I was the target of a scammer today.
I have my '93 Caprice for sale on a Caprice website for $3,750, and I got this e-mail message:
My name is Tom Smith,i am based inAfrica.I am interested in buying your for sale item.I am offering to pay ($3500) if my offer is acceptable to you then get back asap.For payment! would you accept a cashiers check withdrawn from a US bank?Expecting your mail soonest. Thank you
So like a dope, I sent this back:
It’s a good car, and I’m sure you’d like it. I would likely sell it for $3,500. I have more than that in it, but we’ve got a kid on the way, and I need money more than the car!
I guess I have a few questions for you, though. How would you get it? Are you stationed in Africa because you are in the military and live here, or would you need to send the car to Africa? I don’t know how to deal with shipping a car overseas.You’re also welcome to ask any questions that you may have about the car. It’s a really good car. I still get in it everyday and drive it without any reservations to my job about 40 miles from home. I get a suprising number of compliments on it, too! Of course, I’ve done a lot of the high maintenance stuff on it (as you can see from the ad), so it should be working good.
Anyway, feel free to give me a call or e-mail with any questions. I’d be glad to talk to you!
So I get this:
Hello
Thanks for the mail.For the pick up,have arranged forthat, my shipping agent will come for the pick up as soon as the payment is settled, I just contacted my client in the US who is going to make the payment for me as he is owing me some money and he said he wants to pay with cashiers check.I am not an American so you guys know the most preferable option. My client will be sending the check of $7,000 so i expect that the excess funds on it be sent back as this will be used for shipping arrangement.As soon as i get your full name and address including your contact number to which the check will be issued and sent then i will immediately instruct my client to send you the check. I look forward to trustworthy transaction with you, expecting your mail the soonest. and also tell me if i can count on you to send back the balance or not.
Thank you once again.Regards
Now, I'm starting to get suspicious. He didn't ask any questions about the car. There's this issue of extra money being exchanged. So I send this:
Tom,
Wow. It sounds like you’ve got some of this figured out! I’m not really sure how all of this works, and since I have never put a deal like this together before, I think I’m going to have to make some specific arrangements. When your guy comes to pick up the car, I would need him to bring the $3,500 in cash. I don’t want to be responsible for sending back any money just in case I mess something up, and for only $3,500, this could easily be a cash deal. At that time, I can sign the title over and give up the car. I would feel more comfortable having the money in hand, and you could feel better knowing that I’m not messing around with your money. And plus, you aren’t buying anything before your guy takes delivery of it, which should help too. You could then have him get the rest of the money to you for shipping. I’d be happy to meet the guy somewhere in town here to put that deal together.
If that sounds like a good deal to you, let me know. And again, I would be happy to talk with you about the car and answer any questions you may have. If you want to continue with this, please give me a phone number as well so I can give you a call. I always feel better when I can “seal the deal” with a live person and call them if there is a problem.
Thanks! Let me know how you want to proceed.
Craig
Now, don't make fun of me, but I had never heard of this scam before. I was talking to someone in my office about it, and they had heard of it! Turns out, there is a bunch of this going on. Here's the link from Snopes: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/scams/carsale.asp
So anyway, not that anyone here would be stupid enough to fall for it, but if you're trying to sell something on-line, here's something else to look out for!
My name is Tom Smith,i am based inAfrica.I am interested in buying your for sale item.I am offering to pay ($3500) if my offer is acceptable to you then get back asap.For payment! would you accept a cashiers check withdrawn from a US bank?Expecting your mail soonest. Thank you
So like a dope, I sent this back:
It’s a good car, and I’m sure you’d like it. I would likely sell it for $3,500. I have more than that in it, but we’ve got a kid on the way, and I need money more than the car!
I guess I have a few questions for you, though. How would you get it? Are you stationed in Africa because you are in the military and live here, or would you need to send the car to Africa? I don’t know how to deal with shipping a car overseas.You’re also welcome to ask any questions that you may have about the car. It’s a really good car. I still get in it everyday and drive it without any reservations to my job about 40 miles from home. I get a suprising number of compliments on it, too! Of course, I’ve done a lot of the high maintenance stuff on it (as you can see from the ad), so it should be working good.
Anyway, feel free to give me a call or e-mail with any questions. I’d be glad to talk to you!
So I get this:
Hello
Thanks for the mail.For the pick up,have arranged forthat, my shipping agent will come for the pick up as soon as the payment is settled, I just contacted my client in the US who is going to make the payment for me as he is owing me some money and he said he wants to pay with cashiers check.I am not an American so you guys know the most preferable option. My client will be sending the check of $7,000 so i expect that the excess funds on it be sent back as this will be used for shipping arrangement.As soon as i get your full name and address including your contact number to which the check will be issued and sent then i will immediately instruct my client to send you the check. I look forward to trustworthy transaction with you, expecting your mail the soonest. and also tell me if i can count on you to send back the balance or not.
Thank you once again.Regards
Now, I'm starting to get suspicious. He didn't ask any questions about the car. There's this issue of extra money being exchanged. So I send this:
Tom,
Wow. It sounds like you’ve got some of this figured out! I’m not really sure how all of this works, and since I have never put a deal like this together before, I think I’m going to have to make some specific arrangements. When your guy comes to pick up the car, I would need him to bring the $3,500 in cash. I don’t want to be responsible for sending back any money just in case I mess something up, and for only $3,500, this could easily be a cash deal. At that time, I can sign the title over and give up the car. I would feel more comfortable having the money in hand, and you could feel better knowing that I’m not messing around with your money. And plus, you aren’t buying anything before your guy takes delivery of it, which should help too. You could then have him get the rest of the money to you for shipping. I’d be happy to meet the guy somewhere in town here to put that deal together.
If that sounds like a good deal to you, let me know. And again, I would be happy to talk with you about the car and answer any questions you may have. If you want to continue with this, please give me a phone number as well so I can give you a call. I always feel better when I can “seal the deal” with a live person and call them if there is a problem.
Thanks! Let me know how you want to proceed.
Craig
Now, don't make fun of me, but I had never heard of this scam before. I was talking to someone in my office about it, and they had heard of it! Turns out, there is a bunch of this going on. Here's the link from Snopes: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/scams/carsale.asp
So anyway, not that anyone here would be stupid enough to fall for it, but if you're trying to sell something on-line, here's something else to look out for!
....GUESS HE EMAILED THE WRONG PERSON
for a while for the check, it finally came. I wrote back saying that I had deposited it and was 
)
theless, <10,000 people) that got ripped off by someone too. He was selling a nice GTA and the deal was that he was supposed to take the extra four grand and write a check to a clearinghouse that would deliver his car to the guy in Denmark that "bought" it. Well, the day after he e-mailed him saying that he'd deposited the check, the scammer said that his brother was hospitalized the night before, and was going to need 5,000 back, but that the guy selling the car could keep the rest for himself. Well, the guy was on his way to the bank and WesternUnion had left him a message saying that the money they had wired was fraudulent and not to try to do anything with it. Because though his bank showed him credit for it, it wasn't really there. The guy somehow lost 3500 dollars in the deal, and the FBI and the Secret Service were investigating it at his house in about 2 days! I guess they've been doing this for a while, and the Secret Service is in on it to try to act as civilians with a car or such for sale so that they can nail someone. I guess if you think you've got a deal going, you're supposed to call the FBI and they'll try to nail them. 
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