Internet Car Sales Fraud??? Please Help

Well I spent half the night filling out the FBI's report. The money is still in my account at first I thought that might be a good thing now swmbo says it may not be. We have someone's money and everyone's treating it like a hot potato. $36,500.00 boy what I could build for that. It's this escrow account business the owner may not miss it until tax time. New fun fact the bank the check was written on is permanently closed in Neenah Wi.

In reply to The:

From what I understand, the banks eventually catch on and reverse everything that has transpired. Typically this happens after you've withdrawn the funds and sent them back to the scammer. Starting with the $7,000 to the shipper.

I'm glad you didn't end up out $37,000.

The last time I was this nervous was when my girlfriend was telling me that her elderly parents got a call from her niece stating that she was in jail and they needed to go get a prepaid credit card to get her out. They went as far as going to Wally World and almost buying the card. The smart thing is when they asked the cashier if the card could be used to get somebody out of jail. The cashier then called the manager who told them to check directly with the police on situation.

Needless to say there are scammers everywhere and it's not getting any better.

That's the thing Law Enforcement is not interested in investigating this as long as I did not get scammed. I had this detective laughingly say "what do you think we are going to do run a sting". I think I will look on the USPS website and see what they say.

Don't waste too much time on this. You're not gonna catch them.

If you are enjoying yourself, that's great. But you are definitely not gonna catch them.

Law enforcement doesn't get involved in cyber crime unless there is a compelling political motivation. I have a family member who is struggling with this. She has hundreds of life threatening emails and phone calls, all traced back to their source. We know who is committing the crimes. Still no support from law enforcement or the courts.

CSI is just a TV show. That's not the way it works in real life.

Glad you didn't get burned.

At what point do you have to "return" the money if you don't provide the vehical? Is there a state law that determines this? At some point can the scammer come after the seller for a refund? Meanwhile the banking system has not caught up to the fact that the check is bad?

I would not be comfortable with any of this. In fact for that kind of coin I would at least consult a lawyer. You need to get the bank on the hook for this. At the moment it is all on the seller. Move up the food chain in the bank security's and fraud department. Tellers and managers are sales people. You need to deal with people that know what to do.

We have all see various examples of this over the years, and the money is eventually going to be pulled back out of his account. If he tries to pay it back, withdraw it or transfer it, he will be on the hook to pay his bank the $37K plus whatever overdraft fees they want to charge him if it overdrafts his account.

These situations are ALWAYS a scam. The best defense is not even trying to deposit questionable checks.

P.S. your buddies at your bank are doing you no favors. They either know, or should have known, this was fraud and let you know those funds could (and probably will be) pulled back out of your account at some later date. Possibly weeks later.

I am really surprised your bank doesn't think its fraud.

Man, I'm hoping you get to keep the $37k AND the truck in a "The day GRM (legally) scammed the scammer" sort of situation

The funds were never pulled from any other account. They were just electron-bit-ed into existence from the banking system. They will be destroyed the same way, returning to the great cosmic magnetic charge cloud. This will happen quickly and without notice when some bank in the chain of electrons finally figures it out.

The PoPo are there to fill out insurance forms.

Anyway, glad we could all help here and glad you didn't get scammed.

I do have one question that has not been discussed...

What if the scammer already has what he wanted?

He's got your name and address. He's also got your email, and perhaps the VIN. Bank account #? Hopefully not.

He's apparently pretty good at forgery. Can he forge a title with the VIN? I don't know.

Double check what data you actually gave him, and insure it's not abused.

Hungary Bill wrote: Man, I'm hoping you get to keep the $37k AND the truck in a "The day GRM (legally) scammed the scammer" sort of situation

As Hess said, there is no money. Just electrons on a screen. They will vanish as easily as they appeared.

SVreX wrote: I do have one question that has not been discussed... What if the scammer already has what he wanted? He's got your name and address. He's also got your email, and perhaps the VIN. Bank account #? Hopefully not. He's apparently pretty good at forgery. Can he forge a title with the VIN? I don't know. Double check what data you actually gave him, and insure it's not abused.

Could he have access to some database that would allow him to pull a VIN, using a name and an address?

Id start putting my truck in a garage on another property thats not in my name with a garage door locked from the inside till this one plays out....

In reply to SVreX:

Unless he cashes out his account, moves moves out of the country, and changes his name.

the monies not moving, I used to work in banking as a engineer at a data center we called this virtual money. no, he got no info and nobodies getting within 10 miles of the truck it's locked up tighter than dicks hat band in my basement I don't drive it so it's safe, not to mention the two nines and the AR and the beagle don't leave her out as a line of defense. I would let you know we live in a gated subdivision with security but you would know they are useless. we are working with the bank, usps and fbi nothing will happen ***Lesson learned I knew it was a scam from day one but I wanted to scam the scammer, see how far it would go and I all I got was a headache for having this money. so just leave them alone and let them go home dragging their tail behind them, but thanks again your a great bunch.

4cylndrfury wrote: Could he have access to some database that would allow him to pull a VIN, using a name and an address? Id start putting my truck in a garage on another property thats not in my name with a garage door locked from the inside till this one plays out....

I really doubt that's necessary.

These kinds of scammers do this sort of scam because it's easy and it's safe. They never need to be within a thousand miles of their victims, and the combination of the remoteness and being a property-only crime means that it's unlikely they'll be caught/arrested/prosecuted. They don't want the truck.

Pete Gossett wrote: In reply to SVreX: Unless he cashes out his account, moves moves out of the country, and changes his name.

To bad interest rates are too low to make it worth moving it to an interest bearing account until it goes back to the cloud.

SVreX wrote: I do have one question that has not been discussed... What if the scammer already has what he wanted? He's got your name and address. He's also got your email, and perhaps the VIN. Bank account #? Hopefully not. He's apparently pretty good at forgery. Can he forge a title with the VIN? I don't know. Double check what data you actually gave him, and insure it's not abused.

This is real life, not a TV show.

I think you'd be shocked what you can find already available online. If the guy was going to steal the truck, he would have just stolen, not gone through all this superfluous garbage.

He just texted me, he is ready to move forward, Please get back to him ASAP! I would love to text him but swmbo has taken over this operation, there will be no more play time with scammers. DUH

I was just watching the original gone in 60 seconds. They took totalled cars and used the vin on stolen cars.

Could that be the play here?

The wrote: He just texted me, he is ready to move forward, Please get back to him ASAP! I would love to text him but swmbo has taken over this operation, there will be no more play time with scammers. DUH

Ok, NOW he's introducing a bit of urgency. Now it makes more sense. He knows that sooner or later the check will bounce and he'll be busted.

In an electronic banking age, why does this take 2 weeks?

With the false urgency also be prepaired for the false threats of legal action or even physical harm but I more expect threats of legal action.
A part of this scam relies on you to be a good hearted person and generally law abiding. The treats will play on your desire to "do what is right".

Its all false and as for the physical harm, do not expect that the scammer is actually in the US.
Do not worry about the truck's well being. To state again, what you have entered into here has nothing to do with wanting your truck and all to do with turning fake checks in to real cash that you willingly send back to the scammer.

I figure he's got 5 or 6 of these going at one time. Some work some don't. Ah it's a job.

this is what started this mess <img src="" /> <img src="" />

Dude is still texting me...

The wrote: Dude is still texting me...

Time to sexy it up. Ask what he's wearing.

Also, since you have his number, start using it for mailing lists. I'd start with timeshares and multi-level marketing.