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914World.com _ 914World Garage _ Craigslist-fraudulent payment attempted

Posted by: PBC914 Jun 30 2011, 10:30 AM

Heads up, I had what appeared to be an interested buyer in my 914. We agreed on a sale price, then suddenly a "transfer agent" was needed. I was told they would send an additional $900.00 for the transfer agent along with the agreed sale price money. The email came from what looked like Pay Pal. The email said funds were being held by Pay Pal until I wired $900 to an account in the UK. Seriously how dumb are people?? The Pay Pal email appeared legitimate at first, but their the language was not perfect.

Anyway just a note to always be cautious. There were many red flags from the beginning so it did not surprise me.

Posted by: smontanaro Jun 30 2011, 10:48 AM

Red flags or not, people do, unfortunately, fall for these scams. My son and I are the computer folk in the family. My daughter-in-law found a car. My wife paid for it. Neither my son nor I looked at the deal because we thought the other guy was involved. Guess how much car we got on that transaction? Edit: guess how much help the "seller's" bank was?

S

Posted by: biosurfer1 Jun 30 2011, 11:00 AM

I saved a friend $12,000. He found a landcruiser in Missouri for way cheaper than it should be and emailed the seller and agreed on a price. the seller wanted to be safe and use "ebay's" payment process.

the only reason I found out about it was I heard from my gf that he told her he found a great deal and was going to get it for $12k that day...when she told me, i was getting on a plane so i messaged her to tell him not to proceed until i talked to him.

turned out he found it on Sacramento's CL...people dont stop to think that if its such a good deal, why would the guy who was "in Missouri" need to advertise in CA??

He was very grateful he told my GF about it...saved him a ton of money.

Posted by: stugray Jun 30 2011, 11:08 AM

I once looked at at a Toyota Supra in Missouri (or something like that) via ebay. I am in Colorado.

The deal was so good, that I offered to fly out and look at the car in person, and pay cash on the spot. He responded very quickly ;-)

The seller said NO, the transaction had to go through a escrow account in Russia.

Who in their right mind would turn down a cash deal where I fly TO HIM???

I laughed my ass of and turned him into ebay. The ad was gone in a few hours.

If it seems to goo to be true ......
Stu

Posted by: mepstein Jun 30 2011, 12:16 PM

If it's a good deal, a plane ticket isn't really a big deal.
If I don't know them really well, I never send more money than I can afford to loose.

Posted by: Cairo94507 Jul 1 2011, 06:37 AM

We really need a crack team of leg breakers who work for the "gubment" and track down these POS rip-off creeps and administer some appropriate justice. Seriously.

I thought these things were fairly obvious yet one good friend (retired cop) lost $5,000 about 10 years ago on a car he was selling despite my warning him that it was a fraudulent transaction and not to proceed.

Another person I was acquainted with was a records clerk at the criminal courts. I was at the DA's Office one day waiting to meet with someone and this guy came in and told his sad story to the desk clerk that he had lost $4,500 on one of those "You have won the British lottery" scams. I just shook my head.

Seriously, take these POS crooks out back and solve the problem.