Car scam warning

That's the warning from Richard Harrison, of Reginald Road, who was lucky to spot a scam before he lost 4,000 of his savings.

Richard was selling his Audi TT on the Autotrader website when he was contacted by someone abroad who said he wanted to buy the vehicle. The price of the car was 7,000 but Richard received a banker's draft for 11,000 to cover the extra 4,000 cost of shipment.

The idea was that he would pay the money in and send the car off immediately.

However Richard took the banker's draft to have it checked and was told it was not the real thing - it had no watermarks and the edge was not cut straight.

He explained: "Because I am quite sceptical I thought it was not right, so I had it checked. This is just a horrible thing - and quite easy to do - and I could now be 4,000 down out of my own savings. And this is the fourth email I have had - I had others from Singapore, Africa and Ireland too, wanting to pay me extra and ship the car out."