I am trying to sell my Mother's old Lumina on Craigslist. One guy wants my number right away and I tell him about the car. Then he tells me that he is "not in the states right now" and he wants to buy his car for his grandson who "live abroad". He wants to pay me the full price plus $300 for shipping. He wants to pay me using an app I have never heard of called Cashapp. He said he would pay me as soon as i get my cashapp e-mail and "cashtag". I have never heard of cashapp, I don't know what a "cashtag" is, and I have no clue what he wants me to do. It does sound fishy, however and his texts really do sound like sombody who does not speak English as a first language. I never bothered to ask if he is related to the Prince of Nigeria or has other Royal blood.
What is the scam here? Should I block his phone number and move on?
Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:
I am trying to sell my Mother's old Lumina on Craigslist. One guy wants my number right away and I tell him about the car. Then he tells me that he is "not in the states right now" and he wants to buy his car for his grandson who "live abroad". He wants to pay me the full price plus $300 for shipping. He wants to pay me using an app I have never heard of called Cashapp. He said he would pay me as soon as i get my cashapp e-mail and "cashtag". I have never heard of cashapp, I don't know what a "cashtag" is, and I have no clue what he wants me to do. It does sound fishy, however and his texts really do sound like sombody who does not speak English as a first language. I never bothered to ask if he is related to the Prince of Nigeria or has other Royal blood.
What is the scam here? Should I block his phone number and move on?
That is literally every scam warning flag in the book except for "Nigerian Prince". You can't get a tow truck across town for $300, you really expect to ship a car "abroad" for it? Block and move on.
If he sends money that your bank accepts as real cash then it doesn't seem to be a problem. I would not do any signing of titles until that happens and you know the full cost of the shipping to the destination he requests. $300 sounds low.
The old scam was leaving a check on the weekend, the grifter getting a signed title and driving away. Then the seller finds out the check is bad.
Javelin (Forum Supporter) said:
Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:
I am trying to sell my Mother's old Lumina on Craigslist. One guy wants my number right away and I tell him about the car. Then he tells me that he is "not in the states right now" and he wants to buy his car for his grandson who "live abroad". He wants to pay me the full price plus $300 for shipping. He wants to pay me using an app I have never heard of called Cashapp. He said he would pay me as soon as i get my cashapp e-mail and "cashtag". I have never heard of cashapp, I don't know what a "cashtag" is, and I have no clue what he wants me to do. It does sound fishy, however and his texts really do sound like sombody who does not speak English as a first language. I never bothered to ask if he is related to the Prince of Nigeria or has other Royal blood.
What is the scam here? Should I block his phone number and move on?
That is literally every scam warning flag in the book except for "Nigerian Prince". You can't get a tow truck across town for $300, you really expect to ship a car "abroad" for it? Block and move on.
Thought so. I was just trying to figure out how this one worked. What is Cashapp? What is a Cashtag?
The only reasons not to block the number are:
-you have to get rid of the car.
-you don't need to be paid for it.
If that's the case, donate and get a tax write off. Auto tech program at your local high school or community college, your local NPR station, Goodwill, etc.
We are talking cheap car here. Anything more complicated than "you come to my house and give me cash and I give you a car and a signed title" makes me nervous.
No rush to sell. It has sat in the driveway for years. It can sit there a few more years. If the city complains it wouldn't take much to get it inspected and tagged. It is already insured.
I decided not to used it for rallycross and that I would rather have cash to put into my other cars than have it rot away sitting in my driveway not getting driven. I paid $150 for a new battery last week and liability insurance on it is $20 a month. It also needs a new power steering line or rack because something in the power steering system is leaking badly. I could be spending that money somewhere else.
In reply to Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) :
Cashapp is just like venmo or paypal or any of the other random digital pay apps. One of my old roommates insisted on paying with cashapp. Never understood it. I used it for a few years just for that.
He's texting me again. "Did you get my last text? Did you sign up for Cashapp yet?"
Ha Ha. He so funny.
Cash only and only in person. For me in Ohio, where titles have to be notorized, I like to do that cash transaction inside my local bank, in view of their cameras. The bank worker then notorizes right there on site.
The shipping money is always paid directly to the shipper. Don't get yourself involved in financial side of shipping the car.
Just block him, there's nothing real here.
Now I have a couple of low ballers and another guy who asks what "bottom dollar" is on the car in his first contact.
I got the same crap when I sold the motorcycle, then somebody payed full price and brought cash.
I told Mr. Bottom Dollar that bottom dollar is $1,500 which is what I was asking. I don't care if he e-mails back. This car has been advertised for less than a day and I am already getting responses.
Did I mention I HATE selling cars.
I like cash, it's the hardest to get screwed on and since its face to face you weed out a lot of asshats.
I usually give a higher price as a response for the bottom dollar types, if I respond at all. Ditto for any low baller that only sends a message with a number and nothing else.
The thing about this scam is I'm not sure how it operates.
Cashapp, as far as I'm concerned, does not give you protections as the sender. Meaning if you send it to the wrong person, that money is gone. So I'm not exactly sure how they can get the car for free if the cash clears the app and is received.
hunter47 said:
The thing about this scam is I'm not sure how it operates.
Cashapp, as far as I'm concerned, does not give you protections as the sender. Meaning if you send it to the wrong person, that money is gone. So I'm not exactly sure how they can get the car for free if the cash clears the app and is received.
I'm not sure they even want the car. I think they want me to take a bad check from them and then forward the money using Cashapp. Then the bad check bounces and then they have $1,800 from me sent through Cashapp that I can never get back. Then they disappear.
Want to bet these guys live in another Country and have no way of picking up the car.
In reply to hunter47 :
My understanding is that the "buyer" uses stolen credit/debit/bank account info to send the funds, then obtains the goods from the seller by whatever means possible. Eventually, the payment processor is notified of the stolen credit/debit/bank account info and freezes or seizes the funds from the seller's account, leaving the seller broke and without their goods, and the "buyer" with some free merchandise.
Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:
I'm not sure they even want the car. I think they want me to take a bad check from them and then forward the money using Cashapp. Then the bad check bounces and then they have $1,800 from me sent through Cashapp that I can never get back. Then they disappear.
Also a common variation of the scam.
Cashapp is the hot new scam right now. My aunt got her money back, but somehow a scumbag siphoned off $17,000 before she noticed.
In reply to Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) :
Yes, I was thinking about a common phone scam where they accidentally "send" you too much money, and ask you to send some back. Then you're in the hole that amount, the money they "sent" is frozen by the bank, and then you have no money.
100% scam.
My favorite response for a $1,500 item (nominal price)
"Will you take $1000?"
"Will you pay $2000?"
Really throws the lowballers off their game. If the person messages me back, they may be serious, if not, they never were.
They don't want the car. They have no intention of coming to get the car. What they want is the access to your bank account that somehow the loopholes in CashApp gives to them.
Block.
When I get the "lowest you'll take" kind of responses on vehicles they have never seen I usually just reply back to them, "what more can I tell you about the car?"
When I get a responses like "would you take $900?" on a $3,500 car I usually just ask them back, "what about the car makes you feel it's not worth $3,500?"
In all cases, they never write back but my hope is "salesmanship" and to at least get them talking and taking an interest in the car.
hunter47 said:
In reply to Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) :
Yes, I was thinking about a common phone scam where they accidentally "send" you too much money, and ask you to send some back. Then you're in the hole that amount, the money they "sent" is frozen by the bank, and then you have no money.
My guess is that they would send a stolen payment and you would send the $300 to the "shipping" company - who never shows up to collect the car.
Either that or they have some way to exploit Cashapp to siphon money out of your account once they have your payment details.
Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:
Did I mention I HATE selling cars.
This one of the reasons I still have my NA Miata. Selling cars in this day and age is a pain in the rear. Everyone wants free and perfect, and wants to pay via some wierd way. I take Benjamin Franklins, U.S. Grants and Alexander Hamiltons. If you don't have those, get them. I give you the car, the title, a temp tag, and I keep the plate. Have a nice day.
eastsideTim said:
I usually give a higher price as a response for the bottom dollar types, if I respond at all. Ditto for any low baller that only sends a message with a number and nothing else.
+1. Car listed at $2000 FIRM and when I get those I start adding 10%
bobzilla said:
eastsideTim said:
I usually give a higher price as a response for the bottom dollar types, if I respond at all. Ditto for any low baller that only sends a message with a number and nothing else.
+1. Car listed at $2000 FIRM and when I get those I start adding 10%
Every time someone tries playing games on pricing, I just raise the price until they disappear. I figure there is a premium I should charge for anyone being a pain in the rear. Why? Guaranteed these are the types of people you will hear from in the future crying about the 30 year old cracked dash pad they didn't notice before buying.
Buying and selling cars is a game. Probably better not to get too emotional about it.
Today one guy asked me how low I would go on the car. I responded with the full price of $1,500 just like somebody here suggested. It's interesting how many lowballers showed up the first day I listed the car. If I was a lowballer I would watch cars that have been listed for a month or two and not sold and strike there. If my car sits on Craigslist for a month with no serious offers it may actually be time to lower the price, but NOT on the first day I list it. The big mistake I made on the motorcycle in my first attempt to sell it was to start dropping the price in the ad too fast which indicated to some of the buyers out there that I was desperate to sell. All of a sudden I was getting $500 offers on a $2,600 bike. I had this funny feeling that most of them were flippers who were really not interested in my bike as much as they were finding any underpriced item and then reselling it at a profit. Pulling it off the market for a few months is the best thing I ever did. I finally sold it for the full price of $2,600 a few weeks ago. This time I will let it ride for $1,500 for a few weeks to see what happens. If it doesn't sell, then I have more of a feeling about what it is really worth. I have done some shopping around the DFW Area and found that running cars for under $2,000 are few in the current market. Most of the cars I see in this price range have unibody damage that would require some serious work pulling it out from a body shop. My car doesn't have anything like that. And the Dallas Morning News keeps running articles about the used car shortage.
Maybe it is time for me to just sit and wait a few weeks. I'm learning.
Another guy said he was interested but said he could only pay $1,350 for it. Why that particular number and not $1,300 or $1,425? I don't get it but I think he is jacking with me. I ignored him.
I have a feeling some of these lowballers are trying to establish a low price before they get there and then when the get to see the car in person they will start picking it apart for further reductions. Maybe I need to just blow them off.
