so i put my eclipse on craigslist's classifieds the other day and i get this e-mail today from some guy named mike smith (below).

Greetings, i am Mr mike, i currently relocated from califonia to uk and i jsut came across your advert on criage list over your item for sale, i just mailed to let you know that i am realy intrested on it and i will like to know your last offring price and as well as mayment mode. I will like you to send me some pictures and your personal phone number so that we can compleate thia transaction withing a short period of time.
Please also note that i have a shipping company who will take care of the shippment so you don't have to worry about that.
Please get back at me asap
Thanks and do have a nice day.

judging by the way he worded everything, it sounds like he is either half retarded, cant speak good english, or this is just a scam. ive always heard of the overseas deals being scams so im sure this is one but i figured id run it by you all first.

scam

Originally posted by Mr.mike
I am counting on your being the last person on Earth to fall for this tired, bullshit scam, Greg. Please being a complete fucking idiot and take the bait.

I translated it for you. :D

Originally posted by DR1665

Originally posted by Mr.mike I am counting on your being the last person on Earth to fall for this tired, bullshit scam, Greg. Please being a complete fucking idiot and take the bait.

I translated it for you. :D

lol. i thought so but you never know, i couldve just gotten lucky and had some stupid foreigner want to buy my car for more than any sane person would pay :+

How exactly does this scam work?

They send you the asking price + $10,000 extra via 'Cashiers Check' and you deposit the money then send the extra to their 'shipping company'. Your bank allows you to deposit the check and doesn't realize it's a really shitty fraudulent check till 10 - 30 days later, just enough time for you to send the money out of your account and thus launder $10,000 for this person. You later end up footing the bill and in-debt to the bank in the some of, well, $10,000.

Originally posted by Keith2172
They send you the asking price + $10,000 extra via 'Cashiers Check' and you deposit the money then send the extra to their 'shipping company'. Your bank allows you to deposit the check and doesn't realize it's a really shitty fraudulent check till 10 - 30 days later, just enough time for you to send the money out of your account and thus launder $10,000 for this person. You later end up footing the bill and in-debt to the bank in the sum of, well, $10,000.

thats how i always understood it. on a brighter note, the car might be sold today to someone in the country.

yes its definatly a scam i ran into the same issue before and they sent me fake moneyorders, good thing i went to the post office to cash them and found out they were fake, he sent me 3000 extra for shipping and i was to give that to the shippers when they picked up the car. its a brilliant scam especially with moneyorders (never knew they could be counterfited) just goes to show you all you can trust these days is someone within walking distance so you can blow up there house when they screw you over and cold hard cash!
good luck

Wow Injen, I owe you big time man for posting this.

I have a room for rent at my house and have an ad on craigslist and some "girl" from the UK sent me emails and told me she would take the room and she was on her way from the UK in the middle of Feb. The catch was that she was going to have a client of her mother's send me a cashier's check for a large sum of money that the client owed her and her mother. I was to cash this check and take money out for the rent and send the rest back to her for traveling expenses so she could move over here. She refused to call me on the phone and wouldnt tell me shit about who she was or her intentions in the US. So "she" is probably a fat tally wacker over in the UK about to cash in on me.

This post made me think fraud! And I pretty much proved my own suspsisions.

I always tell them to send the cashiers check or money order. I get it all the time, I can't believe they still try it.

I told one guy I'd do it and make the vehicle available for pick after the check cleared. He responded all happy, thinking I'd fall for it. He asked for my address, so I gave my work address. Then, he said the vehicle would have to be ready in 5 days (or something like that) and was all cheery, until I told him I was going to wait 90 days after I deposit the funds for the money order to be called a fraud because he's too stupid to find a real scam.

they just showed a story about this on the news the other day. But they neve explained how to protect yourself from this fraud.

Is it safe if transaction is done through paypal?

Originally posted by gramozeka
Is it safe if transaction is done through paypal?

No.

that sucks, how can they screw you with paypal?

Originally posted by gramozeka
that sucks, how can they screw you with paypal?

Register a credit card under an alias or fake name with a credit line. Sign up with paypal, add their credit card to 'verify' the account. Send payment.

Or, people buy credit card numbers, then sign up with paypal, buy something, then the actual card holder notices the transaction when their bill comes in.

I had a guy try to buy a laptop from me, sent payment, but needed me to ship it to Russia. I said sure, send the money. I waited a week, then paypal pulled the money and said it was a fraudulant transaction. I almost sent an empty box with a picture of the 1 finger salute and tell paypal I shipped the laptop, but I decided to be honest and tell them I didn't ship anything because I was skeptical.

cougar694u

Quick thinking very wise move and as result not being robed


I guess there is no safe way to shop online.

that sucks

Originally posted by gramozeka
I guess there is no safe way to shop online. that sucks

If you just CYA and pay attention to what's going on, then for the most part, you'll be okay.

I have two bank accounts, 1 of which stays as close to $0 as possible (I think the minimum is $50). If I sell a car, I'll ask the buyer to send payment via wire transfer to that account. I'll inform my bank and tell them to block ALL payments and only accept deposits. If they say it's through a cashiers check or bank check, I'll only do it locally (as in within the US) and wait 10 days just in case. So far, so good.

Originally posted by ScreaminE
Wow Injen, I owe you big time man for posting this. I have a room for rent at my house and have an ad on craigslist and some "girl" from the UK sent me emails and told me she would take the room and she was on her way from the UK in the middle of Feb. The catch was that she was going to have a client of her mother's send me a cashier's check for a large sum of money that the client owed her and her mother. I was to cash this check and take money out for the rent and send the rest back to her for traveling expenses so she could move over here. She refused to call me on the phone and wouldnt tell me shit about who she was or her intentions in the US. So "she" is probably a fat tally wacker over in the UK about to cash in on me. This post made me think fraud! And I pretty much proved my own suspsisions.

i like to help out when i can; as indirect as it may be at times.

Yeah my friend listed his king size bed online and some dude sent him 3 Money orders for $1000 each. My friend was supposed to cash the M/O and give the shippers $2000. I told him... Why would a guy from the UK want a $1000 bed for $3000? He could buy it over there, plus why pay more for shipping than what its worth?

Well he kept the money orders and never cashed them and never heard back from the guy. Didn't the guy realize he was missing $3000 + bed? Stupid Scammers.

I was so pissed when I realized how close I came to being scammed that I done a little research and found this site.

http://www.419eater.com/html/trophy_room.htm

Fucking awesome. One guy actually got one of the scammers to get a big ass tattoo on his leg to "join the holy church" so he could get mission money and flee with it.