Fraud Alert for People Sellin Cars

#1 03-13-2003, 09:01 PM

I have a car for sale on this site and have been contacted twice by what I suspect are fraudulent buyers. Both of them offered to buy my car sight unseen. One of them offered to send me a cashiers check for twice the asking price and requested I wire the balance back to him. Here is an article from KSL News that discuuses this fraudulent practice:

Nigerian Fraud Scheme
Feb. 7, 2003
Please be aware of the following fraud scheme:

Individuals in Nigeria or other West African countries will often respond to ads placed on various classified web sites on the Internet about the sale of autos or other large ticket items. (The individuals will often claim they are from Scotland or another country outside the U.S.). Typically they agree to purchase a vehicle and will then forward a counterfeit cashiers check to the victim in amounts exceeding the agreed upon purchase price. The unwitting victim contacts the buyer concerning the overpayment.

The victim is usually instructed to wire funds via Western Union to Nigeria or another West African country. Funds are usually wired before the counterfeit cashiers check is returned to the bank where it was deposited. This results in vehicles being shipped without payment and the victim is out additional money spent on the wire. In every instance the bank will pass the loss back to the individual who deposited the counterfeit check.

The FBI, Secret Service, and other government agencies are well aware of this fraud scheme.

See the following links

Secret Service Warning

FBI Warning

This fraud scheme should not deter users from using the Internet as a place to sell and buy goods. Users should feel completely safe in placing classified ads, but should use wisdom in offers they receive from interested parties.

And remember, if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is!

NOTE TO KSL USERS: If you are a user of the KSL.com Classifieds and someone has approached you in the above manner, please let them know that you are not interested (or just ignore their offer) and please know that we are working with various government law-enforcement agencies regarding this issue.

Hopefully nobody here will fall for this.

Lynn

Seraph · #2 03-13-2003, 09:29 PM

Lynn,

Who are the people that contact you from this site? We definately do now need such members and would like to be aware of such.

If your car is anywhere closer to Chicago area, I'd check it out for someone here.

Lwin

svxpert · #3 03-15-2003, 07:43 PM

seems pretty stupid to me. Say I sell you my car. I tell you I want $5000 for it. If you send me a check for $6500 YOU WON"T be getting a refund from me! Plus, I would not ship it to you till the money clears anyway! So if you are a smart seller, this would not concern you.

ensteele · #4 03-15-2003, 08:43 PM

I guess I just got an education as well. There are many people here that I would trust without question, but I can see that there are a few here that are not very honest and if someone makes a mistake, they would take advantage of it. "I tell you I want $5000 for it. If you send me a check for $6500 YOU WON"T be getting a refund from me!"

If a cashier makes a mistake and hands me too much change, I point out the mistake and get the correct amount of change. I do not take advantage of people making a mistake. I can see that you may take advantage of the situation.

I know that the fraud explained above is a completely different situation. They are tring to take advantage of the seller, but I guess it always surprises me when I see someone who does not have the same standards that I have. I am not trying to offend anyone, but I think that this is what many of us have talked about before. Having some way of knowing who has got good ethics and sales history. Until that comes along, I will be a lot more careful of people selling things. (yes, even here now) I almost got burnt once, but it turned out ok after 9 months of trying to get things worked out.

Seraph · #5 03-15-2003, 09:21 PM

I fully agree with you Earl.

No wonder people don't trust one another. I am still glad that I can still trust quite a few people here without any question though..

L

#6 03-16-2003, 04:16 AM

for a purchase as large as a car I would
NOT SHIP THE CAR
UNTIL THE CHECK
CLEARS COMPLETELY..
If someone makes the mistake of overpaying I would wait for the check to clear and then mention it to them that they overpayed and how would they want the situation handled..

on a smaller note, something along the lines of car parts..they can always be sent US postal service C.O.D. they don't get their
package until they get their $$..

Shameless plug for my government employer..

Squiggy

LarryIII · #7 03-16-2003, 06:05 AM

Forget dishonest people & fraud. I want to praise Victor (Alltrac). I sent him a check for a remote and it showed up about a week later. I opened the envelope and it looked brand new.

So Victor, THANKS !!!!!

svxpert · #8 03-16-2003, 08:18 AM

<<There are many people here that I would trust without question, but I can see that there are a few here that are not very honest and if someone makes a mistake, they would take advantage of it.>>

That fine if you want to think that but with me dealing with more than 100 e-bay transactions, sending a considerable amount of money more than the agreed price is not a honest mistake. It would send red flags up in my head. No one has ever overpaid me for a product I sold. Like my father always told me "Trust is not given, its earned"

ensteele · #9 03-16-2003, 01:14 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by svxpert
[ Like my father always told me "Trust is not given, its earned" [/B]

Nothing personal, but so far, you have NOT earned MY TRUST!