Email Scams |

Email Scams

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Most people do not think it can happen to them but used car email scams are very prevalent and common.

Most of us have received an e-mail at one point or another from some foreigner asking for assistance in recovering some funds, usually in the millions of dollars. The person claims they have inherited the money and are not able to come to the United States and they would be willing to provide a nice sum of money for you if you help them. Till this day I am still amazed at how many people have been taken by these con artists.

Used auto cons going around the internet right now are very similar to the deceitful scenario mentioned above. We will cover one particularly popular con, it usually is run from a foreign country and 90% of the time it is from an African nation, usually from Nigeria. I do not know why but it is a fact that Nigeria is well known for having people who run these con jobs.

You put your vehicle up for sale in one of the popular internet sites such as eBay, Craigslist or any other similar website. You begin to receive some interest and one particular email catches your attention. The person is a foreigner who is very interested in your vehicle but cannot come to the United States to view the car. The individual informs you through email, that he will have an agent that works for him inspect, pick up the car and set everything up for the exportation of the vehicle. The con man does not seem to worried about asking many questions and will be quick to send out a check for the amount you requested. He may or may not try to deal a better price. You guys work out the details and come up with a price, lets say $5,000 just to use as an example.

A few days later you receive a check for $8,000, which is $3,000 over your asking price. The check is a certified check and looks extremely legitimate. Next time you speak or correspond with the buyer he has one of several possible explanations.

A mistake was made when issuing the check
He included additional funds for his agent to use for shipping costs
or any other ridiculous explanation.

At this point in time he apologizes but asks you to just be kind enough to write a check or money order back to the agents name or to him and provides an address. He tells you to deposit his check and then just write out a new one for him. He then of course tells you it would be much easier for him if you would send a money order back. You go and deposit the certified legitimate looking check which takes about 10 days to clear and then you decide to send this guy his money back since you already see the money in your account even though it has not cleared. A few days later you get a call from your bank informing you that the check is fraudulent!

I know many of you may be thinking, that would not happen to me, or how stupid can you be but surprisingly enough this is happening every day on sales through eBay, Auto Trader and Craigslists. None of these sites are at fault, as they provide a great service to help you sell your items. The fault lies with the people falling for the scam. I sell on the net and receive these emails from potential buyers all the time. I constantly read up on scams and I was truly amazed at how many people have been taken by these con men. Since there is no real way for authorities to track these people who are usually living over seas, they have freedom to continue cheating people out of their hard earned money.

There are variations to the information provided within this article but the basic scenario is the same. Be careful when selling your used auto through the net. If you receive correspondence such as these, the best thing to do is to ignore them and move on.