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BUYER BEWARE II


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The warning at the top of the page about making sure you know who you are doing business with is still extremely important.  Unfortunately, "the bad guys" are still trying to find ways to bilk you out of your money. A loyal forum member was recently defrauded and lost a considerable sum to a sophisticated and unscrupulous seller.  BUYER BEWARE!!

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I recently had a situation  where a Euro buyer wanted a car of mine.. first key is a dumb line about what would you take for it in first email. Second they said they'd buy it but they would do some cyber money  transaction . I replied my car my way give me your Bankers number n routing number..  I never heard from her  again...

 

They are indeed out there..

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Sometimes not even great bargains just average deals of something I deal in every day from people all over the country.

Look at the scam I posted.  Whether that's the one referred to or not.  A good scammer will work it so they are very believable.  Often having knowledge that only a true car guy has.  These aren't Nigerian scammers.  These are local or atleast US based guy with all the right answers.  So much ,  that you would believe they are looking right at the item they are "selling " you.   Same thing with the Guy in Hayward CA that was selling me parts and Literature 5 years ago. 

If anyone here is reading this,  read about the scam I posted so you don't become a victim.  

As things progress and we get the word out,  hopefully it will prevent others from getting scammed. 

Here is a direct link.

 

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Happens 24/7/365 around the globe and has been for millenias, nothing new or specific to old cars, their parts, etc...

 

 

1 hour ago, Matt Harwood said:

The only consistent ingredient across all scams is a willing victim.

 

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In this case the forum member paid over $2,000 to purchase an engine and gearbox.  He even got a waybill from a freight company all filled out.  I do not believe at all he was being greedy.  He paid a fair price for what he expected to get and maybe more.  He is a great hobbyist and is well know in the car community and on this forum.  One of his cars was even in our magazine many years ago.  He did the restoration himself.  Not my intention to embarrass him but a person has to be extra cautious when someone has an item that is extremely rare and offers it to a forum member.  Almost a red flag  to immediately consider.  I think this was a case of our member being excited to find a badly needed part and being duped by a slick con man.  He had asked me to warn other members about Kelvin Max of Tucson, AZ.  

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The downside of all this is it puts the honest seller through a ringer sometimes to sell their items.  I have dealt with people selling literature (honest ones) that got sick of my questions and needing information that decided to just sell it someone else because I was being a pain.  Legit seller,  but often sellers just expect someone to arrive at their house for a very specialized item and hand them a pile of cash,  yet no one does because there is no one in the area is interested in that particular item. 

Would be nice if there were severe penalties for scammers and strong swift justice dealt.

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Honestly, I am leary when I spend $30 on ebay! Steve, You are correct, it is not always greed that suckers people, there are a lot of bottom feeders out there regardless. I try to buy used parts from people I know or familiar forum members. AND again, sometimes its a pot shot. Fortunately I have never been burnt, and try to keep due dilligence on the forefront. In the case of a rare or hard to find part, I suppose you are going to be at someones mercy. 

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Too bad those bad apples ruin for the legitimate sellers and trust is lost by buyers.   

 

I guess a man's word is worthless and his hand shake meaningless.

 

Societal rot.  Thank goodness there are still good people out there that give a glimmer of hope decent humanity isn't completely lost.   Maybe "good" will prevail and win the day yet.   Put your trust in God but in the meantime tie your camel.

Let Karma exact revenge,  it might be harsher than what you would administer.

 

Apologies for preaching.

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10 hours ago, auburnseeker said:

Would be nice if there were severe penalties for scammers and strong swift justice dealt.

 

You can't have that when victims fail to contact law enforcement. If you want to see punishment, you have to report the crimes. If it is not reported to law enforcement, it will never be investigated so there is zero chance of punishment. 

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48 minutes ago, MCHinson said:

 

You can't have that when victims fail to contact law enforcement. If you want to see punishment, you have to report the crimes. If it is not reported to law enforcement, it will never be investigated so there is zero chance of punishment. 

I am from Canada and could have been a victim to a scam of some one selling car parts.   Something seemed odd....poor written language and a strange story.  So I continued on with the guy knowing full well this was a scam.  It went on for several days and emails.  Up to the point were he showed me a picture of the car(a stock internet photo) he was wrecking for parts.  I told him that car was too good to wreck and I would buy the whole thing. Of course I ended it with a vulgar email.  But the more time of their's I wasted was less time they had to scam someone else.  I had fun doing it too.  

 

When I called our Federal Law Enforcement agency and offered to use me to set up a sting they basically said "no".   Take one out and another scumbag will replace them.   So even trying to get the law involved was futile.  They even provided their banking and transit numbers and I traced it to New Jersey.  Thing is the Scammer insisted I notify them as soon as the money was transferred....probably so they could transfer it out of country or withdraw it so it couldn't be seized.

 

Have some fun with these Cons and when your done let them have a piece of your mind and not Sunday church language either.

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12 hours ago, 1937McBuick said:

They even provided their banking and transit numbers and I traced it to New Jersey.

 

You should have told them that you sent it and it should already be at his bank.

And that you added an extra hundred and that your guy will be picking it up because you are out of the country on an oil rig.

 

HAHAHA

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The San Francisco mother of a marine biologist who was working offshore wanted to buy her son an 1890's Cutler roll top desk I had listed on Craigslist. I figured she would be underwater on the shipping from New York State. I just ignored the whole thing. Which is the best you can do if you have an inkling of an idea you are working with a crook.

 

There was a rerun of Colombo on TV last Sunday night. The murderer had killed one person. Peter Faulk told him "You are an amateur. I am a professional cop." Remember that before you take the second step to engage the cook by telling him you know all about him. He is listening to every word you say. Zero communication is your best defense.

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9 hours ago, 60FlatTop said:

The San Francisco mother of a marine biologist who was working offshore wanted to buy her son an 1890's Cutler roll top desk I had listed on Craigslist. I figured she would be underwater on the shipping from New York State. I just ignored the whole thing. Which is the best you can do if you have an inkling of an idea you are working with a crook.

 

There was a rerun of Colombo on TV last Sunday night. The murderer had killed one person. Peter Faulk told him "You are an amateur. I am a professional cop." Remember that before you take the second step to engage the cook by telling him you know all about him. He is listening to every word you say. Zero communication is your best defense.

You make a good point but with all due respect no one is physically coming looking for me.  I pride myself in my honesty,  but I am dealing with the crooks on the same level they are trying to deal with me.   No personal information is given and absolutely no banking information is relayed.   In fact I can lie to them as good as they are to me.....and do.    They want quick cash and they're gone.  I feel once they've been "busted", they're gone.    Maybe I'm too trusting and naive?!?!?!

 

We live in a different time,  cyber crime.   We can leave a huge digital footprint if we aren't careful.   Identy theft would probably be a bigger risk than some internet Con physically coming looking for me.   So be careful online.  If that's what you meant.

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I was contacted by a person overseas whose job was transferring him to my area.  He asked if I would find him an apartment.  He would send a check for $2500.  I was to cash the check and keep $250 for my troubles and give the rest to his "friend" who would stop by, pick up the $2250 and pay the security deposit and first month's rent.  Just another variation on the same old scam.

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My case now is originally he got me for 3G.  That's grand larceny.  Now if they were to tag him on the current scam that's $500 Petty larceny  That most likely isn't even going to raise an eyebrow.  I would rather they focus their efforts on people causing tens of Thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to businesses around the country and physically assaulting as well as murdering people.  I wish there was a way to get them back online to make their life miserable.  That's the platform they are using afterall.  I was surprised to see Craigslist offered no place to post scams to alert people,  short of just posting a random ad like we've seen. 

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4 minutes ago, Restorer32 said:

I was contacted by a person overseas whose job was transferring him to my area.  He asked if I would find him an apartment.  He would send a check for $2500.  I was to cash the check and keep $250 for my troubles and give the rest to his "friend" who would stop by, pick up the $2250 and pay the security deposit and first month's rent.  Just another variation on the same old scam.

Those scams are easy to spot especially now that the cat is out of the bag on them.  I had that tried on me with the car and shipping before anyone knew about it.  I analyzed everything and saw through it though.  Then later found out I was right.  

That was the problem with the new scam I had pulled was it was a face to face scam.  Didn't think anyone would have the balls to do that face to face in a public place like a busy Walmart parking lot. Hell even craigslist tells you to do it in a busy shopping center parking lot. 

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I must get 3 or four threatening calls per month. Someone claiming they are the Federal Govt. Claiming that I owe back taxes. If I don't respond a lawyer will be contacting me soon. It's a recording. "Press 1 to speak with a revenue Canada agent now". I often want to press one and start verbally abusing them. Then I think, why bother? It won't do a darn thing except get me jacked up and mad. I just hang up. It's frustrating how these scums carry on with this crap. I wish there was some way to get to them. As mentioned the Police don't care. If I could press "2" and send them a punch in the face through the phone that would be fantastic. It seems they hack other peoples phone numbers somehow. If you attempt to hang up and re-call the number listed, you get some innocent person in town who has no idea their caller ID was displayed, when the scammers called. It's annoying and does bug me a little that the scum of the earth get away with this, and nobody seems to go after them. 

Edited by keithb7 (see edit history)
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5 minutes ago, keithb7 said:

I must get 3 or four threatening calls per month. Someone claiming they are the Federal Govt. Claiming that I owe back taxes. If I don't respond a lawyer will be contacting me soon. It's a recording. "Press 1 to speak with a revenue Canada agent now". I often want to press one and start verbally abusing them. Then I think, why bother? It won't do a darn thing except get me jacked up and mad. I just hang up. It's frustrating how these scums carry on with this crap. I wish there was some way to get to them. As mentioned the Police don't care. If I could press "2" and send them a punch in the face through the phone that would be fantastic. It seems they hack other peoples phone numbers somehow. If you attempt hang up and re-call the number listed, you get some innocent person in town who has no idea their caller ID was displayed when the scammers called. It's really annoying and does bug me a little that the scum of the earth get away with this and nobody seems to go after them. 

 

Michael Clayton:
There's no play here. There's no angle, there's no champagne room. I'm not a miracle worker, I'm a janitor. The math on this is simple; the smaller the mess, the easier it is for me to clean up.

 

[Phone rings]

 

Client:
That's the police, isn't it?

 

Michael Clayton:
No. The police don't call.

Edited by Matt Harwood (see edit history)
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1 hour ago, keithb7 said:

"Press 1 to speak with a revenue Canada agent now". I often want to press one and start verbally abusing them. Then I think, why bother? It won't do a darn thing except get me jacked up and mad. I just hang up.

 

I will often put the phone next to the stereo speaker and crank it up.

I had a nice lady (real person) call me last night wanting to buy my property.

"But that's my living", "but you would be a fool not to sell now, don't you have more than one property?"

"Here, you need some heavy metal"

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Our white collar crime laws are a joke.. so many  people done out of so much cash . The laws need  changing big time!!!

I cant tell you how many unknown relatives have left me millions in Europe, how many 6 figure jobs were mine for the asking, how many credit cards of mine were compromised, and of course the IRS calls,  but who can forget my cars extended warranty? .. you know the one on the car I sold 3 yrs ago !

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You know they wouldn't go for it,  But if a few were caught and hung from a telephone pole in each town for a few days,  word would get around and the number of cases would drop significantly.  There is a reason Justice in the old days worked as a deterrent.   You could see the consequences first hand so that image crossed your mind when you had thoughts of committing a crime.  I know some will say we a re more civilized than that,  but when dealing with animals sometimes you can only be as civilized as the animals. 

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A new scam I heard a commercial about on the radio, says criminals are putting a lean on your house's title because title info is available on line,  then taking out loans against your house and you are responsible for them.  

If this is true,  and they say there is nothing you can do to stop it,  except buy their service to guard against it.  Now if this is true,  then it's high time to enact laws to protect homeowners. 

I have 300 feet of rope.  Who is our first contender?  I have one in mind to make a shining example out of.  Even know how to catch him. 

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The laws are there.  Problem is the scammers are almost entirely off shore.  Hard to go to Khazakstan or wherever to lock up the crooks.  

 

What really needs to be done is force the phone companies to eliminate the fake calls generated over VOIP.  Hard to believe the technology isn't there to verify that the caller is actually real.  

 

 

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There is probably technology there to prevent alot of scamming but that would involve the companies to cut into their profits.  As mentioned,  Criaglsit has no place to post about scams.  Why when they tell you to watch out for scams would they not allow you to post on a community forum about scams pulled on people.  They could even make it so you can't post names,  just so people know the jist of the scam.  Same reason fake and counterfeit items are all over the place.  The selling platforms make money off both.  They only do something when called out on the carpet.  There are all kinds of threads about counterfeit stuff being offered on Feebay. 

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