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Classified Ad Scams: buy a Toyota
2005 Toyota Corolla LE
Scams and scammers using these names: Mark Robinson, ccc, the U.S. military, but presently in the U.K., and going to Iraq soon
"I apologize for the delay, I'm in the military and now I am in United Kingdom and that's why I couldn't reply in time. If you are still interested in buying it, I'm asking $5,350."
Are you looking to buy a Toyota?
Did "Mark Robinson" claiming to be from the U.S. military, but presently in the U.K., and going to Iraq soon contact you? Note that he says:
"I apologize for the delay, I'm in the military and now I am in United Kingdom and that's why I couldn't reply in time. If you are still interested in buying it, I'm asking $5,350. It has a clean title, very well maintained, always garage kept, no rust, excellent condition, runs and sounds 100% perfect with no leaks or noises. All power and optional equipments are working perfect. I have to sell this car as fast as I can because in three weeks I will be in Iraq".
That's a clue to a scam right there!
Here are the clues that this is a scam:
- The scammers NEVER can meet in person. They may have a $50,000
boat to sell to you or want to buy a $45,000 car from you, but somehow they
are always "out of the country" on business, in in the army, whatever.
In the real world, anyone buying or selling something for more than a few
hundred dollars, wants to see it first. And especially when renting a
house or apartment!
- The price is absurdly low.
- Next, he will want to write a check in excess of the required amount. Why?
That makes no sense at all. If he hasn't got a bank account, he could always
pay in cash or get a money order.
- Then, he wants the "excess" from the check sent BACK to him or
to other individuals, often in many different locations, and always by Western
Union or Money Gram! Alarm bells should be going off by now. Western Union
wires and Moneygrams are not only untraceable, they're irretrievable. Once the
recipient picks them up (which can be done at ANY Western Union office in
the world), the money is gone, gone, gone!
- And then there are the little clues; signs like the strange name and
location changes.
Maybe, first he's "David Rapheal", then he's suddenly Shawn Nickolas, supposedly in
England, yet the first name has an American spelling and the last name is
spelled more like an Eastern European or Germanic origin.
- The scammers typically ramble on about issues ("I apologize for the delay, I'm in the military and now I am in United Kingdom and that's why I couldn't reply in time. If you are still interested in buying it, I'm asking $5,350. It has a clean title, very well maintained, always garage kept, no rust, excellent condition, runs and sounds 100% perfect with no leaks or noises. All power and optional equipments are working perfect. I have to sell this car as fast as I can because in three weeks I will be in Iraq") that are irrelevant
to such a sale or rental; such as, how they are doing this for charity, or
recently moved to the UK, or are traveling in Africa right now. You as
a seller / landlord, don't and shouldn't care about these issues: you are
trying to find a legitimate buyer or renter for your item at a fair market
price. The scammer knows this and is merely trying to cloud the issue
and provide excuses for not complying with the basic requirements of a sale.
He's also trying to engender trust; one of the key elements of any con game.
- Scammers frequently refer to "trust", "faith" and God; in ways that no
rational person in western Society would ever do in a business transaction,
as in, "I know I can trust you", or "my faith in God tells me to enter this
agreement with you".
An actual email that illustrate this type of newspaper classified ad scam:
Any highlighted passages below
are to draw your attention to typical scam clues:
Email 1 - from the victim:
I inquired about this car for sale from my local
paper. Here is the email response. This guy has not been caught, and I
dont know if anyone else has been scammed by him. If you look at the price,
you will see, its too good to be true. My son was a victim of a Paypal UK
scam in the past, so fortunately, we knew better
Email 2 - from the scammer:
Hi,
I'm Mark Robinson, you inquired about my 2005 Toyota
Corolla LE (VIN: 2T1BR32E65C447860).
I apologize for the delay, I'm in the military and
now I am in United Kingdom
and that's why I couldn't reply in time. If you are still interested in
buying it, I'm asking $5,350.
It has a clean title, very well maintained, always garage kept, no rust,
excellent condition, runs and sounds
100% perfect with no leaks or noises. All power and optional
equipments are working perfect. I have to sell this car as fast as I can
because in three weeks I will be in Iraq and I think I'll stay there for a
while that's why I'm selling it so cheap. I intend to buy a new car when
I'll get back home. If you want to buy the car,
I can ship for free within US with
one of our military airplanes so you don't have to worry about the
distance. If you are interested we can use a third party escrow broker,
Moneybookers (http://www.moneybookers.com/app/help.pl?s=escrow),
to secure the transaction and to handle this whole process for us. Using a
reputable E-Commerce third party escrow company will secure the transaction
and you will receive the car before I'll get paid and of course I'm also
covered because the funds will be kept safety into the escrow account. This
is the best way for me even if I'll have to pay some extra money for their
services. I'll cover the broker's fee and like I've explained, the shipping
will be free because I can use one of our airplanes here and I don't have to
pay anything. Let me know if you are interested. You can see some pics on
the following link from my personal page:
http://picasaweb.google.com/MrkRb1/CorollaLE
You'll love the car, I can guarantee you that!
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