Watch out for scam when selling car

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grinder - 31 Aug 2005 17:05 GMT

I guy who works for me was trying to sell his son's car. He placed an add
in Auto Trader and received a call from a guy saying he was interested in
buying the car. The sale price of the car was $16k.

They don't hear from the buyer and decided to trade the car towards a
purchase of another at a dealership. They get $12k on the trade.

The buyer contacts them via e-mail and tells them he is sending them a check
to cover the cost of the car and transportation. The buyer is told not to
send the check because the dealer has the car.

A week later a cashiers check arrives for $25k with instructions on how to
ship the car. No way it will cost $9K to ship the car so the seller thinks
he can make some money if he buys the car back from the dealer. The dealer
is willing to sell the car back for $15k. The seller contacts me and asks
for my opinion.

I told him a cashiers check is NOT the same as cash. It takes 2-3 weeks to
clear. In the mean time he would have bought the car and shipped it. Not
to mention providing a bill of sale. He would be liable for the $25k
deposit. He decided not to deposit the check. He can't return the check
because there was no return address (why would someone send a cashiers check
through regular mail without a return address is also fishy).

What's amazing is the seller was going to go through with the deal before he
talked to me. Greed blinded him.

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Glittery Gary - 31 Aug 2005 17:13 GMT

>I guy who works for me was trying to sell his son's car. He placed an add
>in Auto Trader and received a call from a guy saying he was interested in
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
> What's amazing is the seller was going to go through with the deal before
> he talked to me. Greed blinded him.

now a very common con.............not only with cars but boats, trains and
aeroplanes............

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Malt_Hound - 01 Sep 2005 02:00 GMT

> I guy who works for me was trying to sell his son's car. He placed an add
> in Auto Trader and received a call from a guy saying he was interested in
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
> What's amazing is the seller was going to go through with the deal before he
> talked to me. Greed blinded him.

Oldest scam in the books. It's called the "Overpay scam". I've been
selling a few things lately (cars and dirt bikes) and I've received no
less than 8 offers that amount to the same deal. Guy is sending me a
check for the full asking price plus shipping and I am to cash his
(bogus) check and then forward some of the proceeds to his shipping "agent".

Of course after the fact your friend would find that the check is
counterfeit and the money he sent to the agent is not.

Signature

-Fred W
Toys for sale, Hey get your toys here:
<http://users.adelphia.net/~fredwills/>

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Dori A Schmetterling - 01 Sep 2005 12:17 GMT

The key lies in it being exactly NOT what you say, because if you waited to
cash the cheque, i.e. let the it clear the baning system and receive the
money, before forwarding anything, you'd be all right, but then it would not
be a scam.... just a pointless procedure... :-)

DAS

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For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling
---

[...]

> I am to cash his (bogus) check and then forward some of the proceeds to
> his shipping "agent".
>
> [...]

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Malt_Hound - 01 Sep 2005 16:54 GMT

> The key lies in it being exactly NOT what you say, because if you waited to
> cash the cheque, i.e. let the it clear the baning system and receive the
> money, before forwarding anything, you'd be all right, but then it would not
> be a scam.... just a pointless procedure... :-)
>
> DAS

Most of the people that have been burned have deposited the check,
waited for 4-5 days and let it clear and then forwaded the "agent" his
shipping fee.

The problem is that your bank may say the check cleared before it gets
to the check's "originating" bank, who only then discovers the check is
counterfeit. It then takes more time for the one bank to tell the
other, and eventually tell you.

You never hear from the scammer and they never come to collect their
goods (of course since they are probably in Nigeria)

Signature

-Fred W
Toys for sale, Hey get your toys here:
<http://users.adelphia.net/~fredwills/>

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Dori A Schmetterling - 01 Sep 2005 22:49 GMT

Yes, they should wait about two weeks, I thought I read, in the US at least.

In the UK banks initially credit your account on a provisional basis, too.
I can't remember exactly how long they leave themselves to permit a
revocation in case of fraud.

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling
---

[...]
]> Most of the people that have been burned have deposited the check,

> waited for 4-5 days and let it clear and then forwaded the "agent" his
> shipping fee.
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> You never hear from the scammer and they never come to collect their goods
> (of course since they are probably in Nigeria)

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Somebody. - 02 Sep 2005 01:42 GMT

> > The key lies in it being exactly NOT what you say, because if you waited to
> > cash the cheque, i.e. let the it clear the baning system and receive the
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
> You never hear from the scammer and they never come to collect their
> goods (of course since they are probably in Nigeria)

My Dad (US) wrote me (CAN) a cheque once when he was moving/selling home
etc. Turned out the money didn't end up where it was supposed to at the
right time so it bounced. It took 45 days (!) for it to finally come back
out of my account, long after the money had been used for its intended
purpose (day I got the cheque).

And that's just between US and Canada.

-Russ.

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Dodgy - 01 Sep 2005 13:01 GMT

>I guy who works for me was trying to sell his son's car. He placed an add
>in Auto Trader and received a call from a guy saying he was interested in
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
>What's amazing is the seller was going to go through with the deal before he
>talked to me. Greed blinded him.

My brother had a similar offer for his Ducati motorbike, the here's a
load of money, can you ship it to the USA please. Luckily the guy who
tried to do it didn't bother to look at the UK£ to US$ exchange rate
and assumed it would be 1 to 1, so the offer was below the asking
price even before shipping was taken into account, so my brother had
already smelt a rat before he even asked me.

Dodgy.

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MUSHROOMS ARE THE OPIATE OF THE MOOSES

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