There is no car for sale. There are stolen pictures of someone else's car.
There is only a scammer trying to steal your hard-earned money.
The next email will be from another of the scammer's fake names and free email addresses pretending to be "Google Wallet" and will demand you pay for shipping fees, in cash, and only by Western Union or moneygram. Or the scammer will want you to "prove" you have the funds by sending cash to a friend and sending him the MTCN#. The scammer then uses the MTCN# to pick up your cash and disappear.
Western Union and moneygram do not verify anything on the form the sender fills out, not the name, not the street address, not the country, not even the gender of the receiver, it all means absolutely nothing. The clerk will not bother to check ID and will simply hand off your cash to whomever walks in the door with the MTCN# and question/answer. Neither company will tell the sender who picked up the cash, at what store location or even in what country your money walked out the door. Neither company has any kind of refund policy, money sent is money gone forever
Now that you have responded to a scammer, you are on his 'potential sucker' list, he will try again to separate you from your cash. He will send you more emails from his other free email addresses using another of his fake names with all kinds of stories of great jobs, lottery winnings, millions in the bank and desperate, lonely, sexy singles. He will sell your email address to all his scamming buddies who will also send you dozens of fake emails all with the exact same goal, you sending them your cash via Western Union or moneygram.
You could post up the email address and the emails themselves that the scammer is using, it will help make your post more googlable for other suspicious potential victims to find when looking for information.
Do you know how to check the header of a received email? If not, you could google for information. Being able to read the header to determine the geographic location an email originated from will help you weed out the most obvious scams and scammers. Then delete and block that scammer. Don't bother to tell him that you know he is a scammer, it isn't worth your effort. He has one job in life, convincing victims to send him their hard-earned cash.
Whenever suspicious or just plain curious, google everything, website addresses, names used, companies mentioned, phone numbers given, all email addresses, even partial sentences from the emails as you might be unpleasantly surprised at what you find already posted online. You can also post/ask here and every scam-warner-anti-fraud-busting site you can find before taking a chance and losing money to a scammer.
If you google "Craigslist car seller scam", "fake truck sale scam Western Union", "fake car shipping company scam", "fake Google Wallet email" or something similar you will find hundreds of posts from victims and near-victims of this type of scam.
It is a scam. There is no car and she wont be shipping it. She is asking for money first. No one would do that for free. She can sell the car where she lives and not go to all the trouble of crating and shipping it. Dont be a goof. It is a fake deal.
Find a car in your local area. Dont buy sight unseen. It has to be checked by a mechanic.
EBAY Motors is legitimate, Auto Trader is good or your newspaper.
Why would she have to see such a deal out of state, with the added shipping costs ???
I know someone who stupidly wired $5000 to someone who had all the photos, paperwork, etc. and got screwed. Those fake sellers can just copy that stuff from a legit seller.
Onlty buy local where you can inspect the car before paying, play it smart and pay a mechanic to give it an inspection as well.
Of course it's a scam and Craiglist has warnings about this all over their site
Before you even look at vehicles, this comes up http://houston.craigslist.org/i/autos?&c...
If you chose to ignore that whole page, then on the top of every listing page it says in ALL CAPS and is underlined AVOID OFFERS TO SHIP VEHICLES
If that's still not enough to convince you this is a scam, then on every individual listing in red it says
"Avoid scams, deal locally! Do NOT wire funds (Western Union, Moneygram). Beware cashier checks, money orders, shipping, non-local buyers/sellers."
Not to mention Google Wallet has NOTHING to do with person to person transactions and does not allow car sales. Google Wallet is ONLY used by registered Google Merchants who have a Google Wallet Buy button on the payment page of their ecommerce site. THIS is Google Wallet http://www.google.com/wallet/how-it-work...
NEVER buy any car that you cannot see in person, test drive, have the mechanic of your choice inspect AND verify IN PERSON that the seller's license is the same name as on the title -- then have them sign the title over to you in front of a notary. if she is in Nebraska BY LAW she has to sign the title over to you in person IN NEBRASKA in front of a notary. If this is not done the sale is not legal and you don't own the car. So unless you are going to fly to Nebraska and meet her in person and have her sign that title over to you in front of a notary, you won't own any car you are paying for. She doesn't even have to send the car to you as you don't own it and you are paying $4500 for nothing with no way to get it back
SCAM...!!! I have seen this so many times.
If a deal makes your heart flutter but the product is not right in front of you are accessible right now.. SKIP IT...
Don't be an idiot. Of course it's a SCAM!
SCAM! SCAM! SCAM!
Don't get conned!
SCAM
Hi, I am looking to buy my first car. I found one that is a 2008 Mini Cooper. It has 17,500 miles, an automatic transmission, with a 4 Cyl 1.6L 1598CC l4 GAS DOHC Turbocharged engine, FWD, gold exterior and tan interior. She is asking $4500. She said she legally owns a clear title, free of any liens or loans, under my name. She said it is in very good shape, no known mechanical issues, without scratches or dents, and it has never been involved in any kind of accidents. She emailed photos of every side and inside of the car. In her last email she said, "Its in lovely condition, a real beauty. I want to mention I am (sadly) allergic, so I am not allowed to smoke or have any pets. So (fortunately) its smoke free, pet free. I am (proud to be) a neat freak. Therefore, no one was ever allowed inside with beverages or any food. Let me know if you need anything else, or what can I do to ease this sale for you." She said that she recently got divorced and moved to Lincoln, NE with a new job and new start. In a previous email she said, "The car is already at the shipping company here in town, crated and ready for delivery. You have free delivery, the car arriving at your place in 4-6 days. You get 5 days to try it out before buying it, and if you don't like it, you can send it back at my expense. If interested, e-mail me your whole name and ph#, and I will forward it to Google Wallet so they can send you more details on how this works." PLEASE HELP! Thanks. p.s. it doesn't sound like a scam to me since she is willing to send it here and back without me buying it and at her expense to ship it back and forth.
