it at all.
"Their account had only been set up on eBay the same day as they bid, which should have been a warning sign.
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"I think that eBay should at least warn their customers when an account has been set up on the day they try to buy something, as that's not ideal."
They offered him a minor £650 for the car after the distraction scam whilst spotting it on sale for £3,150 on another website, which left him £2,500 out of pocket.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson told The Sun: "Police were called at 17:30hrs on Thursday, 28 October to a report of fraud that took place on Arden Crescent on Tuesday, 26 October.
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"Three men allegedly damaged a car for sale and then bought it at a reduced price to resell.
"All current lines of enquiry have been investigated. Should any new information come to light further enquiries will be made."
Featured Image Credit: John Rico