Scam Warning!!!
Overseas Buyers
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There have been several incidents where ads posted on this board have been targeted by scam artists. Please do not become a victim of this.
The message received frequently indicates that the sender is a car dealer in Nigeria or Saudi Arabia or some other exotic locale, but recently European countries have been showing up as well. It is generally obvious that English is not their first language, but the grammer has been improving lately. The message goes on to say that they want to buy your car and they have a contact in the USA who owes them money. They offer to have this American contact send a cashier's check (counterfeit) or wire the money to your bank. Of course the amount is more than you are asking for your car so they want you to send the surplus on to them. They don't ask any questions about the car (they really don't care).
Beware of these scams. The premise behind this scam is that most US banks will automatically clear the funds after two weeks, whether or not they get a clearance from the source bank. Many of them will clear a cashier's check in 24 hours. People believe they have the funds (i.e. the check cleared) and then the bank withdraws the money a month later. It makes no difference that you were acting in good faith!
Closing the account is not a good option as the bank will try to charge you with fraud, even though the issue was caused by their automatic check clearing. The amount that you lose is enough to hurt your personal finances severely, but not enough to interest the FBI.
Internet car ads can be dangerous. Unfortunately, about the only thing that I can do is to warn you.
Another scam attempt, received by a club member:
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Hello
I'm xxxxx xxxxx.I am interested in your (advertised item) for sale and I'll like to know cost and to see the pictures and condition if okay with me .but will like to know some few things about it. 1. How long have you owned it? 2. Why are you selling it? 3.What sort of condition is it at the moment? 4. The bottom price which you will be selling it? And please let me know if it's still available for sale . Based in UK .If you do I want you to get in touch with me immediately for me to proceed with the Payment. As for the shipping I'll contact a shipper agent of mine who will arrange for the Pick up as soon as the transaction is sealed and get back to me.I will be looking forward to your response.
Thanks and have nice day
This type of scam is similar in nature to the "overseas buyer" scam described above. The fraud occurs during payment for the item.
Yet another scam attempt, received by a club member:
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I have been contacted by an individual over the internet regarding the sale of my MG. This person related that they discovered the car on the club web site. This individual has identified themself as xxxxxxx,xxxxxxx from Springfield Missouri.
I am 99% certain this is an internet SCAM and this person does not exist. I am passing this on to you as I suppose other members of the club that have advertised on the clubs web site may have been contacted by the same scammer.
The whole plot involves this individual sending me a cashier’s check, which is a fake, and then I send him back an overpayment. A shipper is supposed to pick up the car but this never happens.
The bank at first takes the check and places the money in my account but several days later I would have been contacted and informed the check was counterfeit! In the meantime I would have been asked to forward the overpayment via a wire transfer to a specific bank.
Again this is just an FYI for you and any other club members that you’d like to pass it on to.
More information on internet scams:
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