WARNING to TDR classifieds sellers

[dpuckett]

In case there are some of the membership that are a little more trusting than I, I received an email reply to a classified ad I am running for my pickup. The guy wanted to send me a "certified cheque"check for double the asking price, sight unseen, and have and agent deliver it, and send him with my vehicle and a personal check for the difference. Wanted my physical address, pictures, and phone numbers. It seemed real fishty to me, so I removed my address from hte ad, and forwarded the email to Steve St Laurent, and figured I'd post a warning here, as well. There is one already in the 1st Gen forum.

Daniel

 

[wyosteve]

Yeah, that's a pretty standard scam on high dollar items. The certified check they send ends up being bogus, but it usually takes the bank about 2 weeks to let you know. By then you are out the money and vehicle. As always-- if it sounds too good to be true it's most likely bogus.

 

[PHX ATC]

Standard scam, he's right. You one smart cookie grasshopper!

 

[fortunate1]

What!!??!! I thought I was helping a Nigerian Diplomat!

These guys are trolling the ads here, at traderonline, and elsewhere. I guess they're playing a numbers game: send out a ton of emails, and maybe one will bite. But then he'll become :{ once he finds out what really went down.

 

[midwestdually]

i got the same reply to an ad i have... . told them to take a hike and i was going to contact the proper authorities... . to which in return i got an email stating "F U ... you embicile"!



by the way... his email is -- email address removed --



admin... take the addy down if it is not appropriate... thanks

 

[tpruitt]

The same thing happened to me a while ago and i bought it for a while but when he said he would send the check he never did. What is the scam. They asked the same things like he wanted picture and then he wanted my address and then he wanted to send a certified check. I sent him my one of my addresses but not the one the truck was located at and sent him some picture of the truck that i have listed in my reader rigs here. His Email address is -- email address removed --. He also told me that he would have some one pick the truck up and that he would have a certified check ready upon delivery. He also said he was an agent who was buying it for a client who was on some sort of mission trip. I guess the mission was to get my truck. This all happened about 3 months ago and i still have my truck so i guess if thats what they were after they did not get it. I am almost positive that the Email address i wrote is what his was but i cant remember for sure.

 

[dpuckett]

Apparently, our bulbs are a little too bright for these foreign chandeliers, as it were. :-laf The scam is, he sends you a check for $4500 or so over the asking price, maybe through his agent, maybe by mail, whatever. You are then to write the "agent" a personal check to reimburse him for the overpayment & cover shipping. You end up out the cash & truck. I wont let go of anything until the check clears, or I have good cash in hand. I figure if they want to take the money from me, they can earn it, through the storm of hot lead.



Daniel

 

[Hummin Cummins]

Two words.



Money Laundering.



A guy on my bowling team had the same thing happen to him. Didn't fall for it though.

 

[jrandol]

Heres one I got from Autotrader.com where my car is advertised for sale:



Hello,Jeff&Debi

Sorry for the late reply,I have been negotiating with my customer as regards the payment of your 87 Mercedes and he has instructed me to demand for more pictures of the interior&exterior of your car as to confirm that the car is in good condition, he also asked me to inform you that payment will get to you in a cashier check of $9. 000. 00 Due to our company's policy this check has to be made out in this amount to you ,because company policy only allows full payment on one cashier check,i. e (cost of the item,shipping charges and our company's commision),so you are required to deduct cost of your 87 Mercedes @$3,800 . when payment gets to you and refund balance of $5,200. 00 to the shipper via western union money transfer for him to be able to offset shipping charges down here and from there,our agent will come for the inspection of the car,test drive and drive to the prepaid shipper Please confirem this and send your address,phone number for payment.



Thanks.



Sales Director,

Anthony Kerekou





Hmmmm..... Tell me this doesnt sound fishy??

 

[Wayno]

Anthony , common name ---- Kerekou -----? $5200. 00 for commission and shipping charges . Where are they shipping it to --- overseas .

 

[jrandol]

Originally posted by Wayno

Anthony , common name ---- Kerekou -----? $5200. 00 for commission and shipping charges . Where are they shipping it to --- overseas .

Africa

 

[Sled Puller]

Another reason not to have our names or adrresses listed anywhere on this site-members only or not.

 

[jwilliams3]

What TDR needs is a reliable Member, Dealer etc. list.

Sort of what like Ebay has with feedback.



--Justin

 

[dpuckett]

I removed the address section from the listing; left the phone number. Someone might want to call about it instead of email. (I wouldnt be lucky enough for one of these ******ians to shoot me for the money I dont have). I had a second email that morning I posted this, and thought "oh by here we go again. " This guy seems legit, though. Didnt offer me $4500 for shipping. Heck, for that, I'd deliver it to anywhere in the continental US, as long as I got to keep my arsenal and bandoliers on the trip home..... I'd be a little irked about the phony cheque.



DP

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

The theory of having the classifieds open to everyone is that it's to the members advantage to have the most listing possible to purchase from as well as the most buyers to purchase from them. We put the "TDR member" thing on there recently so people can choose whether they wish to buy from a non member or not. Whenever there's been a problem with a purchase or sale that we've been advised of the TDR did what they could to help resolve it. This has only happened a handful of times. When there was a problem with a seller they are no longer allowed to post a classified (the TDR keeps a list of these people and every classified has to be approved by them and is checked against that list). Ebay is hardly something to model after seeing as how the vast majority of these scams came from Ebay. After dpuckett's email we talked about it and I am going to write up a warning about scams that will be linked on all classified pages. You will potentially see this from any classified ad, anywhere. I have friends that have gotten contacted with deals like this on ad's in the local newspaper - so it's not just internet listings like Ebay, auto trader, and the TDR. We really have had very few problems with the classifieds thus far.

 

[michigandon]

I recv'd this email a while back from someone supposedly intested in buying my motorhome. Keep in mind that I do not have it advertised for sale, anywhere!



"Am interested in purchasing your: travco which price i do not no pls tell me the . price is and one of my client is in state is going to issue check and he said he is going to issue a certified cashier's check to you as the mode of payment,Dont worry about the shipping my shipping agent will come for them pickup. So i want you to help me in sending the excess funds through money grams so that i can make arrange for the shipping as soon as possible. If this okay by you,you can forward me your full name,address including your phone number so as i can tell my client to issue the check out asap. "



If you check out the following links, you can see that this is nothing new. It was bound to infect the ads at this site sooner or later



http://www.antiquestoves.com/warning/warning.htm

http://www.hemmings.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/popups.scam

http://my.execpc.com/~drg/avionfsw.html

http://www.hobbytech.com/classifieds.htm

http://www.collectorcartraderonline.com/fraudtips.html#scams

http://www.xmission.com/~daina/classified/



There's a scam support group over at yahoo if anyone is interested too.



Don