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. I am posting here and in the OTHER forum to try to get as much exposure as possible to the membership.



Daniel

 

[davidclark]

That's a common scam among online sales.



The send you a check for $X over your price, get your truck/merchandise and by the time the check they gave you is declared counterfiet or NSF, they are long gone with your stuff and the extra cash...



Here's a link to how it works:



http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.html

 

[VStahl]

I had a guy that wanted to buy a set of tires on the TDR classifieds that I priced at $250 and he wanted to send me a check for almost $4000 because it was being shipped to someplace in Africa and the extra was to cover the shipping cost and yadda, yadda,,, Needless to say I told him that I was not interested cause it seemed real fishy.

A couple days later there was a special on our local news station that a "group" was doing a scam similar to what was tried on me and the merchandise was being shipped over to Africa and that the checks were complete forgeries. But it went further than that.

The news went on to say that the "group" would send the fake check for x amount (way over the amount like my story is described), than when the check was recieved the "group" would call up the seller and say that an emergency came up and they needed the extra amount mailed back to them ASAP and for the seller to not worry about the shipping cost because the "group" would figure it out. And being the concerned person most people are, the seller would agree to send a check without waiting for the "groups" to clear and of course it was a bad check and the seller would be out a huge amount of money. And because it is out of country nothing can be done.

That was a bit spooky when I saw that because that story could have easily been me.

 

[JRMora]

davidclark,



Thanks for the "Head's Up". A cowoerker of mine is selling his old camaro online and was contacted by someone in the UK to buy his car. Sounded a little fishy, but I thought once the bank cleared the funds he'd be OK.



Not So!



I warned him just a couple of minutes ago.



"Let the seller beware"



Juan

 

[curatchko]

That's pretty interesting.



I just got an E-mail from a fellow in Africa two days ago for some racecar parts I have forsale on another site. The whole situation was written similar to this one... .



Just the fact that I don't care to be bother with someone from across the ocean, I pitched the e-mail... .



Now I'm even more glad I did.

 

[XcumminsX]

I know just my opinion wont change anything but i say that TDR members should be the ONLY ones allowed in the classifieds. People like to scam others like this. Some make it a profession. Its rediculus how some people are in this world. .



Nick

 

[Barry]

I just email them back and ask "Do people still fall for that scam"? I never hear from them again... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .

 

[tpuig]

I return emailed one guy saying, "Gee, what a coincidence. My cousin is a police inspector in the town next to you" Funny that he lost interest right away...

TP

 

[XJSuperman]

I had someone try to scam me like this a couple months ago... EXACTLY the same routine. . took me a little while to figure it out but I did not send anyone anything.



This is a good post that hopefully everyone will read.

 

[VStahl]

XJ

XJ,

my story happened in Oct-Nov. when was yours?

 

[GWDiesel]

E mail scams

I receive about 5 or 6 E mails a week from

Africa! and I am sick of it, I would sure like to know how they came up with with my

E mail address ?? GWD

 

[XJSuperman]

Mine was also in October/November. I had a beatup subaru wagon for sale and someone from Belgium was trying to get it. Kept calling at odd hours and even sent me the check. . which I promptly hand the fed-ex driver the check and said take it back... never heard from them again.



It was the EXACT same though. Said they had a 'client' that wanted the car and they'd send me check. . for $8,000 if memory serves. I was to take my cut and then send the rest to the 'shipper'... which turned out not to exist. Then they would come and get the car. Then he tried to get me to send money to the 'shipper' before I ever received a dime... RED FLAG on that one. about 2 weeks later his check arrived and it never even entered my house. . I handed back to the guy on the truck and said denied!

 

[KevinO]

My buddy's exgirlfriend got scammed on ebay she wanted to buy a car and had to send 10% to a bank account in France she did and didn't hear from them again Ran the VIN and it was a car that was sold through auto trader online and somebody stole the ad and ran it on ebay as there own car for sale. buyer beware

 

[CAKUZ]

There has been talk on national news programs about thease scams lately alao.

 

[rrausch]

I had a similar story. I advertised my '82 Ford 1-ton dually for sale and started getting tons of e-mails from Nigeria! Oh yeah... these guys wanted to get their hands on my bank account number. Once they have your bank account number they can withdraw as much money as they want, and you can kiss it bye bye, as once it is wired out of the country no one can get it back for you.



I have also heard of many folks falling for a version of the scam, which is to send you a Certified Bank Money Order for twice the amount you are asking and then when you deposit the money order it all seems fine. Except a week or so later, the M. O. comes back as a forgery.



Bottom line is NO ONE with a lick of sense would buy a vehicle sight-unseen and send you more money than you are asking.

 

[rujpn2]

Just bumping this back up. A guy thaqt I know runs a local tire shop. Some guys came in and bought new wheels, tires and had some work done on the car. They paid with a cashiers check. Needless to say, the check was a fake. The salesman did get a liscense plate number. However, the car had just been bought with another fake cashier's check. Needless to say, there are a few people looking for these people.



I had some guys call me up on a saturday to buy a jeep that I had for sale. Was real "pushy" to buy the jeep that day. I told him would be glad to meet during the week at my bank to confirm his cashier check and to sign the release on the lien. Never heard from the guy again. It was about the same time as the incident as above.



I have adopted the same philosophy towards cashier's check as I do regular checks. Once it clears, you can hve the merchandise.



In God we trust, all other pay cash!.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

The problem is knowing when it "clears". A cashiers check they will typically deposit the funds immediately. So if you check your account it will show the funds in the account and available. Some can take up to two weeks to clear (I'm assuming these are drawn on foreign banks) and when they then find out it's a fake or bad check they charge it back to you. Seems like the only guaranteed options are wire transfer or cash.

 

[woodsrat]

fraud

i have run into alot of this kind of stuff on ebay. we use a credit card just for ebay that has insurance that way if you dont get the product you are trying to purchuse the credit card company goes after them and you dont get hurt. if you are going to use a checking account set one up for this only and put just enough money in it to cover what you are buying.

 

[Fireman]

Moral of the story..... DON'T BE GREEDY!



TINSTAAFL



Fireman

 

[Boost]

My sister has a horse for sale. Less than a week ago she got a call from someone claiming to live in South Africa and wanting the horse. He says he will send her the full asking amount plus $2500 for shipping. He calls back the next day and says the check is on the way but the shipper requires a $500 deposit now to hold the space for the horse and will she please get it to him immediatly. Yea right! I'll get right on it!