Scammers again

[JustDave]

Last evening I put a post under parts wanted for 31 devaux,well early this morning I get a voice mail a text and then a phone all,this guy says he’s at his late fathers estats!he says he just sold the house and is cleaning up,he says he has the wire wheels I need and the trunk rack along with a set of frt fenders and headlights says he also has the continental kit,says his father parted one out years ago,well it struck me odd that a devaux would have a spare tire on the back along with a luggage rack,I listened to him for about ten minutes when he said he had a guy in Florida that wanted them,I told him I wouldn’t jump ahead of someone else’s deal and immediately he told he didn’t get and offer on the parts,I told him to call the guy and let me know,called me back 5 minutes later and said the guy only offered 230;00 for everything,I told him I could come to Reno from Rancho cucamonga califnext Saturday,he told me that wouldn’t work he was leaving immeadiately but could get the parts shipped out today for an extra 55,00;I told him to take the other guys offer and he hung up,said his name was Edwin calling from a 775 area code,everyone please be careful,I sure hope it was a scam and I didn’t lose a deal,     Dave

[MCHinson]

And that is why you should not list your phone number in an ad.

 

If you ask people to send you a PM, they will at least have to register on the forum. That will allow the moderators to review their IP address if you report a suspicious PM. If they are from Nigeria or some other scammer haven, it is fairly easy to identify them as scammers. When you post your phone number publicly in an ad, any scammer in the world with internet access and a telephone can view your number and contact you. 

[John_S_in_Penna]

I have a different view, from my perspective as a

legitimate responder.  Legitmate car fans far outnumber

the criminals, thank goodness.

 

Listing a phone number in an ad is vitally important,

I maintain.  If I'm responding to an ad, I want to--

and will insist on--talking to the advertiser to assess him.

Can you imagine if Hemmings Motor News' ads

were all without phone numbers?

 

And if I'm browsing, for instance, a Packard forum,

and want to respond to an ad, I'm not going to join the

forum just to be able to see pictures and contact the seller!

Why should I join 10 forums just to browse their ads?

With those impediments I'd just pass over the ad.

 

Dave, you positively DID NOT miss out on some parts.

That's what the lying criminal wanted you to believe, so you'd

act quickly and unthinkingly.  The scammer is a little bit poorer

for your sound thinking.

Edited August 4, 2018 by John_S_in_Penna (see edit history)

[JustDave]

Thanks guys,       I had a feeling it was a scam,but as you know devaux parts are far and flew between,I got to thinking that maybe I missed out,     Dave

[DB26]

THE SAME GUY CALLED ME YESTERDAY!!! Same story but it was all 26 Dodge parts. SCAM SCAM SCAM. I cannot believe it. Speechless. I was almost had. 

Edited August 4, 2018 by DB26 (see edit history)

[Matt Harwood]

Don't be a sucker, be ready for the warning signs:

 

• Seller has inherited the parts/car/whatever and doesn't know much about them (oddly enough, however, he knows enough about the parts to know they are EXACTLY what you need but can't answer any additional questions about them). He just has to get rid of them to help his mom/neighbor/the estate.
• He has someone else who is REALLY interested, so move fast! 
• Seller does not have traditional ways of getting paid (Paypal, credit card, wire transfer). His bank account was hacked, his Paypal account was closed, whatever. Will usually only work with Western Union or a postal money order, which are pretty much the same as cash--once it's gone, it's gone.
• Seller is not able to get additional photos for you, he's out of town/out of the state/on vacation/deployed/on an offshore oil rig and the parts/car are somewhere else far away. Whomever is supervising the parts/car doesn't know how to use a camera or the internet.
• You can't come see or pick up the parts in person. Nobody will be there (see above about vacations and oil rigs). He'll only ship them.
• Shipping is surprisingly cheap, regardless of where the parts are. Seller will offer to pay any overage--what a great guy!

 

You can always take any photos people E-mail you regarding parts or cars for sale and do a Google Image Search. Just upload the photo into Google and it will find anyplace that photo has been used before. Most likely, you'll find those exact photos used in an old eBay auction or on Craig's List from years ago. Checking like that will save you a lot of heartache.

 

Always remember, if it's too good to be true, it probably is.

Edited August 4, 2018 by Matt Harwood (see edit history)

[JustDave]

I’ll tell ya he almost had me,if it wasn’t for him telling me he had the continental kit instead of the spare tire brkt and the luggage rack off the same car,that started me thinking,then he said he had a double bar frt bumper,devaux had a single bar,then he said he had the list of parts in his truck,well he said he was at his late fathers house where the parts are,I would go out and describe parts while looking at them,then he tells me of a devaux cabriolet in Phoenix,I only know of 2 in the states both in Michigan,just glad I picked up on it and didn’t loose a deal

[Jim Bollman]

I teased a scammer for a few days about a class B camper on Craigslist a few months ago. The price looked a bit too good but I asked for more pictures and a chance to look at it. Ad was in Baltimore area and I have relatives that live outside Btown so I figured if it still looked good with more pictures, I'd have them go look at it. Came back with it was part of her husband's estate and it was stored in Columbus Ohio. I have relatives there too so I pushed back again, I knew it was a scam by then. Said it was already at the shipper ready to ship to the new owner and I should do a buy methode through eBay I had never heard of and she would have it shipped to me and I would have 10 days to evaluate and to accept or not and if I didn't want it I would be refunded. Since I had never heard of the eBay payment system I  looked it up and the first thing on the page was a description of the scam the person was trying to pull and a warning not to fall for any exchanges that didn't start on eBay.

 

My final eMail was to say no thanks I didn't buy from scammers and got no response back. By then the ad had been pulled from Craigslist, probably reported by a different potential victim.

[DB26]

He said he wasn't able to send me pictures. And called the CLUM switch a Clummer 

[capngrog]

2 hours ago, DB26 said:

He said he wasn't able to send me pictures. And called the CLUM switch a Clummer 

 

Now ya made me feel bad.  I wouldn't know a CLUM switch from a clummer ...  bummer!

 

Cheers,

Grog

[Mark Gregory]

I had someone through the AACA private message me asking me about a part . I responded to the AACA private message but it was no longer available about one hour after it was sent to me . The 

only option left was respond to his email address . I did not bother it sounded fishy .

 

Edited August 5, 2018 by Mark Gregory (see edit history)

[MCHinson]

If you receive a Private Message and the sender is later banned, that is the only explanation for the private message no longer being available. 

[kgreen]

I see a beautifully restored prewar convertible in craigslist in several different cities that are geographically very far apart at a pretty darn good price.  I complimented the car but seriously asked if he would be willing to part it out, there were some parts that I wanted.  If it was a real add the guy would have been very upset with me.  Sure enough though, he continued the conversation by asking me for more contact info.