Car Purchase- How Does This Scam Work?

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Master Baiter Joined: 12 Dec 2005 Posts: 127 Location: USA

A guy I work with has a classic car posted for sale on a legitimate site. He got an email last week from a Smurff Gary who was interested in buying his car. Smurff gave an address about 6 hours from here and of course couldn't use the phone to talk about the deal or come here to do business as he was leaving town. His deal was to send full payment for the car PLUS extra for shipping through the shipping company that he would make arrangements with...all in a certified cashiers check.

I overheard this and knew it was a scam for numerous reasons and warned the guy about it so I feel good that I saved him from getting screwed. The only problem is that I have a few ideas of different ways this would have worked but none of them am I really sure of. Would he have actually shipped the car and then been out of the car AND the money when the check went bad? Or maybe he would not even have gotten to the point of shipping the car?

Can anyone shed some light on this?

Not quite a Newb Joined: 23 Mar 2010 Posts: 25

Yup. Bad check would be sent probably for more than the sale price "by accident" Your buddy would then be asked to send the difference via Western Union to the "shippers". When the check bounced days or weeks later he would be out the dough. I see it all the time as I buy and sell a lot on E-Bay and Craig'slist. I have a separate Gmail account that I punish them from. Wink

Posted: Sun Dec 19, 2010 1:25 am

The scammer couldn't care less about the car--in this variant of scam, he is only after cash. The shipping company is fake (it's the scammer himself). Your friend would be told to cash the check and pay the "shipper," who conveniently only accepts Western Union or Moneygram.

The car would never go anywhere. The "shipper" would simply disappear with the shipping fee. Then when the fake check is discovered, your friend is out the money he sent to the "shipper" plus the charges he will undoubtedly be hit with for depositing a fake check.

Master Baiter Joined: 12 Dec 2005 Posts: 127 Location: USA

Thanks for the replies. I knew I could count on an answer here.

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