Did I fall off a turnip truck and not know it???

[caseydog]

So, I am helping my neighbor, a really nice single woman, sell her car. I listed it, and put my name and phone number on AutoTrader, so she wouldn't have to mess with the riff-raff.

I get a text, that tells me to email the price to some HotMail account. I figured it was a scam, so I sent an email from my equally anonymous gmail account, with the asking price and my phone number -- which was already in the ad.

I get this email in reply...

Hello,
I am ok with the price of $8,750 without further negotiations. Payment
will get to you in a cashier check of $18,250, this amount is expected to cover both the shipping and any other expenses that might accrue in the course of this transaction. So you are required to deduct the cost of your vehicle $8,750 when payment is received and give the balance of $9,500 to the shipper for him to be able to offset shipping fees, tax / other charges and cosmetic repair costs...
Upon receiving your payment and balance sent down to the shipper, the shipping agent will come for pick up (of vehicle & signing of title papers), and drive to the prepaid shipper...
Confirm this and forward your data for payment to be made out
LEGAL NAMES:
ADDRESS:
PHONE NUMBER:
NOTE: PAYMENT WILL BE SENT TO YOU VIA UPS COURIER ONCE YOU FORWARD YOUR INFORMATION.
Thanks in anticipation of your understanding.
Kind Regards
Mr William Clark


So, what do you think -- should I take the offer?

CD

[madjack]

...tell 'em UPS or FedEx doesn't deliver to your neighborhood and to send the check, overnite by USPS...call the postal inspectors and local bunko squad and wait for the fun to begin...
madjack

[urban5]

Wow thats a lot of work to sell a car, LOL. Of course it screams scam!

[BILLYL]

SCAm SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM

Hey how much does a bushel of turnps sell for. Wait a minute I'll write you a check - say for $19,000 and you send back to me - O I don't know - let say $18,950

There you go.

Great - I would do what madjack says and let the games begin

Have Fun

Bill

[legojenn]

It's an old scam.

http://www.buy-and-sell-car-secrets.com ... -scam.html

[Redgloves]

Oh, have fun scamming the scammers!

Thanks for your volunteering to help your neighbor and providing us with some entertainment.

Sad to say, but online dating sites are full of scammers. I enjoyed messing with them, finding discrepencies in their pages, teasing them and reporting to site administrators. Cheap entertainment.

Sad to say the scammers will create different email accounts and find others.

Jean

[CAJUN LADY]

SCUM, SCUM, SCUM!! And I mean SCUM!

[myoung]

This is the standard Craig's List scam. Seen it dozens of times. Hard to imagine there are people foolish enough to fall for this.

[Redgloves]

No, it's not hard to believe people are foolish to fall, happens daily.

At least the smart one recognize scam and tease them prior to reporting.


jean

[Miriam C.]

I emailed about a car for my son and got a reply about how the woman wanted to set me up with an E-bay account so I could pay her. She supposedly lives in Joplin....My offer of cash wasn't the "safe way for me to pay"...HELLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOO!

Never ceases to amaze me...btw you did good trying to protect the neighbor......can't be too careful.

[starleen2]

There's a sucker born every minute, but this time it ain't me!

[Zollinger]

Yup! It's a Nigeerian scam. I get fax's and TTY phone calls every week at work wanting us to tow vehicles from our local airport to our shop and store them. All because we placed a Craigslist Ad last fall. I even had fun for a while scamming the scammers, but they got wise to me pretty fast and they just hang up on me now.