Hi,
I'm advertising my RX-8 (located in San Francisco) on Autotrader and have received a bizarre enquiry regarding purchasing my car, could I be getting conned here?

Thanks.

"Thanks for your response, I am from New Jersy, and will soon be in Germany to supply some Companies Cars in which i have to supply them as a Contract,but my client who want this your car can not afford New Car that i'm buying from Germany and US,that is why he prefer your used car, and also that is why he want to view the pictures .

A Friend of mine who is owing me in the state will send you the payment with a Certified Cashier's Check if you prefer. So please kindly get back to me with the below information for immediate payment and also with car Engine photos.

You are to get back to me with all the following details.

1, The full price of the Car.

2, The name to be on the Cashier Check.

3, Your Full Contact Address where the Cashier Check will be mail to.

I also call you later for more discussion,meanwhile i will be waiting to hear from you today immediately you get my email.

Thanks.

Your's Faithfully."

 

Ya looks like a scam. Don't like long explainations of why he needs to buy a car... who the heck does that? I don't go into a car dealership explaining my life story to buy a car.

 

It is not strange. It is called a SCAM.

 

ugh...dude...these scams have even been talked about on news channels...dont deal with something too cheap or some1 who moved out of the country and doesnt want to pay to have their car converted....if they mention out of country....forget them...and gl

 

scam!!

 

^^^not a scam!! sike sounds like a scam to me too. be careful

 

This is a scam. A virtually identical one is on roommate finder websites, which warn their members. The scammers are commonly from Nigeria. Even my friend who was renting out a room in his condo received such an email from Nigeria. They say they are a woman in desperate need of a room in the US and will send a cashier's check with not only enough to cover the 1st month's rent and security deposit but also extra amount to cover the shipping of her belongings. Shortly after you receive the cashier's check, they pull out with an emergency and request that you send the amount of the cashier's check back to them. Sometimes they apologize for pulling out and ask that you send them only a portion of the amount back and keep the rest for yourself. People who get duped actually send money back and later find out the original cashier's check was fake.

Let me show you an email that has been circulating in roommates.com:

"i badly need a room,from your appearance i think it is a place that will suit my pleasure,just let me know if you are ready to rent it out,if yes,get back to me with your full name and address and the last asking price,so i can send you a cashier check,moreover the check will carry extra funds for the shipping of my few belongings there,so you will have to assist me send it over to my shipper,thanks,let me know asap,i badly need a room"

A similar thing happened to me in a chatroom. Supposedly a woman in Chicago's (whose pic looks hispanic but who says she is half white and half black) mom is sick with cancer in Africa. She flirts with me for a while and says she owns a watch shop that she inherited from her late dad before finally telling me she needs a big favor, that she is flying to Africa to help her mom get medical care but needs $300. I questioned her that if she owns a watch shop, why would she need to borrow only $300.

Your letter has the exact same signs. It's a scam.

 

Yeah total scam.

http://www.419eater.com/html/hall_of_shame.htm

My buddy got the EXACT email when he was selling his truck. **** with the guy for a while. He's probably some loser from Nigeria. Act all excited and watch him CLAIM to have send you a check for the car. Thing is he'll claim there was some mix-up at the "office" and they accidentally mailed a check for double the asking price. Instead of "slowing" down the process, cancelling the first, and mailing another check for the amount they'll ask you to mail them a money order for the difference. Have some fun with it. The check they'll send you will obviously be a forgery and the FBI will actually come pick it up from you if you call them. There are so many possibilties to have fun with this though. Scam the scammer.

 

The problem with the fake buyers is that forged checks can take a while to process.. and they want the "excess" money refunded to them within something like 4 or 5 days.. usually that is not enough for the scam check to be returned (and charged against you.)

The key, if there is any doubt and they insist on paying by check, tell them there it will take 14 days to clear the check. They'll probably back out on that. (I believe it takes 7 normally, but the extra week should be enough to find the scam.. also always call the bank the check is written against before attempting to cash it.. many banks charge fees to cashing bad checks..)

 

Actually usually the banks cash the cashier's check right away only to find out later that it's fake - sometimes over a week later.

So you can go to the bank, cash the cashier's check and western union the "extra" money back to the other guy before your bank notifies you the check is fake.

Once the bank finds out the check is fake, you're on the hook for that amount.

 

I gaurantee that when that check arrives even an 8 year old will be able to tell it's a forgery. You should have seen the check my buddy got. It was a joke. The FBI was happy to grab it for fingerprints though.

 

You should tell him to send you a check, and then hand it over to the FBI. You don't hear about it, but they do catch these guys.

 

Check out this site for info and examples of Nigerian scams.
http://www.bustedupcowgirl.com/scampage.html
This person had somone try to scam her using horses she was selling. She ignored them at first then started to fight back by stringing them along and wasting their time and money sending the bogus checks. She has collected the letters, some checks and stuff others have sent her and posted it all for others to read. Some of it is quite entertaining.

 

I had about 10 people e-mail me with these scams when I was selling my last car. The most interesting scam was one where the buyer was going to send me a check for double the amount of the car to cover shipping and my time. He was in the states, but across the country from me (I'm in MI and he was in CA). He mentioned that he wanted me to cash the check (even if it took a week or so) so that I would not assume the check was a fraud. Then, I would arrange for shipment to the address given and pay for the carrier to ship the car. Then I was supposed to get a cashiers check for like $5000 and send it to another address and then I keep the rest for the purchase of the car and my time (like $2,000 above my asking price). I actually thought about doing it for a couple of hours....then realized that I am basically laundering money for this guy.

SCAMmers are really hitting the used car market lately. Of the 20 people that contacted me about the car, 10 were SCAMmers

 

scam the scammer