** Please Read** Scams From The Uk!!

[Reaction19]

I Have Recently Been Scammed On Craigs List. By A Guy With The E-mail goodluckphilip@hotmail.com He Is A Person Who Makes Fraudulent Purchases. He Sent Me Money For An 8.8 Rearend Out Of My Mustang And A Set Of Weld Draglites, I Recieved The Moneyorders, Along With Money For The Shipping To The Uk. I Deposited The Money Orders Into My Account And Thery Didnt Hold It So I Proceeded With The Sale. Two Weeks Later I Get A Call From The Bank That The Money Orders Were Stolen, Fake Whatever. So I'm In The Hole Around 4,200 Dollars And He Doesnt Answer My Calls . I Sent 3,200 To His So Called Shipper Via Western Union So That Money Is Gone And My Share Of The Money Was Used To Pay Off Some Bills So Now Im In The Hole For The Full Amount I Contacted My Bank And Also Made A Report With The Police And They Are Investigating The Situation. I Hope By Reading This And Through My Horrible Experience I Can Save Someone A Big Heartache. I Will Get Through This And Be Back On My Feet Someway Somehow. Please Be Very Careful With Who You Deal With. I Should Have Been Smarter Than That And I Thought I Was But Look How I Ended Up. If You Get A Bad Feeling About A Transaction Taking Place Please Just Back Out... Hope This Helps One Or All Of My Fellow S&f's

[bluecheckmate]

You figure if it went through and its cleared with no holds your good to go but i guess not. Sucks man.

[Reaction19]

yeah they gave me the funds because my acct would cover it. but since it's another country it could take up to a month.

[Tony Montana]

that sucks, did your bank say anything about any safer alternative? I though money orders were good when the bank cleared it, I did not know they could go back and undo it.

[bluecheckmate]

There's something new you learn everyday

[Reaction19]

when its an international money order and you are in good standings with your bank they will basically front you the money, but then if the money orders come back fraudulent, or fake or stolen then they take the money back out of your account and you are responsible for the funds.

[Reaction19]

at least thats what they told me.

[gregpro50]

If someone was offering to pay me $4200 for a rear and a set of wheels I would know it is a scam right away.

I don't mean to bust your balls or anything but this is the oldest scam out there and I am shocked that people are still getting taken by it. Craigslist has huge warnings on their site warning about this exact situation.

They do have some links on there about internet fraud that gives you contacts where you can file complaints. I hope they can catch up to the guy that did this to you.

[j_martin]

Standard scam. Money sent to you in the form of a cashier's check, money order, or whatever, way more than needed for the transaction. You are to bank the check and wire the change, or shipper's fee, or whatever somewhere. The check is forged, and will bounce in about a week. The sender isn't even interested in the sale, it's just used as a prop for the scheme. Other props include supposed inheritance money, funds from Nigeria that need to be hidden in the US, etc.

So you deposit the check, send the money, and everything disappears, including the "buyer", the funds, and once in awhile the sale item itself.

These guys prey on any online sales area, including eBay and Craigs list.

Sorry to hear you fell for it.

John

[Stoker1]

If someone was offering to pay me $4200 for a rear and a set of wheels I would know it is a scam right away.


Have you priced wheels lately? Your comment is a little off the mark.

The money order portion? Well, I have to glare at that one as I'd have been leery. Scammers are getting much better. Though it was 4k, it could've been worse. Hope it works out for you.

[TTriton]

I do sales over the internet all the time and I ALWAYS call in and verify the Money orders are real and not faked.. There is often a number on the check to verify this info or you can look it up on the internet.. But I have over 100K in bad checks received. many of them i used to have pinned to my wall and others I have turned in to the bank to investigation.. But often the bank is not even interested and law enforment only is interested in it if you fell for the scam..

[gregpro50]

Have you priced wheels lately? Your comment is a little off the mark.



Well I sort of know what I am talking about since I have a Mustang with the same set of wheels. New about $1000. Used about $500. If you would spend $4200 for a set of wheels then I have some for sale.

To me it looks like the scammer bought the items for $1000 and then tried to pay $3200 for shipping. That would have sent up a red flag in my head.

[Frank Molé]

this scam was on the news tuesday :eek: still sucks

[Hydrophobic guy]

I just won the Nigerian lottery again 6th time this month man am I lucky. :icon_bs:

[j_martin]

i Just Won The Nigerian Lottery Again 6th Time Tis Month Man Am I Lucky. :icon_bs:

Bingo!

[514MERC]

Wouldnt the insurance on your account cover the loss? or do they not do that in the states?

[Reaction19]

It does suck and at least they didnt get my parts, hope this helps someone out!!!!!!

[gregpro50]

Well you are a good guy for posting this up and the more people than learn about it will result in less people being scammed.

[chrisr]

sorry to hear about your loss, people have been doing that scam on craigslist for a while now. they tried that on my buddy selling a laptop a few months ago!!

[Euroski]

Question, why would you wire $3200 if they are buying your stuff?? I had a UK person try to scam me a bout 3years ago for selling one of my $3000 vehicles. They sent a $15000 check and wanted me to send $12k back. Knew it was a scam from the start. Then had the bank run the rtn numbers at the bottom of the check. Yep, phony check. But I did pi$$ them off because they had to spend money to get the phony check to our mail box.

[Reaction19]

i took out my portion and sent the rest via western union to the guys shipper, i should have been on to them, but they got the best of me. I really screwed up. now it's sit back and see what happens .

[Raceman]

i took out my portion and sent the rest via western union to the guys shipper, i should have been on to them, but they got the best of me. I really screwed up. now it's sit back and see what happens .

As several other people have pointed out, this is a VERY common scam. NEVER send refunds for overpayment or shipping or any of that BS under any conditions.

As far as sitting back to see what happens, drink a couple of cold ones in the process to get your mind right, and then write it off and forget about it. Nothing is going to come of it. The scammers are brilliant at being invisible and he'll never be found. Money is gone.:nonod:

[Reaction19]

Gotcha!

[Lost In Space]

Do a search at the IRS.GOV site for capital loss and see if you can write it off. I read of some people doing that for a totaled boat/car/truck which didn't have insurance.