A driver has issued an urgent warning to Kent residents selling vehicles online after ruthless \u201cblack oil\u201d scammers sabotaged his car.<\/p>\n
Jay Cross, from Folkestone, says conmen posing as buyers distracted him while secretly pouring oil on the engine of his Mercedes in a calculated bid to convince him it was worthless.<\/p>\n
The 64-year-old says the pair harassed him for more than an hour and a half before he felt compelled to give them \u00a3200 just to make them leave.<\/p>\n
Mr Cross told KentOnline: \u201cThere is an overriding duty to warn and safeguard others who may be fooled into believing these very persuasive scammers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis black oil scam has now come to Kent and anyone trying to sell a car online needs to look out for these criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Cross, of Ivy Way, was contacted and visited by two bearded men after they found his 2014 Mercedes, valued at \u00a312,000, for sale.<\/p>\n
They were at his home between about 5pm and 6.30pm on Tuesday, January 13.<\/p>\n
Jay Cross in Folkestone was nearly cheated out of his Mercedes car in a black oil scam<\/p>\n
Mr Cross told KentOnline: \u201cThey said they wanted to buy it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithin two or three minutes they asked me to move the car away from the security camera for better light, which I thought was a bit odd.\u201d<\/p>\n
While one man distracted him by asking to see inside the boot, the other quietly opened the bonnet, poured used black engine oil into the water reservoir and sprayed oil across the engine bay.<\/p>\n
When the car was started, smoke began to billow out. The pair claimed the engine had blown and would cost \u00a310,000 to replace.<\/p>\n
They opened the water reservoir cap and said oil had seeped into the cooling system, meaning the engine was beyond repair.<\/p>\n
Jay Cross of Folkestone was victim of a black oil scam. Picture: Jay Cross<\/p>\n
The scammers claimed the car was worthless and pestered Mr Cross to agree to let them have the car towed away for free.<\/p>\n
Suspicious, he said he wanted the AA to inspect the car – but the men refused to leave, repeatedly arguing and browbeating him.<\/p>\n
They pestered him for 90 minutes until he felt he had no choice but to empty his wallet of \u00a3200 cash to make them go away.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t feel something was quite right,\u201d said Mr Cross, former boss of Folkestone construction firm Cross Builders.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was under pressure, I was beginning to feel really tired and it was clear that their argument was quite pressing.<\/p>\n
The Mercedes crooks tried to cheat Jay Cross out of in Folkestone<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the smoke, the oil everywhere, they\u2019d managed to convince me that the engine had blown up.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just the persistence and the argument that the car was valueless. It became almost a battle of wits.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought the best thing I could do was just pay them off, give them some cash and ask them to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
The silver Mercedes-Benz E-Class Coupe Sport has covered just 38,000 miles and had recently been serviced with a clean bill of health.<\/p>\n
The following day, a technician checked the car and confirmed there was nothing wrong with the engine. He said it was otherwise in good condition and warned the black oil scam was becoming increasingly common.<\/p>\n
Stains left on Jay Cross’ driveway in Folkestone after a black oil scam. Picture: Jay Cross<\/p>\n
The car was cleaned of the spilt oil, but the sprayed oil damaged Mr Cross\u2019 driveway and builders have estimated that it will cost \u00a34,500 to replace.<\/p>\n
Similar incidents have been reported elsewhere in the country, including Gloucestershire last September, and motoring experts say the scam has been around for some time.<\/p>\n
An AA spokesperson told KentOnline: \u201cOur advice would be to sell your vehicle through a trusted buyer.<\/p>\n
\u201cOtherwise, we would advise sellers to remain vigilant during the transaction and to have a friend or relative present throughout the process.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne way of reducing the chances of the oil trick happening to you is to show the buyer that the oil and coolant levels are fine at the start of your vehicle tour.W<\/p>\n
The AA also advises only allowing a test drive if the buyer can provide proof of insurance, accompanying them during the drive, and recording the contact details and registration of anyone viewing the car.<\/p>\n
Any suspicion of foul play should be reported to the police.<\/p>\n
KentOnline has asked police to comment on the scam.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A driver has issued an urgent warning to Kent residents selling vehicles online after ruthless \u201cblack oil\u201d scammers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[924,2556,59,57,58,191,50,194,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-428442","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-crime","9":"tag-folkestone","10":"tag-gb","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-greatbritain","13":"tag-kent","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-syndicate","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}