Yeah, I would think a bank transfer would be the easiest and safest way to do this (perhaps second only to going to the buyer’s bank, and cash of course).
Also, at least for my bank, I can set up a payment to another person where the check will come directly from the bank to them. I guess that could be faked, but I think it comes with a transaction number that could be easily verified with the bank.
I recently bought a used car, using financing from a non-local bank. Basically the bank mailed me a check to give to the seller. I can’t remember the exact details, but I think the seller was supposed to call the bank to verify that the check was valid (and that he was the legitimate owner). Obviously you can’t just trust whoever’s on the other end of a random phone number, but you might be ok if you can call up the actual bank (looking up the phone number yourself!) and verify that the bank check is valid. Somehow, the seller implicitly trusted my bank check.
Of course, I didn’t just show up waving the check around. I gave him my own personal details, and met several times in person over a couple weeks of test drives, mechanics inspections, and negotiations.
I’m Canadian, so maybe this doesn’t apply to most of the posters, but IMHO, you’re way overstating the danger of counterfeit cashier’s cheques. I have never personally heard of someone getting scammed by a counterfeit cheque. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but I think it’s extremely rare.
I would balk at dealing with cash transactions in the thousands.
That said, if you can get somebody to pay in cash, I supposed that’s the most foolproof method.
Does anyboyd know about interac money transfers? I’ve only used them for a couple of transactions with people I personally know and trust, but they seem almost instaneous and counterfeit-proof, but I don’t really know the mechanism for how they work.
They have limits of something like $1000 (it might depend on the sending or receiving bank).
[For non-Canadians, Interac is the main debit/ATM network in Canada.]
Agreed that it’s not an common occurrence for most people, but I question that it’s extremely rare. Google on counterfeit/forged/fraudulent cashier’s check and I think you’ll see it happens often enough to be a legitimate concern. Heck, even U.S. Postal money orders are sometimes forged. And the thing is, even if it only happens 0.1% of the time, if the OP is in that unlucky 0.1% he is out 100% of the sale price of the car, and $8-10K ain’t chicken feed. It’s wise to approach any kind of forgeable document with caution.
According to this person, they have a tight schedule so they can only send a cashier’s check (I guess Western Union takes 30 seconds too long) but I can wait until it clears before the shipper picks it up sight unseen. Seems too classic to not be a scam.
[shoulder shrug] That’s a fair point.
Yeah, I can’t see it as anything but a scam, myself. And again, if the shipper is trustworthy enough to pick up the car, then he’s trustworthy enough to cash a check and pay YOU in cash. Please please please suggest this, because I want to know what the scammer’s response is.
I have. Shipper doesn’t get paid until delivery and tight schedule. Funny thing is that they would be using a check from a major bank and in fact it is my bank. I asked them where they are thinking if there is any chance of this being legit, we could do the entire transaction at the same time. My question is if I go into a branch of the bank the check came from, how long would it take to confirm or deny if it is legit.
What are the problems with having someone come to your house to see the car? The only information they get is my address.
I sold a car a few years ago and told the buyer I would hold the title until their personal check cleared. Sounded simple enough. Then my bank, Bank of America, told me they actually don’t know when a check clears. They either credit the amount to my account immediately or hold it for some period of time (statutory limit, IIRC) before crediting it, but they don’t know when it is actually paid by the issuing bank. They only find out if it bounces. I ended up having to ask the buyer to show me a copy of the cancelled check. It was a mess and would have been cleaner if I had requested cash or met at the bank.
No delivery until payment is confirmed. It’s that simple and applies to any transaction. If you deliver the car before you have payment in full it’s as good as guaranteed you will not get paid. It’s not guaranteed because there are some honest people out there, but it’s* as good as guaranteed that you won’t get paid*, so don’t do it.
New wrinkle. The buyer is in Canada. Whereas I would love the extra US$23.50 if the cheque is in Canadian dollars, I told the buyer that the problem is with clearence time for international checking and that when I send funds to the UK I always wire it.
Truth be told, I’m tempted to accept the check (or is it cheque) and wait for it to pass verification but what worries me is that I would get undeniable confirmation that it is an absolutely guarantied 100% authentic check from the bank, I ship the car and then 3 days later my bank calls, says they made a mistake and it was counterfeit. So sorry we gave you wrong info but fuck you and give us our money back.
Do not take the check.
I sold a used car for $18,000 a few years back and it was done exactly as Crafter_Man suggested. He drove down from Los Angeles with his girlfriend so she could drive his old car back. He had an account at Wells Fargo, and I drove him down there in the car and let my insurance carrier know I was planning to sell the car that day in advance. We got a Cashier’s check from the bank right there and then, I gave him the title, and he drove me home in (what was now) his car. On the way, I called my insurance company to let them know the car was sold to end the policy. Then I took my wife’s car down and immediately cashed the check at my own bank, just in case there was some angle I hadn’t thought of where he might try to have the check cancelled/held etc. I didn’t have a problem.
AFAIK the bank can do a cursory check but can’t confirm the check is legit until some days later. Archaic but true. Stay far away from checks and stay away from complicated deals. Cash only.
Do you really think there’s ANY chance this isn’t a scam? Buyer wants to take the car sight unseen, and ship it to Canada? Why are you wasting your time on this?
New one.
Shipment scam with different buyer. Wants to use Paypal and I know they can chargeback after the fact claiming it was never sent and of course I hear the horror stories of how Paypal will side with the buyer no matter what. Also typical scam email. Person is an engineer but can’t get on the internet except to see my ad so it must be a different person than the one in the link because he’s at sea :rolleyes: despite everything else in the email being identical.
So what if I empty my Paypal (one time use) account after the payment. What can Paypal do? What protection do I have outside of Paypal if the buyer pulls this BS. I know that a tracking number is the holy Grail with regards to Paypal but is there any other proof they accept?
I’m not going to fall for the scam, just curious how exactly it works and why exactly sellers have no protection.
More likely scenario than them actually sending money and attempting a chargeback is that they would send you a fake email from “Paypal” claiming that the money was sent to your account. This email would either have a fake link so that they could phish your paypal password or be a way of pulling off an overpayment scam.
Sell your car locally instead of to some sight-unseen buyer 10000 miles away. Go to bank together to do the transaction. I bought a used car from a private party once (mid-1980’s) this way. Seller insisted that I bring a certified check or cashier’s check or some such to him, and we met at his bank. (Which IIRC was also my bank, just in a different nearby city.)
Apparently it helped that he was known at that bank, and some manager there made some phone calls to make sure my check was good.
You could just shoot her in the leg. You know, just to make sure everybody knows you mean business.