Does anyone have advice about buying a car that has to be shipped from a private owner? I found an ad on Craigslist that has a great deal on a car and emailed the owner for more info asking if I could come check it out. But she said," The car it’s currently crated and held in the harbor at the shipping company ready to be delivered. I must pay a fee for each day for stationing in the harbor so I priced it low to sell it fast I’ve paid round-trip scheme and the returns are free and that is my secret for selling it so low." And monetary transactions go through Google Checkout etc. I saw an ad similar to this in the paper the other day and a few days later that ad had disappeared from the paper. Is this safe? Am I getting a good deal?
Just send me your money I will send you pic’s of how I spend it. That way you will have something to show for the money. Yes it is a scam.
These kinds of scams are very common, especially on Craigslist. Do not fall for them. It will do terrible things to your life. Here is some info straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. Read this stuff: http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams
http://chambana.craigslist.org/i/autos
Any story like that is a great reason to do what? Nothing! And it’s free.
Absolutely it is a scam. What else needs to be said. It can work in reverse too where they try to buy something but get you to foot some of the money for shipping and they will reimburse-yeah right. There was a story in the paper not too long ago, I think in Iowa, where the scammer was trying to buy a dump box trying the same thing. Bogus check etc., but the lady was smart enough to wait until the cashiers check cleared which it didn’t and bounced pretty high.
Just walk away.
yep, scam. They get your money and you get zippo.
Never buy a car that you can’t see,can’t drive, and can’t take to a mechanic for a prepurchase inspection…
This proposition obviously did not pass by your suspicions so you asked here first. You likely have the healthy skepticism that is required to not let yourself get cheated.
Agreed it’s a scam and eBay also offers the same scams along with hijacked accounts and scam auctions.
Many times a vehicle is said to be in storage at the “EBay Warehouse”. There is no such thing.
Some years back I had not been on eBay for several weeks and one night found that I could not log into my account. Some circling around led me to discover that someone had listed over 900 fraudulent auctions under my ID. It took several hours on the phone with eBay and a couple of days for them to eliminate those auctions. The scammer was in London, England and how many people were cheated of their money I have no idea.
My son and my brother both ran across some scams on Craig’s list. My son was looking for a pick-up truck and found one at a price that was way too low. The owners wanted to deliver it to his house for a quick sale-supposedly they were moving to another state. I advised my son to stay away from that deal and he did.
My brother was trying to sell an oil furnace because he had replaced the oil furnace with a heat pump system. He received a call from a person who supposedly was blind. The person said that he had a cashier’s check for the $100, but the bank had mistakenly made out the check for $1000. The buyer said he would give him the $1000 check when he picked up the furnace and then he would trust my brother to send him the $900 change. My brother smelled a rat and said “no deal”. No doubt, the check was phony.
Congratulations Triedaq. You and the OP are in competition fo the most outlandish scam story.
What say you, folks? Which scammer had the most outlandish story? The “it’s all crated up and I’m paying holding fees at the dock” or “I’m blind and bank accidently made the check out for $1000…please send $900 change”?
I like the “shipping dock scam” the best of these two. But I like Triedaq’s too.
I like the ones that say the vehicle is in my town or near by. The price is lower than the down payment should be and the pic shows Palm trees. Of corse e-mail’s only and no phone #. If you contact them they want to ship it to you. From the same town to same town. IE " I will arrange shipping from Bay City MI to Bay City Mi ". I live in northern Michigan, No Palm trees here. LOL