Advice on sale please

[unhingedlizard]

Ok, im selling a cage (1995 Nissan Silvia S14).
This guy emails me after seeing an ad online in the TandE. Says what price will I sell it for. Looks to me like English is a second langauge (not txt or such just word order). Told him a price about 250 less than advertised (ONO you see) comes back to me today saying he will take it (unseen) and asks me for name, address and phone number as he will send a bank check for about twice the amount and the remainder once the check has cleared is to be given to a shipping company who will come to pick up the car.

The guys email is a Yahoo address and am just a bit nervious. The car is stored at a friends place not at my home address.

Has anyone heard of a scam like this before?

[Cajun]

scam stay away

[RantyDave]

Has anyone heard of a scam like this before?
Yes, this is a cheque scam. When a cheque has "cleared" into your bank it can still be cancelled and un-cleared again. I blame the bank system for being stupid cnuts.

http://www.hoax-slayer.com/overpayment-scam.html

IIRC a bankers draft can't have this done to it. Ask for a bankers draft and I suspect your seller will disappear up his/her own arse.

Dave

[unhingedlizard]

Just noticed his first email was all caps and next was much better, different person?

Exmple1 :GOOD DAY... I WAS OPPORTUNED TO SAW YOUR PLACED ADVERT ONLINE ( Nissan Silvia S14 )

Example 2:Concerning the payment it will be by bank cheque also i have
registerd with a shipping company that will come for the pick up of
your car when the cheque clears your bank .
I want you to note that the cheque that will be send to you will
get to you in order of xx,xxx$ which include the money for the
shipping also whenever the the cheque has cleard your bank you will
deduct your money from it and send the balance money to the
shipping agent that will come for the pick up.if you are okay with
these terms please get back to me with your information which the
cheque will be issue to you such as
full name
address
city
state
zip code
country
phone number
so that you will have the payment in time
thanks you

Looks like a scam to me.

[Sniper]

Definetly a scam. Stay away

[unhingedlizard]

No worries, just sent an email telling him to find a vehicle elsewhere.

[NinjaNanna]

I believe this is a common scam run out of Nigeria.

They target everything from cars to mobile phones. Have been numerous Current Affairs Storys on TV and in the News Papers.

Stay Away but if you don't report back here so we can laugh and say I TOLD YOU SO!!!! :nono:

[-df-]

What if you took the cheque into the bank it was made out from? can't you just get cash if you provide ID? Might be a way to scam the scammers?

Although if it was overseas we wouldn't have that bank I guess. Find out what bank it is ;)

[vifferman]

They're fake cheques, so there's no way the bank will honour them.

I had a friend in the US who was selling his bike on eBay, and his pickup truck. He had a reply like this for the bike, and although he knew it was bogus, went along with it to see how far he could get. Shortly into it, he changed from talking about the bike to talking about the truck: the 'buyer' didn't even seem to notice. He got as far as receiving the cheque, and sent us photos of it. He was thinking about taking it into the bank to get it stamped as fraudulent/dishonoured or whatever, but he would've had to pay US$20, and he was worried it might affect his credit rating.
He did find out where the cheque was sent from - FedEx in London - and sent all the details he had to the USPS fraud department, as they take a very dim view of this sort of misuse of postal services and would almost certainly follow it up. But like others have said, there's more than one person involved, so they're hard to stop.

[paturoa]

same scam for me for my GS 4 sale

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php?t=28288

[0arbreaka]

dont touch it, I assume you blanked out your number plate before putting it on tardme?

[Deviant Esq]

That other thread was a good read, thanks paturoa. I hadn't heard about this scam before - but anyone with a little sense should smell a rat when someone says they'll buy it for more than you're selling it for.

[unhingedlizard]

They weren't looking to buy for more than selling. What tipped me off was the 'pay the shipping company" thing. One, why trust me with that money? and two: just like the P.A crap above, not my problem.