From an autotrader response:
Good to respond. I will like to let you know that the features of your vehicle in autotrader have been forwarded to my client for evaluation, and due to the fact we are running short of time,i am delighted to tell you that your vehicle has been commended by my client.He also
instructed that payment will get to you in a cashier cheque of $25,000 which is a refund payment of a cancelled order earlier made by my client. Due to company's policy, this cheque has to be made out in this amount to you because company's policy allows a refund payment to one cashier cheque so you are required to deduct the actual cost of your vehicle $17,000 when payment gets to you and refund $8,000 to the shipper so that he can be able to offset shipping charges, tax charges and other cosmetic repairs.
After you have recieved your payment and balance sent to the shipper, the shipper's agent will come for inspection, picking up the vehicle and signing title papers, make cosmetic touches if necessary before driving to a prepaid shipper to be shipped to my customer,while title papers and other necessary documents will be handed over to my agent at the time of pick up.
When you have confirmed all these,provide your name, address,and phone number so that payment can reach you.
Expecting your cooperation
Best regards
Harry.
Doesn't sound right to me.

 

Yep. What was your first clue.

 

oh yes - quite the scam - they're trying to get an $8000 check out of you - their check will be worthless

this is a reverse of the "for sale" scams where the car is "off shore" and they will ship it back to the US after you buy it

stay away and report them to the autotrader site ASAP

 

Aahh noooo!!! Don't even think about it!! Same thing happened to me. I was asking 13,500 for my car and that's what this guy offered. But then he said, I'll send you a money order for 15,000 because it was a refund for something or other, which then you will deduct the cost of your car and we'll come pick up the car and the rest of the money on a day of your choosing. One day, we where actually talking on MSN and I asked him, what his client's name was........and there was this loooong pause...and what a surprise that he didn't know what his client's name was. As tempting as it is to sell the car ASAP don't do it. I saved all the emails that we had his name was Calvin Cole..let me know if you want them so you can see them...

i also don't remember where I heard about this scam...I read it somewhere on a Forum this exact situation, and if it hadn't been for that guy warning everyone I would of been out $13,500!!!

Good luck selling your car the legal way!!

 

FNQuick

was this guy from the states but said he was in Europe on business?

 

yea i have TONS of e-mails like that from trying to sell a car recently

 

my friend got scammed by a dude in the states. He was selling a part from his camaro on the camaro forums and some dude sent him a postal order for 928 dollars. now the car part he was selling was 130 so the guy said to "give the rest to charity". Of course i told my friend to not sell it to him but he wanted the money... so the bank cashed it for him and then 5 days later called him up and said we need the money back.

He was crying because he'd spent it already hahah

 

These are the most recent scams people are using autotrader.com and other sites for. I work for autotrader magazines & see these all the time. Unfortunately there is nothing anyone can do as far as catching these people because they use everything anonimously (email addresses yahoo.com or hotmail.com, addresses, phone numbers, etc...) Dont fall for it, but unfortunately there are people who do and lose there money...

 

I've got a friend in Canada that someone tried to scam like this, but he was trying to get a roomate! They wanted to send him a cashier's check for the rent deposit, and have him send back the 'extra'

He strung the 'girl' on for days with emails shooting her down left and right discretely, but all the while pretending to think it was legit and reported it all to the cops. Eventually they gave up and I don't think the cops got them.

 

I figured as much and called trader when I got it. They don't police responses and really can't do anything. Hell, if I had 8k lying around I wouldn't sell the car.

 

scammers need to die

 

Yeah this one came to me a few days ago......

I mean dont people back track MOs and Cashiers checks first before cashing? I always do.

 

In San Francisco on www.craiglist.com, there were a buch of these scams going on. I personally received about 10 of them when i was trying to sell something. I told them all to send their "agent" with cash for the amount that i was asking. But of course i didnt get a response from the scammers.

 

you may want to change your link.... Some may not be interested in that activity.

 

LOL, i got that EXACT response (with different $numbers) also when I was selling my car on autotrader.

 

I found out when I took the Bank of America check for $25,000 to a local Bank of America to make sure it was good.

It was quite exciting in the nerve racking kind of way. I was asked to wait in the bank lobby while the manager suposedly researched the check because they were having trouble finding which account the check was from or something. After about five minutes of waiting, they very covertly stationed a security gaurd to stand near me which was a little odd, I thought. About 15 minutes passes and at this point the manager had come over thanking me for my patience multiple times when a police offer comes in the door and swiftly walks toward me making eye contact the entire time. As my heart rate began to rise, I put my magazine down and sat up straight in my chair. Very alarmed at this point, I got the distinct feeling that they had me pegged for some kind of criminal. That is when the manager directed the officer to her desk. A few moments later I was asked to walk over to the manager's desk as well, when the police officer asks me to sit down and begins asking me where I got this check for $25,000. I told him the whole story about selling my car on autotrader and that the check was from a rep for a client and that they had requested to get the remaining balance sent back to them. I explained that that was the reason I brought the check to the bank first, to verify it. They took the check and the Fedex evelope it arrived in and, with latex gloves on and all, carefully placed it all in plastic evidence bags.

The officer explained to me that I had just been a potential vicitim of a scam called the "Nigerian 411 Scam". I thought it all was pretty interesting and really good to know that my instincts were right on about the whole rep for some rich guy buying my car, but despite the ill feelings who wouldn't at least try to cash the check to see if its real? I mean it was written for $25,000.

 

I hate those scamming bastards. When i was trying to sell a car a year ago, i got atleast 13 different e-mails just like that. They just never give up. It sucks.

 

Ya know, we ought to just start accepting offers from these asshats and get their fake checks sent to us just to waste their time. Maybe if enough people do it they'll get driven out of this scam business.