[s-cars] Online fraud (car related, delete if you're not interested)
James Shackelford
93urs4 at rovershack.com
Mon Oct 16 22:04:15 EDT 2006
With a sincere out of town buyer, like myself who bought my S6 Avant in CT,
and drove it to CO, things can be done to insure honesty. First of all, a
fax of the cashier's or bank check can be requested, your bank can then
verify the authenticity of the check prior to purchase. Also, if this is
coming from a bank... then let your bank and their bank deal with the money.
I 100% agree, don't take a personal check ever for a significant amount
unless you are willing to part with the money. Likewise, the scam usually
involves giving you a check for more than the purchase price, and asking for
the difference in cash. They then drive your car and dump it (they don't
want a stolen car) and walk away with the cash.
-----Original Message-----
From: s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com
[mailto:s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com] On Behalf Of Lee Levitt
Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 3:30 PM
To: brett at cloud9.net; Joe Pizzimenti
Cc: Quattro List; S-Car-List
Subject: Re: [s-cars] Online fraud (car related,delete if you're not
interested)
Um no. I'm not taking a check from an out of town buyer and then
dealing with the repercussions of getting ripped off.
A key rule. Possession is 9/10s of the law. It's in my driveway, I
control it. It's out of my driveway, it's gone. Maybe it will come
back, maybe it won't. Maybe there will be sand in the tank and
piss in the glove box. Or worse.
An out of town buyer can provide all sorts of ways to pay. But the
bottom line for me is that the money must clear my account before
the iron moves.
And when I bought a car long distance a year ago, I paid for it
before I went to pick it up. A bit risky, but that's the way it
goes. Next time I'd play it a bit differently, but that's how I
did it.
Lee
On Mon Oct 16 14:12:12 PDT 2006, Brett Dikeman <brett at cloud9.net>
wrote:
>
> On Oct 16, 2006, at 4:29 PM, Joe Pizzimenti wrote:
>
>> Probably not, back when I was selling my s-car, I got a bunch of
>> scam e-mails and phone calls from "Steve Anderson" from the
>> midwest. I knew it wasn't any relation to the Andersons, but a
>> familiar name will sometimes do it. He wanted to fly to NY,
>> give me the check and drive the car back. Screw that, you can
>> fly to NY, give me the check, go sightseeing and I'll give you
>> the keys when the check clears.
>>
>> Some people fall for it, I guess.
>>
>
> I know of half a dozen people who have bought cars in precisely
> this manner, though I think cashiers or bank-issued loan checks
> were involved. Not sure; didn't really ask.
>
> I recall reading about a guy who was convicted of drug
> trafficking because he had several tens of thousands of dollars
> in cash on him which was found during a traffic stop; he was
> picking up some sort of truck or farm equipment and paying in
> cash, but that didn't matter; they threw away the key and
> pocketed the cash. I can't see the Department of Homeland
> inSecurity looking cheerfully on an airline passenger carrying
> enough cash to buy a car...
>
> They need to have plates and insurance to legally drive the car
> home (NEVER let someone use your plates, no matter the
> distance!) To board the airplane, they needed photo ID which
> will match their boarding pass. If it is a personal check, the
> name and address obviously should match ID, insurance,
> registration, etc. Write up a bill of sale. Etc etc. That's
> plenty to go after them with later if the check bounces, and as
> long as it's over $5k, you'll get plenty of interest from law
> enforcement. If the check wasn't legit, I would think that
> would fall under theft or fraud, and both "vehicle" and
> "crossing state lines" notches penalties up quite a bit up the
> jail- and-$ scale, probably. Has anyone personally experienced
> or heard of this kind of scam being pulled off? Doesn't seem
> worth the considerable risk or effort.
>
> You can report the vehicle VIN and plate as stolen, which
> would make driving from NY to the midwest pretty hazardous. For
> example, state cops in several states are now using hand-held
> cameras with optical character recognition, and they're
> connected to laptops populated daily with federal stolen vehicle
> registry data. Reportedly, the Virginia state police were
> getting a demo from the company next to an interstate and a few
> minutes in, the unit picked up plates on a stolen u-haul truck.
> Hell, even the hotels/motels are tracking this stuff now. A
> hotel out in the midwest -demanded- photo IDs from my father and
> I, as well as the plate numbers of the truck and trailer a few
> years ago on the way out to Mid-Ohio. A plaque on the desk
> politely explained this was because of "post september 11th
> security concerns." What a bunch of BS...
>
> Brett
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