Erwin Posted July 9, 2007 Share Posted July 9, 2007 Hello fellow members; I recently advertised my 1948 Ford F-2 in the BUY&SELL catagory and the past couple of days have been in negotiations with a potential buyer. However I have discovered a possible scam in process. the supposed buyer is calling himself "TERRY WILLIMAS" AT<ty_1@yahoo.com. i have uncovered he is out of the UK. and is offering to send a downpayment and "driver processors to do the test drive and make final arragements to complete deal and insisted on my my full name-bank and address in order to send a check to my bank. BEWARE fellow members if you get emails offering to buy your classics. just passing it along. thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erwin Posted July 9, 2007 Author Share Posted July 9, 2007 follwup -I'd like some input from others members view points on this situation. I just don't think it's legit. If anyone else can shed some insight on a buyer out of the UK wanting to do business then please by all means let me know! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shop Rat Posted July 9, 2007 Share Posted July 9, 2007 I posted a car for sale here for a friend. He was contacted by a guy claiming he wanted to buy the car. Didn't sound quite right to him. I sent thim the warning that was posted here about scams and the warning signs to look for. It was a scam and he got enough info. to track the guy and turn him in. Not sure if I still have the old e-mails about it but I might. Needless to say he was VERY grateful for the info. in the thread that I sent to him. He figured, wrongly, that if it was a contact from this web-site it was legit. Glad he was safe rather than sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erwin Posted July 9, 2007 Author Share Posted July 9, 2007 I hope I'm not embarrassed over this either BUT it just seems odd that someone from across the pond (UK) would go to such great lengths to buy an old antique vehicle and end up paying probably ten times the amount just in shipping fees alone to get it from the U.S. to the UK. which makes me skeptical its legit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1937hd45 Posted July 10, 2007 Share Posted July 10, 2007 Maybe it is a scam, but don't brand everyone in the UK as a crook! I've had great deals with guys across the pond, BOTH of them. You can ship a car to the UK for far less than New York to LA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erwin Posted July 10, 2007 Author Share Posted July 10, 2007 My apologies if I came across brash about this and I didn't want to come across as labeling folks in the UK as "crooks" but I'm pretty new at this and it just seemed odd to me that someone was so willing to send a check over to my bank as a down payment then followup with "driver processors to test drive vehicle. I mean is this the way it's done? How on earth do I know who I'm dealing with under these circumstances. How far do I go with this process before I'm sucked too far in before I know it and am whamooo'd? Can someone such as yourself (1937hd45) guide me through a large sale like this with an potential buyer out of the country as far as what is customary and what looks phony , those sort of things. thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Harwood Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 It works this way: They'll offer to pay asking price for your car (or horse, or table or apple tree or whatever you're selling), no questions asked. Then they'll tell you they have a client in the US who owes them money, usually a lot more than your item costs. Then they say that they'll have their "agent" send you a certified check for the amount owed, you take your part plus a "tip" for handling the transaction, then wire the change back to the buyer. Then the check is bogus and you're out a bunch of cash. And if you're really stupid, you let them pick up your item and lose that, too. Surprising how many people send cash and/or release their vehicles without even waiting for the check to clear.I've still got the $25,000 check some guy sent me to buy my $8500 Miata. It sure looked legit, but I faxed a copy to Wachovia Bank to be sure, and it was definitely bogus. Fortunately, the forgery included Wachovia's real phone number.If it sounds too good... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnD1956 Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 Even though it may cost a little more in transaction fees, would it be best to set up a new account at a bank for yourself, just to process these online transactions?Obviously the best thing to do is to deposit the funds recieved and then wait for the check to clear. But if you set up a new account and the payment does turn out to be bogus, then at least you have not given up valuable information on your everyday bank accounts.JD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest GRANNYS 70 SKYLARK Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 Scama-lama-ding-dong! These types of purchases are well known scams, never give any bank information to anyone on line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erwin Posted July 13, 2007 Author Share Posted July 13, 2007 Thank you all for the information and I hope passing this along helped others to stay vigilant as well. It smelled like fish bait from the start especially when I was asked for my personal information and the name of my bank to forward a check to."charley " is lurking so lets all be careful out there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveBerg Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 Something to keep in mind. Obviously with the coming of the internet many new ways to scam people have surfaced. While you have to be very cautious in all of your dealings, especially those with persons from another country. This does not mean though that every person residing in a different country is a scam artist. I made an internet sale of a nice vehicle to a man from Switzerland. I told him I needed a bank wire for the exact amount of the transaction and gave him my account information. What I did was to go to my bank and open a new account with $10 in it. this was the information I gave to the buyer. He wired the funds as instructed prior to the shippers picking up the car. Thankfully it was a nice clean deal and I hope he is enjoying the car. Had it been a scam deal the worst I would have lost would have been the $10 in the account. So often times common sense and a few small extra steps will keep you safe. Buying a vehicle from another country is a bit more problematic. I would suggest hiring a well known broker to handle the transaction and when they tell you how much, dont cringe, just pay them and sleep at night. The cost of being careful is never as great as the downside for not being careful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RocketDude Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 My nephew got taken for $3000.00 on ebay.His fault, not ebays. He is young and dumb, and his parents weren't paying attention to what he was doing. He found a nice ford SUV for sale in Sweden. The story was the guy moved his family there and was unable to register the car, so he was selling it. His family is in the shipping business so he would ship it free to the buyer. The car was priced at half of it's actual worth. By the time I heard the story, the money was gone. The first clue was the too low price. The second was the fact it shoudn't be a problem getting the car registered in Sweden, judging from all of the correspondence I see on this site, from people owning american cars in foreign countries. The last big give away was that the seller promiced the car would be delivered from Sweden to Oregon in a week. I have no experience shipping cars overseas, but I'm thinking the boats aren't that fast..! His biggest mistake was sending money and not paying through ebay, where he may have had some protection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erwin Posted July 15, 2007 Author Share Posted July 15, 2007 I've dealt on ebay for a while myself both as a seller and buyer and believe you me I can share some terrific stories in the the short 2 years I've been ebaying. its the easiest place in the world for scammers to do business and they'll tell you that!My felings go out to your nephew over his bad experiance and his hard lesson learned. Now following up on my situation in recent days Ive forwarded all this guys emails to the Missouri attorney generals office and sure enough got a reply already that this indeed was a fabricated web site out of the UK trying to lure car sellers into transactions promising to wire funds directly to their bank and sound all business like with solicitations such as sending "processing team" to your locale to finalize deal. Anyway i hope my attempt to ALERT others has helped and reminded us to be vigilant. Not everyone is a scammer BUT Not everyone is honest! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary_N Posted July 16, 2007 Share Posted July 16, 2007 Hemmings online classifieds are producing many many scam emails for me. I have a '54 Buick a/c system for sale right now. I've had 10 inquiries and all are scams. They are very obvious for the most part. From an online Hemmings wanted ad, one person tried to sell me a perfect 1946 Buick Roadmaster Convertible for $2,500. Saw the same car (different seller) on eBay for $35,000. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Wolf Posted July 17, 2007 Share Posted July 17, 2007 I got one today. No lie this is what it said."I am XXXX XXXX by name, I came across your 1955 Thunderbird which I am ready to purchase it immediately. But I would like to know it's cost price so that I can proceed further on with payment.Awaiting your favourable reply.Regards.."XXXX XXXXI removed the (US sounding)name in case this scammer used some real persons name, as they usually do.I'm thinkin' a million dollars... I'm sure he has a freind who owes him 1.2 million with a check I can cash.I usually buy cars before I know how much it cost. Don't you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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