[Fritz]

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.