Please educate me on scammers when selling a car
 

I’m selling my son’s Suburu on Craigslist, and within an hour, I had three responses and all seem to be scams. Latest guy said he’d pay my asking price sight unseen and throw in $50 for holding it for him. Just asked for my address to send the cashiers check. He said he’s away from St. Louis now and can’t see the car, and he’s really busy with his daughter’s wedding. I said no reasonable person buys a used car without driving it, and for him to let me know when he can stop by to see it. So I assume that’ll be the last I hear from him.

What’s the angle and how do they expect to cheat me? If he sends me a fake check, will he really expect me to let him pick up my car?

Pretty depressing when everybody appears to be a crook.

Thanks

Bruce

Re: Please educate me on scammers when selling a car
 

Allot of people buy cars sight unseen. I bought my '40 Ford Woodie that way for $85K in Vermont and I live in San Diego. Yours could be a scam but not because people don't buy cars without seeing them because they do if they really want the car.

Re: Please educate me on scammers when selling a car
 

Fair point. But we’re talking about a 2013 Subaru. Lots of them to drive and pick from locally. I would assume that if a reasonable person wanted a car, they’d call for a better description and find out if I’m not trying to scam them.

Re: Please educate me on scammers when selling a car
 

Bruce, I agree, that's a scam. They begin by getting you committed to selling to them, and then the conditions fall into place later. The first hook is the extra $50 to make you think you have to continue giving good will exceptions to normal business practice.

Re: Please educate me on scammers when selling a car
 

Mostly, they seem to want names, email addresses, and phone numbers. Not responding to the wave of responses that come shortly after a new Craigslist ad is the best plan . The bots that reply with some or much of the ad content are typical.

Good luck with the sale. Tis a difficult time.

Re: Please educate me on scammers when selling a car
 

these days everything is instant except for checks clearing. the check will probably not clear.

Re: Please educate me on scammers when selling a car
 

There must be some type of program that notifies them of a new ad. I’ve gotten a similar reply as you did when selling a dump truck, a motorcycle and an exercise machine. All at different times. I’ve gotten so I hate trying to sell stuff on some of the sites that specialize in items for sale. It can be a real PITA ...... Mark

Re: Please educate me on scammers when selling a car
 

I too have received the dreaded scammer answers when selling cars on Craigslist. So I always answer the supposed buyer the same way, show up with cash and I’ll sell you the car!
Yes it limits my perspective buyer field, but it cuts out 99% of the bulls€]+.
It always starts with “ I really want the car , but”

Re: Please educate me on scammers when selling a car
 

I feel your pain Bruce .I have sold allot of goodies on CL over the years andd I have found thast you kinda have to be as DICK. Simple ,to the point description, many many photos.I also like to state a few obvious conditions like ,,,,NO you cant fix it in my drivway,No trades ,No I will not drive 30 miles to meet you halfway for a 30 dollar item .Just make pretend your talking to complete morons.I call them CL People. Get readdy for promises and lies ,,,,,thats what you get most of the time ...

Re: Please educate me on scammers when selling a car
 

An honest person wants your car. But caution is always needed.
Had a friend selling a nice Ford 4x4. The buyer looked at the truck and called later saying he had arranged financing with the bank. The buyer was brought to the sellers house by a friend. The buyer and seller were going to the bank to close the deal.
The buyer asked if he could drive the truck with the seller to the bank. No problem. When they went into the bank they were greeted by a bank employee, told them why they were there. The buyer then recalled that he had left his wallet and ID in the truck, got the key from the seller went out to get his wallet. After a few minutes the seller and banker went outside and discovered that the buyer had disappeared with the truck.
Good news is this guy was a real idiot, apparently working the scam for someone else. He is now doing three years in an Arizona State Prison.
Pretty smooth....almost...
If out of state I have successfully used electronic wire transfers. You can open a new acct., have the funds wired to the account, when it clears immediately transfer the funds into an active account nd close the "convenience acct.
Other than that, you accompany them on the test drive (don't leave their partner waiting in your living room), accept only cash and require a copy of their Drivers License info (look at it) explaining that you need the info when you advise Motor Vehicles of the sale.
If it feels wrong...walk away... Chap

Re: Please educate me on scammers when selling a car
 

Update... all four contacts so far have evidently been scammers. Last two wanted me to run a title report. So, for $23 I ran a report (totally clean) and sent a copy with the VIN obliterated. So they suddenly lost interest!

Other part of the story... bought the car a year ago for my 15 year old son but we mutually decided the clutch was problematic for him and it was too small for his goalie hockey gear. Bought it on Craigslist from a really nice guy 3 miles away. Four weeks after buying the car, my wife and I are at a wedding reception for daughter of good friends, and by coincidence, we are sitting at the dinner next to the guy I bought the car from! His son married their other daughter. Small world in StL

Re: Please educate me on scammers when selling a car
 

I do not do any deals over craigs list via texting . I am a old school guy . call then stop by. No time to waste on BS.
Vic

Re: Please educate me on scammers when selling a car
 

Every ad I've had on CL for the last 6 months has almost immediately resulted in a text saying, "There are so many scams on CL, let me send you a Code you can enter at this website. That will confirm you are legit".

No, I'm not clicking on your link. Longing for the old days when all you had to worry about was boner pill spammers.

Re: Please educate me on scammers when selling a car
 

dont feel that your an easy target its the same the world over go with your gut feelings if their genuine they will find a way to complete the deal

Re: Please educate me on scammers when selling a car
 

My thinking on craiglist is...


...No electronic payment like western digital or cashier checks. Cash only or clear funds.
...Never take them to your place. Met in a neutral place.


Suburu guys are just as crazy as us ford guys. Telling you they will give you $50 dollars to hold a car is no big deal. (see above) Now if they offer you a check for 2k over the price and say you pay me the 1k on pickup because..... It's a scam. Something for nothing.


Better safe then sorry. Lot of good people also.





.

Re: Please educate me on scammers when selling a car
 

Here in the UK I recently advertised a car for £37,500. A man called Jerry Bryant emailed me stating that he would like to buy it for his son who lived in Cyprus....Mr Bryant lived in Greece.
We agreed a price and sure enough, as promised a bank draft arrived in the post and yes sent from Greece....Curiously the draft was for £45,500 ! Yes, considerably in excess of the asking price. Needless to say Mr Bryant was unable to view the car as he was busy working on an oil rig.....sound familiar?


I didn't pay the draft in to my account for obvious reasons.


Interestingly, had I done so, according to them that know, it would have "cleared" and of course at that stage I would release the car to Mr Bryant's shipping company.


Now, here's the catch.....even though your account may be temporarily credited with a considerable sum of money it is a "fraudulent transaction" and for that reason at any time in the future you may be debited with a very large sum and end up with no car !


Needless to say, Mr Bryant has terminated email correspondence and has disappeared....


A pal of mine who is an IT genius managed to trace the scource of the email address...Greece....NO ! Cyprus..NO!
USA....Yes !


Beware...they are out there to scam us !


So, Jerry Bryant....THE BARN IS WATCHING YOU !

Re: Please educate me on scammers when selling a car
 

Really old school, turned text messaging off on the phone service I use. :) In the past I when I still had text, I stated very clearly in the ad NO TEXT messages, if I was sent one it just was deleted. Figured if they can't read the ad, they are scammers or bots.

Re: Please educate me on scammers when selling a car
 

Have your son handle selling the car you bought for him.

Just double check who he is selling it to - how he is getting paid.

He needs to learn to do things for himself.


Jim

Re: Please educate me on scammers when selling a car
 

I had a future customer who was buying a 1948 lnternational pickup for $8,000. He was in Piedmont (Oakland suburb), the truck was in Washington or Oregon.
Since the seller was on an oil rig and had just started a new contract he could not be there and had lost his storage.
So he hired a company withe the name Stockholm in it to handle the deal for him.
They would haul the truck to the buyer after buyer sends the money, the buy checks it out for three days and if he doesn’t like it he gets his money back and they pick up the truck, no questions asked.
So he sent the company the money.
A day or two later they notified him they had been involved in a bad accident just north of Reno.
He has never heard from them since and that includes the seller.
He contacted Nevada and CA police and they know nothing about a truck accident that day in Nevada or CA.
I must also say that if the buyer wants to send you more than the asking price, it’s a scam.

Re: Please educate me on scammers when selling a car
 

Aaron, FYI, To be precise, Piedmont is a city which is landlocked within the city limits of Oakland, Ca.

Re: Please educate me on scammers when selling a car
 

Another C/L scam angle plays on your high regard for military members. Selling a Harley couple years ago received email saying he was over deployed seas but want to buy the bike sight unseen. Send me a check and have a friend pick it up. Simple solution....told him if he trusted his friend to that degree send him the check and bring me the cash!
Never heard back from him.
Another word to the wise, there are many bogus $100 bills floating around today. Use due diligence and check the bills to be legit. Do some online research this information is readily avaiable.

Re: Please educate me on scammers when selling a car
 

A friend/customer had a 67 330 GT Ferrari. Was never, I mean NEVER gonna sell it.
He is in Oakland,ca. A guy saw his membership in a Ferrari Cub roster, called him from Texas, said he wanted to look at it.
Friend said, “it ain’t for sale”. TezN said, “I just want to see it”.
Well he flew up to Oakland rented a car and showed up at my friend’s storage garage where he keeps his early Ford V8s and the Ferrari.
So the Texan shot him a price offer way over what it was worth.
When the owner gulped and got up off the floor the Texan thought he had offended him so he offered $10,000 more.
They agreed to meet at the ownwer’s bank the next morning at 9AM.
The buyer called the owner the next morning at 9:20 to say he is at the bank.
The owner went to the bank and when the bank told him his account had the texan’s money they shook hands, the Texan got the keys and the previous owner called cab.
Now that is a good way to sell a car.

Re: Please educate me on scammers when selling a car
 

My son worked at our equivalent of Ebay
He is a lawyer and during his training he worked in the "Scam Department "
He has some good ones, A very popular one was some one would list a complete set of unopened kitchen pots from a mail order company -listed as unwanted gift or the like . The buyer would pay and sure enough the pots would arrive in original packaging, Unfortunately a month later the invoice from the mail order company arrived . The seller who had just ordered the pots in the buyers name to be delivered to that address and be invoiced later -was long gone.

A few months ago i noticed the medical centre I work at was paying installments on a TV out of our account . We had no TV but the man, who rang up and asked our receptionist for our account number so he could pay us on line, did have . It was just at his house and we were paying for it! His Doctor decided to keep seeing him at the centre despite the fact that I reported him to the Police.

Karl

Re: Please educate me on scammers when selling a car
 

Bruce, I’ve investigated tons of these cases. Their angle is to get you to cash the check, send them back some money and then you will find out, maybe even up to a couple weeks later that the check was fraudulent with stolen account numbers, etc. Then you are at loss for the entire check amount plus what you sent back of it as the bank will take the check amount back to credit the victim account of the fraud. These type of scams usually aren’t even interested in the car, but sometimes people send the car and realize they lost that too.

I’ve seen the vin report scam too, I think that’s someone trying to plug the report service, which is needless, but they just made a customer.

Make some rules for yourself, like NO CHECKS, unless you really trust the person and know positively who they are, like you have seen them in person and know where they live. Some wire transfers will clear immediately and can be done legitimately for sight unseen buyers, but be very very careful that you are dealing with a real person on those.

I’ve found most legit buyers will want to meet in person to look at the car. That’s usually a dead give away if someone wants to buy it without seeing it or driving it.

Re: Please educate me on scammers when selling a car
 

Ya, but it is a separate city by itself. Has its own mayor, police, etc.

Re: Please educate me on scammers when selling a car
 

I listed a large tube type TV on C/L in the free section. Hate to throw it away. I got a detailed text message wanting pics of the back, what connections, etc. WAY too many questions! He wanted to ship it to St. Louis Mo. and I am in Madras Oregon! Yeah right! He was phishing for way more than a free TV.

Dave