Beware Of Internet Scams

DMan · 03-09-2012, 08:11 PM

A friend was looking at a fifth wheel through an auction site - not eBay. He found one for a good price and the seller said that the sale would be handled though eBay Motors. The unit was in storage and the owner had moved to Spain so needed to sell. When my buddy got the invoice from eBay Motors, he went to do a bank wire, but fortunately he didn't have enough info for the bank to do it. They urged him to be really sure because they said once he sent the money it would not be retrievable. When he went home he called eBay Motors. Amazingly they have a phone number where you can actually talk to a real person right away. Anyway they had no record of this listing or invoice. They told my buddy it was a scam and eBay Motors never act as a third party intermediary for payments and that this was a common trick scammers used. Anyway with trailer sales common this time of year thought I'd pass this warning along.

**CozInCowtown** · 03-09-2012, 08:16 PM

Yup, almost made a expensive mistake!!
Some of the best lessons in life are learned through the pocketbook.
Any transaction that is not completely straight forward is a huge No-No!!
JMO,
DC

Theosus · 03-09-2012, 08:18 PM

Scam artists should all be drug out in the street and shot. No mercy. Glad your buddy is okay.

For a good laugh, tell him to read this:
Power book scamming the scammer

Grandpa · 03-09-2012, 08:58 PM

Another scam for us older folks. My sister got a call this week from a young man who said, "Hi Grandma, it's me." My sister is not quite senile enough to try put the voice to one of the kids so said "is that you Richard?" (She has no Richard) the voice said yes it's me grandma. Some of us went down to Mexico and I'm in trouble, can you send $$$$?" Sister said, "do you one better, your cousin Joe (no Joe in the family either) is down there right now and he can come bail you out and see you get home safe" The perp hung up quickly but she had the number on caller id. They hurridly called the cops and found this has been happening quite frequently. According to the police, most people are too bright for this but they have found a few that fell for it and sent money.

Pathfinder1 · 03-09-2012, 09:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Theosus

Scam artists should all be drug out in the street and shot. No mercy. Glad your buddy is okay.

For a good laugh, tell him to read this:
Power book scamming the scammer

Hi...

Lenghty...but FANTASTIC...!!

jason · 03-09-2012, 09:33 PM

I've heard of them before. I was surprised when I went into my bank one day and they had a sign up about these type of scams. The little bank I go went to said they get one to two people in a week asking about this sort of thing.

I used to send a friend who helped me greatly a Christmas gift. He lived in South Africa, and they would always ask me at least five times if I knew this person, if they were supposed to be sending me something, and other similar questions.

Bojib · 03-10-2012, 09:42 AM

I sale different things on Craigslist all the time. I only deal with people locally to cut the scam stuff out.

I'm always getting e-mails from these scammers though. It's generally the same ploy ever time. They will give me $XXX amount more for the item for my trouble, plus include extra to help with shipping to have it sent to Spain, or any other overseas country.

I never reply to them, if I do, it's from a fake yahoo mail account with no identifiable information, and tell them local pick up only.

Sometimes it would be fun to "scam" the scammers, but it's not worth it to put in the extra effort.

Tristan · 03-10-2012, 03:29 PM

I wouldn't be surprised if there aren't a lot more attempts these days to scam people on high-ticket items like trailers. As people have gotten more savvy about their methods, the crooks are probably not having as much success with the email scams.

campclose · 03-10-2012, 05:17 PM

It's sick isn't it! I almost lost $300 on 4 tickets to a Miley Cyrus concert (my daughter loved her). It was through Craisglist though. I'm glad your buddy did not send the money! That would have sucked!

DMan · 03-10-2012, 05:21 PM

Yes, I think you're right about that Tristan. No one falls for those email scams anymore so now the scammers are becoming much more sophisticated and moving on to bigger things. Anyway, update from my buddy. He said the guy emailed him the next day asking why he hadn't heard from him, but he ignored the email. but nothing since then.