AUTO SCAMS EXPOSED

Please read this very typical eMail closely. This guy doesn't know enough English to even type in the item name. Also, if you have already placed an ad on the internet, they should already know your asking price.

FROM THE SELLER (11-11-04):

Dear ThundersGarage:

Take a look at this! We have our 1971 VW bus for sale in AutoTrader.com. These are two emails we received from a "Mark Walex." We did a google.com search on his name because this was such unusal activity and found your webpage. We are completly disgusted! After reading your webpage, we instantly sent him an email saying that the transaction is void and that he is not to email us or phone us because we will report him to authorities.

Hello,
Goodday ,i saw your advertised ,kindly get back to me with your selling price. Also i will like to know if you will accept a banker draft or acertified personal cheque,cashier cheque for the payment . i will like toknow it's present condition,kindly tell me if the car asever been involvein any form of accident ? If yes .mail fast responce will highly be appreciated asap .
thanks

HELLO.
Thanks for the response .i have contacted my clienthe said he's ok with the price and she will issue to you a cheque of $,6500 after you send the following info:

Name-------------
Address------------
TelephoneCell,Home and office--------

The money is for to you deduct your money and send the balance to the shipper when the cheque clears in your bank for 3-5 days or you go your nearest cashing points to cash the money so that the shipping company can come for the pick-up the same day you received the cheque.My client said he's ready to pay an offer $3,500 as he want to use it for a film that will be shoot in miami florida.

THANKS,

YOUR BEST REGARD

FROM THE SELLER (10-23-04):

Our story is very similar to the others on your page...We found a buyer for our truck through AutoTrader. We were contacted by the "agent" and the "buyer" was coming from Holland to Texas and wanted to buy our truck for a wedding present for his son. Unfortunately we found your website too late, because we fell victim to this scam. We received a Moneygram check for about twice the amount of the truck and were told to send the other half to the "shipping company" so they could start the process for pick-up of the truck. Today we found out that (a) the check is a fraud and the bank will be taking back the money and (b) the "agent" emailed and told us his "client" had had a stroke and the wife needed the full amount back to help pay the hospital bills, and that they needed the money sent TODAY. They have used fake phone numbers, names, addresses and email accounts to do this with. The emails were in broken English at some points like the others. I ALSO WANTED TO POINT OUT THAT MY HUSBAND HAD ACTUAL PHONE CONTACT WITH THE "AGENT" AND HE SOUNDED MIDDLE EASTERN. THIS MAY BE THE MOST IMPORTANT THING OF ALL. Thank God we found out before we sent the amount back. (although at this point we wouldn't have been sending anything to anyone because we were fishy ourselves and were at the point where the transaction was becoming ridiculous.) So we are basically out the whole amount we "sold" the truck for. We notified the Secret Service about all this and they are trying to track down these guys with the information we have. I RECOMMEND TO ALL WHO HAVE FALLEN PREY TO THIS SCAM OR ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF A SCAM TO CONTACT THE SECRET SERVICE. SAVE ALL YOUR MONEYGRAM TRACKING NUMBERS, "BUYER OR AGENT" NAMES, ADDRESSES, PHONE NUMBERS, FAX NUMBERS. THIS WILL GIVE THE SECRET SERVICE SOMETHING TO WORK WITH. AS OF RIGHT NOW, THEY ARE USING OUR MONEYGRAM TRACKING NUMBERS AND A FAX NUMBER TO FIND OUT WHERE THE MONEYGRAM CAME FROM, AND TO REVIEW MONEYGRAM STORE TAPES TO FIND OUT THE IDENTITY OF THE PERSON OR PERSONS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS. Like the others on this site, we too know we're not stupid and we thought we'd never fall victim to a scam. It angers and irritates me that people are able to get away with stuff like this. It's just unfortunate that more people aren't aware of this scam. We will try to get this information out to all the people we can so they will know about it and be on the lookout. Hopefully this will help someone else before it's too late. Janelle

FROM THE SELLER (10-22-04):

Hi, I sent you an email on October 12, 2004 about a man that was trying to run an auto scam on us. He claims to live in Holland. He sent us a check for $35,0000, which the bank checked and said that it was countefiet. Since then, this man continues to email us and call our home. I received an email from him tonight stating that someone "tampered with" his pritvate email id and he now has a new email account, that account is mill_butt12@yahoo.com. We have ignored his emails and phone calls, and reported him to the local police department. But, this is getting very scary. He still thinks that we are going to send him money and the car. Fat chance! Please warn others about this email address.

And these guys never quit, they just change their Email address...

FROM THE SELLER (10-12-04):

After reading your web site, we realized that we were in the middle of being scamed. This man is from Holland, and was trying to buy our classic car. He sent us a check for $35,000, asking us to send $7,000 to the transporter and $24,000 was for the car. We asked what the extra was for and did not get a response from him. After we deposited the check, we told him that we had to wait 14 business days for the check to clear before we could send any money. He started sending us emails urging us to send at least $2,000 right away so the transporter could get a document started. He also started to call our home. The check, a cashiers check from the State of Florida turned out to be fake. After reading your web site, we called the police immediately and contacted the bank. Luckily, we did not send any money or the car to him. Thank you for the important information you provided. Please add the following email address to your list of scam artist: mill_butt20@yahoo.com.

FROM THE SELLER (10-22-04): This is the eMail the SCAMMER sent...

I write to inform you that your price of $28,000.00 has been accepted for the car and i hope the engine is serviced and oil changed too.However,my client made out a US certified cashiers check before he travelled to japan on a business trip,for a previous vehicle and its shipp ment charges etc,but it was unfortunately sold.The amount on the check he deposited for the vehicle before he left is bigger than what should be paid to you now, so the check is now meant for the total expenses which includes the purchase of your vehicle,the pickup of the vehicle from its present location and the shipping charges/other necessary shipping arrangements.So we want to know if we shall carry on with that.I will get back to you as soon as i conclude issues with him.Please get back to us as soon as you recieve this. Thanks, Frankie.”

FROM THE SELLER: DR ALEX

I am selling a 2000 Jeep grand Cherokee on CarsDirect.com, and here are the two e-mails this guy wrote: (All emails are cut and pasted, to show poor grammar and type-o's)

Dear Friend,

My name is DR Alex Ford am intresented in buying your fairly used car .I hereby request that you send the pictures via my e-mail so that i can ascertain the condition before making my order. what is the firm price? am looking forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

Thanks and have a nice day.

DR Alex.

I responded with:

Sir,

I will send you out some pictures ASAP. Thank you for your interest! Is there any area of the Jeep that you would like me to concentrate on or give you particular detail of? Thanks again for your interest!

Steve

He replied:

Dear Friend,

Thanks for your prompt response,well my pre-paid agent from my shipping company will do the inspection on the car.

All i need to know now is your firm price so that payment arrangement can commence.

Please get back to me.

DR Alex.

And I responded:

No problem at all. The Jeep's price is $16,500, which gives it a clear title. Let me know if I can be of further assistance and if this agreeable.

Thanks,

Steve

And last but not least, he responded with this:

DEAR FRIEND,

THANK YOU FOR YOUR E-MAIL. MY REFUNDABLE COMPANY WILL BE SENDING YOU A CASHIER CHECK OF $23,000 DEDUCT THE COST OF YOUR $16, 500 AND SEND BALANCE VIA WESTERN UNION MONEY TRANSFER TO MY SHIPPING COMPANY HEAD OFFICE IN CANADA FOR SHIPPMENT.I WILL LIKE YOU TO SEND ME YOUR FULL MAILLING ADDRESS AND YOUR PHONE NUMBER, NAME SO THAT PAYMENT CAN BE SEND WITHOUT ANY FURTHER DELAY .

THANKS DR ALEX

OBVIOUSLY this clown is the same as the rest! His e-mail is alexford1960@yahoo.co.uk. Hopefully this saves someone some trouble...I am in the Air Force and have forwarded the information to Air Force Office of Special Investigations. I will accept his payment, all while his IP address is being tracked and traced and when I receive his fraudulent check it will be examined and verified as false or real. From there, AFOSI will quickly treat this as fraud against a military member...carrying much heavier penalties. It seems at least one guy will be taken out of the loop. Hope this helps in case this character is operating against someone in the meantime!

Sell your custom ride at ThundersGarage.com

FROM THE SELLER: My name is Melanie (3-29-04)

Oh boy, I knew the minute I saw this one it was a scam:

OK, so my husband and I are in the middle of getting new cars. We sold his '01 Corvette 2 weeks ago and bought me a new Jetta. He's been driving my '97 Honda Civic, waiting on the car he wants to come in (Acura TL). We're supposed to pick the Acura up on Thursday.

What my husband REALLY wanted was an Audi A4 S4. WAAAAAYY too much money. He saw some used ones online that were '04s, all about $48-$52K. So, he sees this one, a 2004, with only 954 miles on it. It's $28K, which is REALLY low. HUGE RED FLAG went off in my head; I know Audis well. I thought something was wrong with the car. According to Auto Trader, the guy was 300 miles away, in Indiana. My husband was willing to drive from Detroit to Indiana to look at it.

So, he emails the guy. We get an email back today, and this guy is in ITALY. Supposedly, he brought the car with him to Italy when he moved. In Europe, it's not street legal (according to their standards Mr. Indiana-Italy says--my husband is a car designer and is familar with that sort of thing, so thus far he was a believer). Then he started talking about high import taxes (um, since the car is WITH you in Italy, wouldn't you have already paid that?). He was telling my husband about how the shipping costs for the car were included in the price (pricey! If I were shipping a $50K+ car to the states with less than 1000 miles on it, I'd ask for a whole lot more than $28K.)

OK, so here's the email my husband got from the guy, just the 2nd we've recieved from him. The first was him telling us he was in Italy, and my husband just responded with a "no thanks, I want to see what I buy before I put any money into it" and this is what we got:

"I have to tell you that I have other serious offers that I have to consider and I will make a decision regarding this sale function or time of payment and price. The price I hope to obtain is $28.000 (this price includes the shipping and insurance because I am willing to cover the air freight to the USA) and if you agree with this price we can start to complete the transaction. The payment must be done using a money order service. I prefer money order because in this way I will ship the S4 in the same day you make the payment. During the time I learned that the best deals are closed when the risk involved is minimum. You will arrange payment through Western Union (www.WesternUnion.com). In case you want to ship you the car right now you have to make me a confirmation for 15% of the amount of money ($4200) and after you receive and inspect the S4 you have to send me the rest of the money. The inspection period for it is 10 days. In this time, you can check the car and register it under your name. Look what I can do for you:

- You will make the transfer to my location but not to my name (you will use your best friends name for example as receiver's name) so you can be sure that I will not pick up the money until you get the car. So you make a deposit at Western Union and you will give me the transfer's details (MTCN, SENDER'S NAME, RECEIVER'S NAME) so I can check that the deposit was made. After I verify I will send you the car immediately.

- Only after you will receive the car and check it if it ok you will have to change the receiver's name of the transfer to my name so I can collect my money. So until you will have the car in your hands the money will be deposited on your best friend's name at Western Union agent.

I think it is better to not inform Western Union that you will change the receiver's name in a few days because it is possible they ask you to pay the fees twice (fees that are quite big for such an amount). When you will go to the Western Union office to wire the money sometimes they ask you why are you doing that. If you will tell them that they are for something you have bought, I will have to pay when I pick up the money a very expensive tax for making commerce. Please say you send the money to your friends or to your partner.

Also, I can accept 2000$ through from the amount prior and in this case I will take you as a serious and possible buyer and arrange a further deal but in this case you have to come in person to the car's location to see the car and take it back with you or you can send a friend or agent that lives near by to inspect the car and pay the rest of the money.

If you are agree with this method you can transfer the 2000$ from your home using your credit card via phone calling 1-800 CALL CASH service of Western Union that is a free of charge phone number and is available 24 H a day.

After you've completed the transfer you will receive a confirmation that will allow me to track the transfer. Here are the details that I need:

- Sender's Name and address
- Receiver's name will be me
- Exact amount wired
- MTCN # (10 digits)
- If it is possible a scanned copy of the receipt format .JPEG for me to add to the files

As soon as the payment will be confirmed and the money properly sent, I will IMMEDIATELY proceed with shipping if you sent me the 15% of the amount or I will hold the car for you if you've deposited only 2000$.

In case you've payed the 15% of money I will ship the car via Lufthansa Airplane Cargo insured and it will take 72 hours until you will have it at your door. The shipping is free. The shipping taxes will cost around USD 2600, but of course that I will cover them.

The 15% of payment are fully refundable if for any reason you do not accept the car or if the car has scratches, hidden defects, or it is not as advertised. I will even pay for the shipping back to my location if you reject the car but since it is a state of the art AUDI and works and looks perfectly I think it would get to this."

And guess what? About 10 minutes after recieving this email, the car was no longer on Auto Trader, although it was still on the other 3 sites we found it on. My husband had searched all over like mad, because, conviently, the first ad had a wrong telephone number. Imagine that.
Regards,
Melanie

FROM THE SELLER: Richard (10-14-04) - This is the lamest one yet!

hello
i am mr smith i am a business man in the unitedkingdon i saw your advertisment and i am interested in buying it i will like to purchase this products of yours < car> which i do not know the price or the amount you are seelling it, and i will like you to tell me the price to the product bcos i am interested buying it i will like to knwow if you have the picture of the product you can send it to me with the price of the product also i want your interest over this product of your if you will like to sell it to me also i will like to know my method of payment bcos i will like to pay you with a centified cheque and also i want you u to know that i will take care of the shippment by our personal shipping agent company that will take care of the shippment.soi will be looking forward to ur responds asap. thanks regards
smith......

FROM THE SELLER: My name is Mark (3-28-04)

Hey Thunder,
Someone's trying to rip me off. I'm currently selling a car at Yahoo Autos. I knew the response I was getting from one potential buyer was "fishy" but I just thought I'd string him along and see how far he'd go with it. I just found your site, and I'm amazed at how similar the stories are. Here's the scammer's last e-mail to me (his e-mail address is hammatan_t@hotmail.com):

Hi,
Thank You for your response,i contacted my client and he said i should go ahead with the transaction,that the agent coming to pick the car will take care of the car fan and the ac problem so he said that i should tell you to send your contact address to recieve the cheque and your phone number so that you will get paid by nextweek ,that he would send the cheque of $15,500 so you would deduct your car money which is $9,200 and you would send the remaining $6,300 through money gram money transfer for the shipping of the car and for the commission of the agent,so the agent would come for the inspecting and picking of the car.
Thanks
Hamman

Needless to say, I simply responded with, "I'm sorry, but I'm no longer interested in this transaction."

Of course, Yahoo and their lousy customer service give us practically no way to alert them to this problem, other than through e-mail, and who knows if they'll ever respond to me.

Anyway, thanks for your site. I feel really bad for the people who are getting ripped off.
Mark

FROM THE SELLER: My name is Susan (3-8-04)

Hi Thunder,

I came across your website while searching Google for information on internet auto scams. Fortunately, I have not been "taken" yet, but I currently have someone trying to negotiate with me, by email, for a car I have advertised on the net. This individual has sounded pretty fishy all along, and I'm getting more suspicious by the moment. I have not given any personal info to this person, nor my address, etc. I've been approached by several obvious scam artists about the car, as well as other things I have advertised on the 'net in the past. So, I'm on alert. The one apparently trying to scam me sounds very typical of the ones listed on your site, and others. With one exception. The one contacting me says she is in New Jersey, instead of overseas like the usual ones. Her earlier emails presented that she, herself, is interested in the car, with no mention of an agent, or client, or anyone else being involved, except that she will be having a "hauler" transport the car to her. She has negotiated, and has made a firm offer.

Now, today, her email has asked if I will accept a (here it comes) cashier's check. And, of course, the "buyer" now has a "client" who owes her $8200.(I was selling the car for $6400). As I expected, I am supposed to "deduct" my $6400, and send the balance to the shipper. I might also mention that the spelling and grammar are very poor, including mis-spelling "New Jersey." My apparently gullible Credit Union, who holds a lien on the car, has advised me to accept a cashier's check, as they feel that is the "safest" way to receive payment. My instincts are telling me otherwise. Has anyone else reported being approached by a party within the US like this? This proposed transaction has all of the classic scam characteristics, except one: the New Jersey part. If anyone is willing to email me, I'd really appreciate your advice. Would requiring payment in the form of a Western Union wire transfer offer any protection, if this IS a scam as I suspect? I am like most people who are trying to sell a car: I would really like to sell it, and hesitate to turn down a sale if it is legitimate, by some chance. Anyway, thanks for reading this novel, if you're still with me.
Susan in Mississippi.

FROM THE SELLER: My name is Craig (3-3-04)

Thanks to you I won't be scamed. Just read your postings. A guy was trying to buy my boat thank God I was leary to begin with!
Thanks alot! Craig.

FROM THE SELLER: Eh Moo (2-27-04)

I posted my car for sale on carsoup.com through FOX net work. This guy named Peter White contacted me through email saying he’s in UK and is interested in buying my car for $5700. Since my other prospect buyers fell through, I decided to go with him. To make the long story shorter, he sent me a money order for $10200. The Fed Ex package came from Austin Ogun of Nigeria. I was just thinking at the time that may be he’s a car dealer and he’s buying a car for someone. I was supposed to deposit $5700 for my car and send $4500 through money gram at Longs Drugs to the shipper. I was to send him a reference # and details of the money gram to “Peter” for the shipper Paul Hendlsen from Canada to pick up the money gram. Then he writes me saying he's no longer interested in my car b/c his mom died so he wants the rest of the money back for his mom’s burial and to keep $1000 for my time and God bless and all that. I was not interested in the money and at this time I started to suspect that something was terribly wrong. I talked to a friend of mine and he was sure that it was a scam and that the money order was fake and that the bank will not be able to find out that it didn’t clear until a few weeks later since it was out of the country. I found out later that somehow, he was able to get that money out with a fake ID probably or may be he has a net work of people working for him. Basically, $10200 that I deposited was not deposited at all and that I sent this guy $4500 of my own money. I called money gram to stop the process but it was already funded. I went into bank of America to see if I can find a copy of that money order and they don’t even have a copy of it b/c they believe it was physically pulled out later b/c someone suspected it was a fraud. I wish it didn’t go through when the teller scanned it through the other day but since I had enough money in my account I guess it went through. I just had deposited that money b/c I got some money back from my tax refund and we were going to use it to pay for our credit card debt. Anyways, at this time “Peter White” was still trying to get the rest of the money and he wouldn’t send me his address but told me to go to western union to send him another money transfer. I told him I won't send him the rest of his money until his money order clears. He called me trying to get the rest of “his” money so I asked him for his phone # but he didn’t give it. He asked me questions like are you being coached by someone? Is someone there with you? I knew I was never going to see this money again so I was just very angry at this time and told him I still won’t send his money until it clears. Ever since then, he has not responded to my emails. Although I kept evidence of our emails and saved a voice mail message from him, not sure what the police department can do. Right now, I’m just waiting for my bank to send me a notification that the money order did not go through, BIG SURPRISE.

I’m writing all this because I need your help to spread this to people so that may be my experience will help someone else so that they will not be fooled like I was. I don’t see myself as a gullible person but I feel like the situation was out of my hands and that ignorance about these things was what hurt me most. I’m praying for peace and that God will use me to help others. I will not allow this incident to disrupt my life any further or for this guys to take away my joy or peace. Money comes and go but I think what we do with our experiences to help others will count most. I know God will get His revenge and that man and his associates will be punished one way or another. Just wanted to share this story to help others be aware.

Thanks, Eh Moo ( I'm sure your story will help others who might end up in your spot) BT

FROM THE SELLER: My name is Chuck

I own the 84 Ford 4x4 van listed for sale in Idaho. I just returned from my bank and a two hour long conversation with the Banks Corporate Fraud Investigator. The Investigator documented the $12,000.00 check I received written on The New York Chase Bank as a Fraudulent check. The Scam Artists operate out of Nigeria, but have agents in the United States to send the bogus checks. All communications are handled through Nigeria via e-mail and through special translator telephone operators.

Here is the way it works...

This Nigerian buyer has their agent send you a BOGUS Money Order, Cashiers Check, Travelers Check, etc. for TWICE the selling price of your vehicle. The Seller cashes the bogus check and is instructed to send the overage to Nigeria to cover overseas shipping costs. The kicker is, these Money Orders, etc. are good COUNTERFEITS. However when they don't clear for payment to your Bank you can and will be held liable to re-pay the bank.

The Fraud investigator told me that he had handled over 20 such frauds for my bank in The Boise area alone. I also found that we consumers are held liable for seven (7) years in these kinds of cases. Looks like hard cash is the best / safest way to go these days.

P.S. - Thanks for providing us Van People with a means to communicate, Chuck

Here is another one...

hello,

thanks for the information. i am currently not in the united states for now but as soon as i make payment i shall ask my wife to come pick it up.

here:s my contact address in us.

1221 wood stream rd,
reno nevada usa.

but right now i am in japan (Asia) however be aware that i wish to pay for the car with a certified cashier check, this reason is because a company in canada is indepted to me hat is owing me the sum of USD$30,000 and it is from this money i wish to pay for the car. since you are selling the car for USD$11,000 andi am paying you from the check. i want to tell the company to send the check to you, so that when you receive the check you go and cash it remove your money and send me the balance. i mean when you receive the check and cash the money you remove your money for the car and send me the balance of USD$19,000

WELL AT THIS POINT I ONLY WANT YOU TO BE TRUST WORTHY I WANT YOU TO MAKE SURE THAT AS SOON AS YOU RECEIVE THE CHECK YOU:RE SENDING ME THE BALANCEOF THE MONEYWHICH I WANT TO USE FOR SOME IMPORTANT THINGS RIGHT HERE IN JAPAN. I NEED TO CONFIDE IN YOU TO BE TRUST WORTHY. IF YOU AGREE WITH THIS ISHALL NOT HESITATE TO CALL THE COMPANY TO SEND YOU THE CHECK,

THANKS LAWRENCE

LOL, this guy has a really good grasp of the English language doesn't he? BT

FROM THE SELLER: Jarvel

We have our car for sale online for $11,000 and received this inquiry. It smelled fishy, and thanks to your website, we now understand how the "scam" was supposed to work. Thanks for your efforts!! Hopefully no one will get fooled by these jerks.
Regard's, Jarvel

Here is the letter...

My client who said he's interested your car has promised to be buying it and will be issuing a check of $18,500 and you deduct the amount of your car which is $11,000,after which you will send the difference via westernunion money transfer to P.A here in UK to settle our shipper to book us for their cargo, come over to your place to pick the car up and get it transported to the UK. To bring to your attention,It only takes (24HRS) for a American certified check to get cash in the US.So,i will like to know if i can count on you to send the difference of the check to my P.A as soon as the check get to you and verified.To make things fast and convenient for the both of us,i will like you to give me the exact name you want on the check.....Your mailing address....(Street,City,State and zip code) and your Phone # so i can forward it to my client to start with the procurement of the check and won't mind to engage in a long lasting business relationship.
Thanks and hope to hear from you soon.

FROM THE SELLER: John

Dear Thunder,
I was nearly a victim of fraudulent check writing scheme through your website. I have my van listed with Thunder’s Garage, which I think is great, and I have had a lot of response to my listing. I just wanted to let you know so that you can for-warn others. The person who solicited me, for the purchase of my van is a guy name Larry Walex, he represented himself as an agent, with a buyer who was interested in my van. He offered to pay me $7,000 for my vehicle, but would send me $13,000 of which I was supposed to forward the remaining amount to his shipping agent in London. Well I received the check yesterday, went to cash it today, and found out that the check was a false cashiers check, written from CNB Bank out of Lake City, Florida. The bank didn’t exist at that location, and the account from which the check was written from did not exist. This is just for you information, and maybe you could inform you listings that this could happen. What ever you do, never send cash on to a buyer, or hand over title to your vehicle until the check clears. I love your website, it’s just too bad that there are people out there like this.
Sincerely,
John in Oregon

Here is the letter...

From: seamoore shippingagentconsultant [seamoore_shippingagentconsultant@yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, December 22, 2003 2:40 PM
Subject: RE: SEAMOORE SHIPPING AGENT

Dear sir/ma,
Well, we like your response and we have forward our SENIOR ACCOUNTANT information to Mr Walex who take care of all our finacial project and our funds. We want you to forward the payment to us today because we have shedule our program concerning this pick up and we have told Mr Walex that we will come for the pick up on wednesday we want you to forward us part pyment $2550 so we can start to prepare our movement to your place and for the signing of papers with document and after the cheque clears in your banking system then you will forward us the remain funds, because we are set to leave united kindom for the pick up and before XMAS came in. Because we still have another consignment for Mr Walex to ship so we want you to forward the part payment to us ? because Mr Walex is the only costomer that delayeing our movement for the pick up. So try as much as you can today to forward the payment to today, and we are told about the Mr Walex daughter that in the hospital pls sir try and forward the funds to us today.....

(SEAMOORE SHIPPING)......
REGARDS SIR/MA

FROM THE SELLER: Josh - (2-5-04)

Dear Thunder,
I too, was almost involved in one of these scams... this web site just confirmed my suspicion. I am a college student trying to sell my old truck(1950 chevy), and this guy wanted it in U.K. He'd never find parts over there, ha ha I can't find them here. I appreciate the heads up.
Josh

Here is the letter...

Hello Josh,
thanks for your mail i want you to know that i'm okay with the $14,000 asking price. Inrespect of payment i have a client in the U.S who is owing me $20,000. All i need to do to make payment easier and faster is to instruct him to procure a cashiers check and mail it to you on the address and name you want on the check and you know it takes 24hrs for a cashiers check to clear in the U.S. But i would want to know if i can trust you to send my balance to me via western union or money gram after the money must have cleared in your bank to enable me prepay the shipping company here so that they can instruct their office in the U.S to come and pickup the 1950 5window chevy 3100 pickup from your location.pls mail me asap to enable me arrange payment.Furnish me with your name and address,so i will forward it to my client for payment.

Thanks,
Mark

S E L L E R S B E W A R E ! !

ON A GOOD NOTE...

Hey Thunder,

I do have a good story for ya regarding the sale of my van. After reading about all of the internet scams I was a little wary. I did receive many emails from out of the country asking about the van, especially from Holland. I even got a couple phone calls from there. Finally, a guy called me from L.A. and he wanted to come see the van. He showed up and looked at it and then made me an offer. Turns out he was from Holland and wanted to ship it home, his father owned a car dealership there and they imported large American cars and converted them to run on propane. He said there were tax breaks for driving large commercial vehicles so they were quite popular. He also offered to pay cash, but he didn't have it all with him so he wanted me to deliver it to Long Beach so he could pay me and ship the vehicle immediately. I agreed to meet him in 2 days. After he left the warning lights started going off in my head so I called the next day and canceled the deal. He was really mad, but I told him forget it and hung up.

The very next morning he showed up on my porch with cash in hand! So I had to explain to him why I was hesitant, he understood. He has been exporting cars out of the US for 5 yrs now but the internet scams have made it very difficult for him to do business. Of course I checked each bill to make sure it had the watermarks, safety thread etc. He was legit. I felt kinda bad for not trusting this guy, but not too bad!

Anyhow, here is their website if you want to take a look. It is all in Dutch but I had a friend from the Netherlands read it for me and it echoed everything this guy had told me.

http://www.usacar.nl/

Anyhow, I thought you might enjoy my story. Thanks for your help. Jimmy

FUN WITH AUTO SCAMMERS...

I thought your readers at ThundersGarage.com would enjoy the thought of these guys getting a little payback!

I almost fell for one of these scams. Everyone here seems to be buying or selling cars or trucks. Personally, I was trying to sell my Harley-Davidson.

I caught on to the scam quickly. It seems there are so many out there running the same scam these days, that they almost trip over each other. My first week of running the ad got me 1 legitimate local person interested in my bike and 15 scam artists! More followed week after week. All basically said, I am from "where ever" and I want to buy your bike. My friend/cousin/business partner/agent/rich uncle lives there in the USA and will be sending payment by cashier check. and so on and so on (you all know the basic story by now)......... Instead of getting mad I decided to have a bit of fun! Being the private type of guy I am, I have one of those "Mailbox Express" deals where you basically go to a strip-mall type establishment to pick up your mail. Kind of like a post office box but with a fancier address. I figured, they wont have my actual street address so I saw no problem with proceeding.

I played along with every email! A couple of them asked for pics, but most didn't. Some were written in choppy English and some were rather well written. It became like a game to break up the occasional boredom. I would get a check here and there from them. They asked for everything from $2000 to ship to England, to $4400 to ship to Canada. I always agreed to the deal no matter how insane and unrealistic it sounded! Sometimes I'd even add fuel to the fire by saying "this is the first thing I have ever sold on the internet". I loved when they would go as far as to tell me how trustworthy they were and not to worry about a thing. Of course as soon as I would email them saying that I had received their check, the usual sob story would begin! There was always an emergency reason to try to rush the wire transfer to the "receiver/"shippers" info" that they had emailed me 2 weeks before I ever even received the check. Some even forgot the concept of the original scam. My personal favorite story was of a "buyer's" pregnant wife that was injured in a car accident, and that I needed to wire the money right away so that he could pay the doctor so his wife wouldn't lose their unborn child. (Wasn't the transfer supposed to be to a shipping company to start with???) After a while I figured out a new twist to my devious little anti-scam. I actually gave them my real cell phone number! I know that sounds a bit stupid at first..........(but I had a plan!) I'd write and say I sent the wire transfer, send them basically the same info they sent me such as the receiver's name, address, and I'd even throw in a bogus transfer number that I would make up. Within 24 hours I would have an email saying "you must have mistyped the transfer/control number." or " please fax me a copy of the receipt/order, I'm having trouble getting the money from the wire service". Anyway, there was always an easy reason to tell them to call me. And why wouldn't they? They potentially had thousands of dollars at stake. Their greed always got them to dial my number. They were more than willing to call to rush the process along. It was hilarious to here them say (in their heavy heavy middle-eastern accents) this is Christian Thomas or Steven Commer, or whatever american-like name they would give themselves.

Usually I would answer and say "yes this is Bob" (no, never my real name in the emails or on the phone). I would usually say "yes I wired the money,........I seem to be having trouble with my phone connection..... If I lose you, call me right back!!!" (Are you starting to see the beauty of my plan?)

I swear, I could get them to call back to back 4 to 5 times on average. Once I even had this guy call me back no less than 15 times! Each time I would hang up in mid-sentence. Usually while in the middle of saying something "important", other times I would tell them to "hold on" and just lay the phone down and leave it. The longer I could make the phone call last and the more times I could make them call me back, the better my plan would work!!!! At times I would play dumb and make them try to repeatedly explain what the problem was in their funny, choppy, broken English. Other times I would plain make fun of them by mocking their accent, or asking if they ever owned/rode camels, or worked at a hotel or quickie-mart. My favorites were asking if they were kin to Bin Laden or Saddam, or if wearing a towel on top of their ugly balding heads helped get them more coochie, and of course I'd try to interject as often as possible that I think Jesus could kick Alla's butt any day of the week, or that their women must be nauseatingly ugly to make them keep their faces covered like that all the time? Any insulting thing I could say was "fair game" after all they were trying to rip me off.

The moral of the story that I was trying to get to was simply this........All of the incoming calls on my cell phone were FREE so it didn't cost me a single dime to harass, degrade, insult and just all around piss them off,.............. but can you imagine how BIG of a phone bill THOSE GUYS were racking up in overseas connection fees and all the minutes they were paying those "THROUGH-THE-NOSE, OUTRAGEOUS, INTERNATIONAL RATES!!!!!!

I never gave in! I never admitted that I didn't send the money! I would always make THEM give up! It usually ended with a rude letter to me saying that "I" had scammed "THEM"! (can you believe the nerve of some people?) I even had one guy write and say that he had contacted the FBI and that they were coming to my address to "handle me" and collect his money for him.

To end my adventure, I can tell you that right here next to my desk, taped to my wall, I have not one, not two, but twenty-seven fake checks and bo