Is someone trying to pull a scam on me again?

Endurance · **Posted:** Thu Aug 27, 2009 8:44 pm

Hello everyone,

I am selling my jeep and posted a few weeks back about someone wanting to buy it, which was obviously a scam.

There is another guy I have been in contact with from California saying he wants to buy it. We've been emailing back and forth on the phone and agreed on a price and at first he wanted to wire the money but I told him I dont give out my account info. Then I told him to send me a cashiers check.

Now here it comes, he said before he would mail me a cashiers check he would like me to email him a copy of the title and my drivers license. I dont really feel good about this, what do yall think?

Thanks,
Daniel

This is his page http://www.mycarguy-sf.com/

Khaki-KJ · **Posted:** Thu Aug 27, 2009 9:28 pm

Bad idea. Worst case scenario, with that information he has access to enough information to change the ownership of your Jeep over to him. Once the vehicle is in his name, he can have it seized. If you are still making payments, then you still have to make those payments, since all he did was change the owner, not who signed for the loan. It can take a long time to get this sorted out.

With a vehicle title and drivers license he can also gain access to your account information if you have / had a loan on the vehicle and from there, other bank accounts, and so on...

From looking at his webpage, I would say he is a broker, so he could possibly take the DL and title information, pretend he is the actual owner and flip your CRD, possibly cutting you out of the transaction.

I know i am sounding very cynical about all of this, but I have seen a lot worse happen to people.

Khaki-KJ · **Posted:** Thu Aug 27, 2009 9:49 pm

I just took another look at his website, he may be trying to set you for a consignment sale. That may be why he wants the DL and title.

I find it odd that his inventory does not match up with the bio. All 4 vehicles he had listed seemed pretty vanilla for such a high flyer. When I did a quick Google search for My Car Guy, he seemed to have a following. You may want to do a more in depth search.

geordi · **Posted:** Fri Aug 28, 2009 12:29 am

I'd send a copy of the title only, with all the personal information besides your name blacked out on the copy, and black out the last 6 digits of the VIN. Tell him he will get the real thing when you get cold hard CASH in your hand. He doesn't need your driver's license for SQUAT. Asking for that is a HUGE GIANT ENORMOUS RED FLAG to me. SEND NOTHING that has your personal data. You can prove you have the title, other than that, he gets the title when you get CASH.

DO NOT USE ANY FORM OF A CASHIERS CHECK!!!!! They can be JUST as fake as a regular check or a money order. Its sad, but the bank will take that, give you money, and then 30 days later FINALLY decide it was fake, and take all that money back. Do you have any recourse? Not at all, your car and title will be gone, and you will have zilch.

CASH ONLY. They can take out over 10k from any bank, it only involves filling out a form. For someone buying a car long-distance, a flight is CHEAP compared to the hassles trying to ship the car anyway. Then he can go to the bank WITH YOU, and you can watch them assemble the blocks of hundreds (it looks SO cool in person) and you can count them up in a safety box room. When you are satisfied, deposit the cash into your own account.

If you don't have an account at his bank, consider opening one, at least for a short time. Banks will need advance notice to collect the cash for a large transaction. They will be happier to do this for a customer, especially if they know the cash won't actually leave the branch. BUT YOU WANT IT AS A CASH TRANSACTION. If it is a "transfer" it can be reversed. A cash withdrawal and a cash deposit are two separate transactions, NOT cancel-able.

I sold a car in Savannah to a guy in Oklahoma. I hated to be so suspicious (and told him as much) but in this day and age unfortunately... What can you do except act to protect yourself?

Drewd · **Joined:** Mon Feb 06, 2006 12:24 pm **Posts:** 902

Trust goes both ways. As a buyer, I don't want to get ripped off and insist on a copy of a title and DL's for ID before I wire payment or mail out a large cashier's check.

I had a buyer form California buy my TDI 2 years ago. He only brought a personal check for payment. I accepted his form of payment and let him drive the car home but only after I verified his ID, employment info, and that he had sufficent funds in his account. I was pleasantly surprised that he had 150k cash in his checking account and didn't worry about his 20k check clearing.

I guess I'd only give out the info I was comfortable with. Its sad that there is so much fraud out there.

geordi · **Posted:** Fri Aug 28, 2009 1:37 am

As a seller, I have no way of actually verifying any information that was provided to me from the buyer, least of all employment or bank balances. I know without a doubt that I would be told that is "personal and confidential" information as the bank / company denied me the answers. I'm shocked that you were told his balance, that is extremely unlikely for a bank to give that out.

But to each his own. The guy who wanted to buy my car wanted to pay with a check, I said I wasn't interested BECAUSE I didn't know him from Adam. The possibility of the check being faked is too great, and the banks don't give a flying flip about the fraud. You could put routing numbers onto a business card and they would probably accept it without question, since it doesn't hold any risk for THEM... They will just screw the recipient of the money.

Cash is king. It sucks that this is what the world has become, but think about how many "legitimate" times you have won an Internet Lottery you never entered, or how many different dead billionaires in Nigeria want to give you their fortunes since your last name looks nothing like theirs, but you can pass yourself off as a next of kin.

Yea... Sure.

linewarbr · **Posted:** Fri Aug 28, 2009 7:52 am

Tell him to Paypal the money, and you'll have that Jeep on the next train to Cali.

truckbouy2 · **Posted:** Fri Aug 28, 2009 8:29 am

"If you want this Jeep, get your fat a** out here...And did I mention...BRING CASH...or NO SALE CarBoy"
Feel free to use the above fraud proof quote... :wink:

UFO · **Posted:** Fri Aug 28, 2009 12:19 pm

truckbouy2 wrote:

"If you want this Jeep, get your fat a** out here...And did I mention...BRING CASH...or NO SALE CarBoy"
Feel free to use the above fraud proof quote... :wink:

Hahah! I am lucky this morning I didn't have a mouthful of coffee when I read that!

Blue KJ in PA · **Posted:** Fri Aug 28, 2009 12:37 pm

UFO wrote:

truckbouy2 wrote:

"If you want this Jeep, get your fat a** out here...And did I mention...BRING CASH...or NO SALE CarBoy"
Feel free to use the above fraud proof quote... :wink:

Hahah! I am lucky this morning I didn't have a mouthful of coffee when I read that!

I was not so lucky...my nose is still tingling... :lol:

warp2diesel · **Posted:** Fri Aug 28, 2009 12:50 pm

I have told every one cash! Including one guy from California acting serious who called me.
Another scam is they refer to some web site calming the price is high and they want to negotiate. Got that one twice under two different names, deleted both.
Another scam was someone posing as a Woman wanted to do me in my van that I am selling, said she was lonely, she made no offer to buy either, deleted.
Another scam was a broker from California, deleted.

My add that got me the spam: http://chicago.craigslist.org/wcl/cto/1340596995.html

ihatemybike · **Posted:** Fri Aug 28, 2009 1:10 pm

warp2diesel wrote:

My add that got me the spam: http://chicago.craigslist.org/wcl/cto/1340596995.html

OMG, I read your ad as part of my daily CL browsing. I wanted to go look at it for S&Gs, but decided against it due to driving distance. Now that I know the owner is on here, I want to look at it even more.

msilbernagel · **Posted:** Fri Aug 28, 2009 3:43 pm

In my experience, bank wires are very secure. They can send you money, but they cannot initiate a withdrawal or reversal. You should be able to confirm this with your bank - this is why wires are used on high-value transactions so often.

In addition, Wells Fargo uses a different routing number and address for domestic wires - not the routing number and address used for an ACH (standard checking, direct deposit/withdrawal/etc). International wires use yet another routing number and address - so they can't fake you out on that one either.

Should they glean the routing number and address by some other means - the bank would have to reverse the transaction at no expense to you (fed regs) as the person initiating an ACH transaction would have no authorization from you to authorize the request. You have 120 days (as I recall) to contact the bank and demand a reversal should they somehow try.

Wire is probably the safest solution.

Mark

Endurance · **Posted:** Fri Aug 28, 2009 6:21 pm

Thank you guys for all the input, I told him that I will accept a face to face transaction only.

warp2diesel · **Posted:** Fri Aug 28, 2009 10:45 pm

Hi There,

I am contacting you because I saw your used vehicle listed for sale on Craigslist.

I am writing to let you know that we have several car buyers in our huge network seeking to make a GUARANTEED offer on your exact make and model of vehicle.

We are specialists with even the most difficult of vehicles to sell and have over 25 years experience selling all types of vehicles.

All we need from you are a few more details about your car at: http://mycars4.wetpaint.com

A Vehicle Sales Professional will then contact you.
Keep in mind we sell over 1,000,000 used cars,trucks,and vans every year!

Thanks.

mikey1273 · **Posted:** Sat Aug 29, 2009 12:06 am

warp2diesel wrote:

Hi There,

I am contacting you because I saw your used vehicle listed for sale on Craigslist.

I am writing to let you know that we have several car buyers in our huge network seeking to make a GUARANTEED offer on your exact make and model of vehicle.

We are specialists with even the most difficult of vehicles to sell and have over 25 years experience selling all types of vehicles.

All we need from you are a few more details about your car at: http://mycars4.wetpaint.com

A Vehicle Sales Professional will then contact you.
Keep in mind we sell over 1,000,000 used cars,trucks,and vans every year!

Thanks.

I would be very very suspect of that one that was sent to you. I clicked on the web link in it just for S&G... I was redirected to a different URL and my antivirus software was telling the the site was trying to run a script to infect my PC.

stay away from that page and check ur puter for virus if you were there.

geordi · **Posted:** Sat Aug 29, 2009 2:34 am

Yea... I went to that too, but no scripts OR that stinking flash activated so it didn't try to redirect me... Must be the very effective combination of Firefox plugins I have, NoScript, AdBlockPlus and the finely-tuned filters since I have been using both for about 3 years now.

I can browse ad-FILLED sites like CNN and see nary a single one... And the entire site works great, including the videos... Without the can't-bypass-or-fast-forward ads they put in the video feeds.

hehehehehehe Pirate or scammer websites like that are only a curiosity for me. Also, since I've switched to running OSX, the windows scripts are only a problem if I'm using XP in a virtual computer.

For anyone that wants a copy of the filter settings, just let me know. The firefox plugins are all free, and the filters can be imported right into them to get you up and rocking almost instantly.

dcsveen · **Posted:** Sat Aug 29, 2009 5:23 am

ya i put a van on craigslist and this guy from the UK says he wants to wire the money and asked for my account info, its all a scam, proceed with caution.....

warp2diesel · **Posted:** Sat Aug 29, 2009 3:32 pm

(No Subject)‏
From: sj leg (snazzysox@hotmail.com)
Medium riskYou may not know this sender.Mark as safe|Mark as junk
Sent: Sat 8/29/09 12:52 PM
To: eren@yahoo.com

$8289 MONEY

To earn more money?

You have a very good offer!

The more money you will not win before!

Create an account immediately as a free!

http://www.MYCASHLIVE.info/SJB2YJWLLGU

mikey1273 · **Posted:** Sun Aug 30, 2009 9:12 am

geordi wrote:

Yea... I went to that too, but no scripts OR that stinking flash activated so it didn't try to redirect me... Must be the very effective combination of Firefox plugins I have, NoScript, AdBlockPlus and the finely-tuned filters since I have been using both for about 3 years now.

I can browse ad-FILLED sites like CNN and see nary a single one... And the entire site works great, including the videos... Without the can't-bypass-or-fast-forward ads they put in the video feeds.

hehehehehehe Pirate or scammer websites like that are only a curiosity for me. Also, since I've switched to running OSX, the windows scripts are only a problem if I'm using XP in a virtual computer.

For anyone that wants a copy of the filter settings, just let me know. The firefox plugins are all free, and the filters can be imported right into them to get you up and rocking almost instantly.

Yeah firefox is very good..... I used it on my old computer but for some stupid reason I never installed it on my new computer. I'm still using IE8 with windoz vista. I do like the antivirus software I am using, it seems to bock and alert you to alot of things that can F up your computer and its free so no excuse for windowz users not to have a working antivirus installed. Its called Avira, you can check it out at www.free-av.com

Is someone trying to pull a scam on me again?

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