Fraudsters target car sellers with Rabobank app

The Dutch police issued a warning about fraudsters using the Rabobank app to target car sellers. These fraudsters have been active in the Utrecht area for the past two to three weeks. According tot he police, the fraudsters make contact with people who want to sell their cars via classifieds site Marktplaats. They then go to the seller's home and make a show of transferring the money for the car using the Rabobank app. The app shows a "pending" message, which the buyer shows the seller so that they think the money is on its way. The fraudsters tell the seller that the transfer may take a few hours. In the mean time the car is transferred to the buyer and taken away. But in reality the buyer does not have enough money in his account, the transaction is declined and the seller gets nothing. According to the police two victims from the province of Utrecht already pressed charges. Their cars have been found and returned to them. The police call on other victims to report. So far no arrests were made. The police advise sellers to insist on payment in cash or make sure that they use the same bank as the buyer, in which case transfers happen immediately. If the banks differ, transfers take 24 hours. Rabobank promised to update the app to show a message stating clearly that "pending" does not mean the transfer was successful, according to broadcaster NOS.