Okay, I’ve a dead car up for sale on eBay, so far, I’ve had one joker respond with an e-mail asking if I’d accept a cashiers check for the car. In checking, I notice that he’s got no feedback and is from Singapore. Now, either he’s a complete nitwit with no idea of how eBay works, or more likely, he’s a con artist, planning on sending me a counterfeit cashier’s check for more than the asking price of the car and telling me to send him a money order for the difference. Since the bank will post the money from the cashier’s check to my account, before it checks to see if it’s legit or not, I’ll have the “money” to get a money order for the difference. (It’s a fairly common scam.)
Now, naturally, I’m not falling for this, and I have informed eBay that I suspect the guy’s a scammer, but I’d like to mess with his head, since there’s not much eBay can do to him. Any ideas?
ivylass, well it says in the eBay listing that the car’s not working, so if he’s paying attention, he already knows that. Still, it couldn’t hurt to ask him if he’s planning on driving the car back to Singapore.
The most straightforward approach is probably best.
Go through with it. As soon as you have the cheque in your hands, you have evidence of a crime, as it is almost certain to be a forgery. Take it to the police.
Feel the warm glow of a job well done.
FWIW, a young housemate o’ mine fell for this one hook, line, and sinker – but suffered no losses, because the bank recognized the scam right away and called the RCMP on his behalf.
I don’t think there’s any other sort of “fun” you can have with the situation that will result in anything other than him moving on to someone more gullible.
Tell him the car contains the ghost of your late great uncle (who died peacefully in his sleep, unlike his passengers), so you need references to be sure that he’s going to a good home.
Or not. You need to be sure that your scammer doesn’t have accomplices near you with violent tendancies and an avertion to being made fun of.
Set up a PO Box and have him send the check there, just to have something to show off as you tell the story.
Is it a fairly common kind of car? If so buy a HotWheels of the same make and send that to him (hey, they don’t run either) with with a wildly falsified “check” for the difference. E-mail him for reciept confirmation. Crack beer and enjoy a hearty laugh. Then Pit him. This could be a great source of entertainment if done right.
Well, damn it, the bastard must have figured I was on to him, because I haven’t heard from him since I posted this. Now what the hell am I going to do for entertainment?
Spoke too soon, as I’ve gotten an e-mail from him saying that he’s going to send me the check next week. I’ve also gotten emails from two other scammers wanting to “buy” the car. One of whom is offering to pay me $3500 for the thing. Oh, and no one really bought the car on eBay. Do you think my asking price of $1 was too high?
I have a cashier’s check for $12,500 US drawn on the Bank of London hanging on the wall of my office. It was sent to me from Denmark by a gentleman that was the high bidder on a Seiko watch I was selling on eBay. I was instructed to cash the check and take out the amount for the auction plus a couple hundred for my trouble. He wanted the rest sent to him by Western Union within 3 days. He didn’t even send me an address to send the watch, just the info for a WU outlet in Denmark. I of course didn’t cash the check and 3 days later I was flooded by emails from the guy. I strung the guy for a few months claiming various problems that was preventing me from getting to a bank or WU outlet. I even sent him an email saying the watch had been sent and he even claimed he received it. I still have the watch. The last email I sent was written by my wife (me actually) claiming I was arrested and thrown in jail for cashing a forged cashier’s check, all our cars had be repossessed and her and the 5 kids were being kicked out of the house and were going to be homeless living on the street. I haven’t heard from him since.
I had an EBAY account, and bought a few things…no problems so far. However, I logged on one day (after 4-5 months of inactivity), and was shocked to find that I was a “winner” on 4 items that I had never bid on! The only explanation I can come up with is that someone working fro Ebay has stolen accounts numbers/passwords, and is handing them out as a joke.
Anyway, allof my emails to ebay are unanswered…and because I have NO intention of paying for these items, my account has been frozen. Ha! Screw em’…I think there will be some major swindles on ebay…it is a disaster waiiting to happen!
Well, I’ve relisted the car, making note in my description of the vehicle that it is currently the most sought after car by discriminating Nigerian and Singaporean executives.
The $1 minimum bid was fine. Just make sure you’ve put in the fine print that out-of-US purchasers will have to pay $12,000 USD to cover your time to disassemble the car and pack the parts for overseas shipment. Reassembly instructions not included.
Over two million miles? Sounds like that car’s already been to Singapore! My Accord (The Ivory Destrier, Slayer of Tires, Master of Chaotic Alignment, 197,000 miles) is quite jealous.
