Scam warning to everyone!!!!
08-31-07, 02:49 PM
#46
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yeah, it was a:
1989 Nissan 240sx fastback
Sr20Det engine
2.2 liter Tomei upgrade
Tomei Crank Shaft
Tomei Pistons
Tomei Connecting Rods
Tomei Valve Springs and valve spring retainer
Kouki Tail lights
Kouki rear Wing
PIAA HID 6000K
Recarro SRD black seats X 2
Takata 4point harness
Nardi steering wheel
Nismo pedals
Nismo Carbon Fiber shift ****
Tein HA and HR coilovers
Super Avdan II 18" staggered custom gunmetal powder coat
Nismo Oil cap
Nismo gas cap
RSR GTII exhaust
Warlboro fuel pump
optima battery
Koyo radiator
1989 Nissan 240sx fastback
Sr20Det engine
2.2 liter Tomei upgrade
Tomei Crank Shaft
Tomei Pistons
Tomei Connecting Rods
Tomei Valve Springs and valve spring retainer
Kouki Tail lights
Kouki rear Wing
PIAA HID 6000K
Recarro SRD black seats X 2
Takata 4point harness
Nardi steering wheel
Nismo pedals
Nismo Carbon Fiber shift ****
Tein HA and HR coilovers
Super Avdan II 18" staggered custom gunmetal powder coat
Nismo Oil cap
Nismo gas cap
RSR GTII exhaust
Warlboro fuel pump
optima battery
Koyo radiator
09-01-07, 04:14 AM
#47
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Location: California
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I actually went through this a couple years back, never got to the point of me losing my car and getting arrested. I was selling a '88 Rx-7 TII. A guy contacted me saying that he was a business man, orignally from So Cal, said he was in the UK on business for a couple years and have always wanted a 2nd gen RX-7 turbo. I was asking $4200 for the car ans he told me he would send me a check for $9000 and he owed an associate $4800 dollars. he instructed me to cash the check keep my amount and then send a check for the $4800 to his business associate. Even arranged shipping of my car to the UK. Said all the importing of the car was to be handled by him. So we talked back and forth for a week or so, and the check comes in the mail. $9000 cashiers check, funny thing... came in a regular envelop, nothing special, but no return address. The cashiers check, looks real had a water mark and everything seemed legit, except the fact that it was hand-written. I've had a couple cashiers checks ranging from $100 to $8000 the $100 was hand writeen, and the $8000 one was printed. So this didn't seem entirely odd to me at the time, but $9000 hand written still seemed off.
Now when all this happened back in '03-'04 I guess it wasn't too known. I asked around no one knew anything about it. Seemed kind of odd to me, I could have just taken the whole 9k right? Could never get caught, so anyway I wasn't so sure about this. So I printed out all the e-mails from him, took the check and envelop and everything down to my bank. I told them about the e-mails and what he asked me to do. Showed them everything I had about it, even the paperwork for my car. The banker told me that this was a scam that was starting to show up, they send you a fake cashiers check, it'll deposit but it won't come up as fake until a bit after, everything seems real on it, but it is not. The idea is that you withdraw the money to send to the 'associate' and once it's sent, the check comes up as fake, you lose out on the money and by then your car is gone. He even said that my check seemed very real and that he could look into it to see if it was indeed real. So I left the check and the e-mails with him and he said he would call me back. I get a call a few days later and they ask me to come down to the bank so he could talk to me about it.
I almost get arrested, except the only thing is I never really tried to deposit it. I didn't come in and try to deposit it, therfore I was not trying to scam anybody. The officer and the banker told me if I had tried to deposit it I probably would have gotten arrested, but I did not, I came to them asking if I was getting scammed. I was then told that quite a few people have been taken by this scam and they had a guy that also used that particular bank get scammed out of $20,000 and his Benz, said I was lucky that something seemed off and I didn't go through with it. They also said there was an on-going investigation about these types of scams. I e-mailed the guy trying to play it off saying the check didn't go through and asked him to send me another (so I could give that to the bank/cops) but he never got back to me again.
From what I hear they will do this scam with anything. From cars to electronics. Don't really have any advice for you, I would try and contact a lawyer and see if anything could be done, maybe file a law suit against the bank/police. I mean they did take the check, which ultimately lead to you losing the car also. I would play on the fact that you did not transfer the title until it had cleared at the bank, from what you posted you and him were there together, bank cleared the check and then you transferred title, their fault you lost the car.
Now when all this happened back in '03-'04 I guess it wasn't too known. I asked around no one knew anything about it. Seemed kind of odd to me, I could have just taken the whole 9k right? Could never get caught, so anyway I wasn't so sure about this. So I printed out all the e-mails from him, took the check and envelop and everything down to my bank. I told them about the e-mails and what he asked me to do. Showed them everything I had about it, even the paperwork for my car. The banker told me that this was a scam that was starting to show up, they send you a fake cashiers check, it'll deposit but it won't come up as fake until a bit after, everything seems real on it, but it is not. The idea is that you withdraw the money to send to the 'associate' and once it's sent, the check comes up as fake, you lose out on the money and by then your car is gone. He even said that my check seemed very real and that he could look into it to see if it was indeed real. So I left the check and the e-mails with him and he said he would call me back. I get a call a few days later and they ask me to come down to the bank so he could talk to me about it.
I almost get arrested, except the only thing is I never really tried to deposit it. I didn't come in and try to deposit it, therfore I was not trying to scam anybody. The officer and the banker told me if I had tried to deposit it I probably would have gotten arrested, but I did not, I came to them asking if I was getting scammed. I was then told that quite a few people have been taken by this scam and they had a guy that also used that particular bank get scammed out of $20,000 and his Benz, said I was lucky that something seemed off and I didn't go through with it. They also said there was an on-going investigation about these types of scams. I e-mailed the guy trying to play it off saying the check didn't go through and asked him to send me another (so I could give that to the bank/cops) but he never got back to me again.
From what I hear they will do this scam with anything. From cars to electronics. Don't really have any advice for you, I would try and contact a lawyer and see if anything could be done, maybe file a law suit against the bank/police. I mean they did take the check, which ultimately lead to you losing the car also. I would play on the fact that you did not transfer the title until it had cleared at the bank, from what you posted you and him were there together, bank cleared the check and then you transferred title, their fault you lost the car.
09-04-07, 01:31 AM
#49
Lexus Champion
Man, what a story. He's probably chopped up the car and your parts are on ebay by now. I hope your insurance will cover the value of the car.
Good luck with everything and let us know what happens.
Good luck with everything and let us know what happens.
09-04-07, 07:47 AM
#50
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I actually went through this a couple years back, never got to the point of me losing my car and getting arrested. I was selling a '88 Rx-7 TII. A guy contacted me saying that he was a business man, orignally from So Cal, said he was in the UK on business for a couple years and have always wanted a 2nd gen RX-7 turbo. I was asking $4200 for the car ans he told me he would send me a check for $9000 and he owed an associate $4800 dollars. he instructed me to cash the check keep my amount and then send a check for the $4800 to his business associate. Even arranged shipping of my car to the UK. Said all the importing of the car was to be handled by him. So we talked back and forth for a week or so, and the check comes in the mail. $9000 cashiers check, funny thing... came in a regular envelop, nothing special, but no return address. The cashiers check, looks real had a water mark and everything seemed legit, except the fact that it was hand-written. I've had a couple cashiers checks ranging from $100 to $8000 the $100 was hand writeen, and the $8000 one was printed. So this didn't seem entirely odd to me at the time, but $9000 hand written still seemed off.
Now when all this happened back in '03-'04 I guess it wasn't too known. I asked around no one knew anything about it. Seemed kind of odd to me, I could have just taken the whole 9k right? Could never get caught, so anyway I wasn't so sure about this. So I printed out all the e-mails from him, took the check and envelop and everything down to my bank. I told them about the e-mails and what he asked me to do. Showed them everything I had about it, even the paperwork for my car. The banker told me that this was a scam that was starting to show up, they send you a fake cashiers check, it'll deposit but it won't come up as fake until a bit after, everything seems real on it, but it is not. The idea is that you withdraw the money to send to the 'associate' and once it's sent, the check comes up as fake, you lose out on the money and by then your car is gone. He even said that my check seemed very real and that he could look into it to see if it was indeed real. So I left the check and the e-mails with him and he said he would call me back. I get a call a few days later and they ask me to come down to the bank so he could talk to me about it.
I almost get arrested, except the only thing is I never really tried to deposit it. I didn't come in and try to deposit it, therfore I was not trying to scam anybody. The officer and the banker told me if I had tried to deposit it I probably would have gotten arrested, but I did not, I came to them asking if I was getting scammed. I was then told that quite a few people have been taken by this scam and they had a guy that also used that particular bank get scammed out of $20,000 and his Benz, said I was lucky that something seemed off and I didn't go through with it. They also said there was an on-going investigation about these types of scams. I e-mailed the guy trying to play it off saying the check didn't go through and asked him to send me another (so I could give that to the bank/cops) but he never got back to me again.
From what I hear they will do this scam with anything. From cars to electronics. Don't really have any advice for you, I would try and contact a lawyer and see if anything could be done, maybe file a law suit against the bank/police. I mean they did take the check, which ultimately lead to you losing the car also. I would play on the fact that you did not transfer the title until it had cleared at the bank, from what you posted you and him were there together, bank cleared the check and then you transferred title, their fault you lost the car.
Now when all this happened back in '03-'04 I guess it wasn't too known. I asked around no one knew anything about it. Seemed kind of odd to me, I could have just taken the whole 9k right? Could never get caught, so anyway I wasn't so sure about this. So I printed out all the e-mails from him, took the check and envelop and everything down to my bank. I told them about the e-mails and what he asked me to do. Showed them everything I had about it, even the paperwork for my car. The banker told me that this was a scam that was starting to show up, they send you a fake cashiers check, it'll deposit but it won't come up as fake until a bit after, everything seems real on it, but it is not. The idea is that you withdraw the money to send to the 'associate' and once it's sent, the check comes up as fake, you lose out on the money and by then your car is gone. He even said that my check seemed very real and that he could look into it to see if it was indeed real. So I left the check and the e-mails with him and he said he would call me back. I get a call a few days later and they ask me to come down to the bank so he could talk to me about it.
I almost get arrested, except the only thing is I never really tried to deposit it. I didn't come in and try to deposit it, therfore I was not trying to scam anybody. The officer and the banker told me if I had tried to deposit it I probably would have gotten arrested, but I did not, I came to them asking if I was getting scammed. I was then told that quite a few people have been taken by this scam and they had a guy that also used that particular bank get scammed out of $20,000 and his Benz, said I was lucky that something seemed off and I didn't go through with it. They also said there was an on-going investigation about these types of scams. I e-mailed the guy trying to play it off saying the check didn't go through and asked him to send me another (so I could give that to the bank/cops) but he never got back to me again.
From what I hear they will do this scam with anything. From cars to electronics. Don't really have any advice for you, I would try and contact a lawyer and see if anything could be done, maybe file a law suit against the bank/police. I mean they did take the check, which ultimately lead to you losing the car also. I would play on the fact that you did not transfer the title until it had cleared at the bank, from what you posted you and him were there together, bank cleared the check and then you transferred title, their fault you lost the car.
I was the unfortunate one. haha. Well, good news is, my lawyer finally took a a step and subpoena'd (dunno how to spell it) the city, and the city called him back with a settlement fee of my bail amount plus 1000$ for my embarassment and other factors. My lawyer told me I could get more if I actually took it to court...but since I still live in the city and I just don't want to cause any kind of tention between the law enforcement, I just agreed to it. All I wanted back was my bail amount anyways.
Thanks everyone for all your inputs. It helped me get my money back. I wasn't even thinking about hiring a lawyer until I heard all of your thoughts.
09-04-07, 01:31 PM
#51
Lexus Test Driver
Grats on getting the bail amount back, what about the status on the car tho?
09-06-07, 08:14 AM
#55
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You met this guy personally? What did he look like? You said something about Nigeria. Was he black? What car did he drive to look at your car? I'm sure you have his number, maybe they law enforcement can trase it somehow?
09-06-07, 08:29 AM
#57
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If you can find him somehow. Hire a private investigator and try to locate him. If you locate him you can take him to court and sue him or at the very least get your car back.
They can track him down from your license plates. If he changed them to a different plate number the DMV has his new info. The only problem is getting this information. Thats where you need to hire a lawyer/private investigator/etc.
When you filled out your pink slip. You have to fill out that top portion with his name and address and send to the DMV. Do you still have that address? Its probably fake but worth a try.
I've sold a few cars and everytime they gave me cash. The amount never exceeded 7K though. I might sell my IS in 2 years and no way I would expect anyone to give me 25k in cash so I will be nervous accepting a check.
They can track him down from your license plates. If he changed them to a different plate number the DMV has his new info. The only problem is getting this information. Thats where you need to hire a lawyer/private investigator/etc.
When you filled out your pink slip. You have to fill out that top portion with his name and address and send to the DMV. Do you still have that address? Its probably fake but worth a try.
I've sold a few cars and everytime they gave me cash. The amount never exceeded 7K though. I might sell my IS in 2 years and no way I would expect anyone to give me 25k in cash so I will be nervous accepting a check.
Last edited by gsrthomas; 09-06-07 at 08:33 AM.
09-06-07, 09:40 AM
#59
same thing almost happened to me with my wheels i posted on craigslist. they told me they had a shipper that will pick up the wheels and they agreed to pay my asking price. so the person sends me a cashiers check and puts more than my asking price and tells me to send the rest of the money to nigeria to his sick wife or something like that. so i went to a check cash place and said they couldnt cash it. so i tried to call the bank that the check was made out from and it just kept ringing and ringing. i was like something is fishy here. so i decide to go to my bank and cash it, the teller tells me it wont clear for 3 days, so i told the teller "ok, i came here to see if the check is legit". so three days later i find out its a fake and all this time the guy kept contacting me and asking me if i cashed the check. then he calls back after the check doesnt clear and i tell him it didnt clear, after telling him that he never called again. if i can remember i reported him on the FBI website. there is a section there to report fraudulent checks or whatnot.
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