Workings of an online scam?
 

here's one for the Pelican brain trust, I've been getting emails from someone apparently interested in buying one of my racecars.

- alleged buyer is from the USA yet overseas right now
- buying on behalf of a relative
- offers more than my asking price
- now offers to send a deposit whilst a PPI is done
- balance payable afterwards
- car to be sent to an international destination

My reply, no deposit needed (unless full amount). PPI welcomed, just let me know when and how will come by, payment only via cashiers check or cash.

Where's the catch? :confused:

Cashier's checks can be forged. Go for a wire transfer to a bank account in your name. Open a special account at your bank for the transfer...close out that account after the transfer is made.

That was my other thought (get an account just for this transaction). Had not thought of the possibility of a forged cashier's check (yikes)

THANKS!

STOP !!
Do not except anything other than a wire transfer. Cashiers check can be a fake.
Here's how it goes... you receive a fake cashiers check, an unsuspecting bank teller accepts it and places the funds in your account... buyer now has your vehicle... in the mean time the bank realizes the cashiers check is a phony... and now YOU are held responsible for the funds.

Cash on be counterfit.

BTW, your first big clue this buyer is a rip-off artist, "Offers to pay more than the asking price."

that's why I asked. When the offer came back for a couple of grand more than my asking my BS detector went off.

Let's see how far they try to go.

Thanks again!

I agree it's a scam for sure, and one likely involving a fake check.

I don't think it's a scam to try to end up with your car, though. They are interested in getting cash, not used cars. That's why they always say they are not in the country, etc. Because they aren't going to be coming by to see or pick up a car, ever.

They all work under the same principle. They get you involved in the transaction. Once involved, the transaction naturally begins to build up momentum and some degree of familiarity/trust. But always, at some point, they will get you to a point where you are releasing/sending money to them, without having anything "real" in return.

Absolutely!

Don't deal anymore with this guy.
For sure a scam.

He'll back off once you begin insisting on only a bank to bank wire transfer...my prediction.

For wire transfer, he'll start asking for personal info. That'll be bad. I'd just walk away.

He'll ask for an account number, he already has your name & email....talk to your banker. He'll open an account for $10-20 for a deal like this. Pretty small risk...if the guy tries to steal $20, he must really need it...lol.

This is why you open up a separate bank account just to accept the wire transfer. We have this setup for our business, called a "Sweep" account. The funds hit the account, and then are automatically moved to our main account. There are never any funds actually in the sweep account.

Why offer more than asking? I just sold a bmw and I had at least 10 "overseas" paypal/nigerian scammers try to buy my car....

KEEP IT LOCAL-KEEP IT IN PERSON!!!

Yeah, just gotta be careful, from what I understand the Nigerian scammers start asking for SSN and that sort of thing.

I know that Hugh sold his DB4 to a guy over in Arabia or something like that for big bucks, but I suspect it was more up front than.

Well, I'm from the states, but I'm not in the states, and I'm not buying this for myself, I'm buying it for a relative, and it's going to need to be shipped to a foreign country.

That just sounds too convoluted to me to not be a scam.

I sold my 914/6 to a guy in Germany. He had to trust me as well. If it smells, walk. Saying partial payment and over payment, smell.

Has anyone figured out how long it takes to find out if a check is bogus?

I sold my race car to the owner of a VW museum in Puerto Rico and when he called me I was not trusting but he gave me his website info and several references. He said he could pay by US Postal money orders and they are hard to forge so I said to send me 50% plus the cost of a trailer that I had to find to ship it in and he did. I asked the post office to verify them and they did and issued a statement saying they were okay and the credit union I use also verified them. There was no waiting for them to clear or anything. I received the rest 5 days later.

I would ask for HIS personal contact info and some references and if he has no issues then sell it otherwise pass on it.

Hugh was contacted by a stateside broker.

You should see how much money you can get out of this person without handing over the car. I'll bet if you started coming up with admin fees and the like in small amounts ($7.68, $12.52, etc.) he'd be willing to pony up, thinking a big payday was days away.