American car, Nigerian scam | Hemmings Blog: Classic and ...

[Editor's Note: Given the number and variety of scams floating around the Internet designed to separate classic car owners from their money, we thought we'd excerpt this article that originally ran in the August 1 issue of Hemmings Classic Wheels. Be safe out there.]

If it looks too good to be true, run. You can?t even trust a bank check
By Marc Gottlieb, DDS

Occasionally, one of life?s realities sinks in or another unexpected expense pops up. This time my daughter?s college tuition was due and I had to sell one of my cars. Which one to sacrifice? After several sleepless nights, I decided to part with my 1966 Dodge Dart GT Convertible and place a classified ad for it online.

I thought my pitch was well written: ?For sale by owner. 1966 Dodge Dart GT convertible with only 49,000 original pampered miles. Originally purchased in Boise, Idaho, from a little old lady who only drove the car to the supermarket and back. Well equipped with Commando V-8 engine, bucket seats and center console. Near survivor status with one repaint. My daughter?s college tuition forces immediate sale. $18,000. Please call or send me an e-mail if you need additional information.?

I just sat back, kicked up my feet and waited for the phone to ring. Almost immediately, I heard that familiar ding on my cell phone along with the announcement, ?You have mail.? There was a note from John Smith. He was representing a client who lived in Australia and just happened to be looking for that exact car. His client was willing to pay to have it shipped but needed to know what it would cost before he could authorize the purchase. I called around and found a transporter that would do the job for $2,500. John wrote back that the price seemed fair and he would be sending me a bank check via Federal Express to cover the asking price, plus shipping. I agreed to pull the ad and sell him the car. His next email requested I contact him immediately after I received the check. Wow, was I excited! I sold my car for the full asking price and the check was in the mail. While I was boasting about the sale to my wife, she just laughed and said, ?How naive are you?? Was I really being naive? After a quick Google search for car scams, it became obvious that I was likely getting suckered into a variation of the classic Nigerian scam.

I learned that a Nigerian scam is any fraudulent transaction in which the money ultimately ends up in a Nigerian bank and is impossible to recover. The automotive version takes place when a foreign buyer introduces himself over the internet, offering to buy the car and pay with a single check to cover the purchase of the car along with the shipping costs. They always have a very friendly-sounding common name. The crooked buyer asks you to deposit his bank check, and once the check clears, to then pay his shipper with the additional money.

Sure enough, the next day I received a Federal Express envelope with a bank check for $20,500. Along with the check was a hand-written note providing the information that I would need in order to wire the funds to the shipper. Everyone in my office looked at the check and agreed it looked like a legitimate bank check. It had to be real. After all, what criminal would go through the time and expense to send an overnight Federal Express package? It had to cost at least $50 to send it from Australia. I couldn?t wait until lunchtime to run over to the bank and present it.

Upon entering the bank, I introduced myself as a long-term customer who needed the bank manager?s help to verify a bank check. After a few quick searches on his computer we located the international bank on which the check was drawn, along with a toll-free number, which he dialed. My fingers were crossed as the manager spoke bank jargon and wrote down another phone number on his pad. Before dialing the new number, he gave me a funny look and put the phone on speaker. Seeming to know what to expect, he dialed and watched my face as the voice on the other end answered ?FBI.? An agent introduced himself quickly and asked, ?Loss or no loss?? I soberly answered ?no loss? and considered myself very lucky.

According to the FBI agent, the scam artist works with a bogus transporter. Once you have deposited the check and forwarded the funds for the shipping to the transporter, the transporter will route the money to an account in Nigeria. It can take up to three months for the bank to determine that the check the scam artist has provided is counterfeit, but once it determines this it will then debit the money from your account. By then the scammers are long gone. The FBI has an entire set of web pages explaining how to avoid fraud.

For me, it was back to square one, and the tuition bill was still due. I re-posted the ad, and the following day I received this email: ?Hello, I really like your car and I am satisfied with the price. I?m using this opportunity also to inform you that I won?t be able to come and inspect the vehicle or pay by cash because I am an offshore oil worker with Exxon and I am at work at sea at the moment. I would like to have a friend send you a bank check via Federal Express. The amount of the check will include shipping, and you can wire this extra money directly to my shipper. Please get back to me ASAP. Trishia.?

I had learned my lesson. I quickly responded to her email with ?In God we trust; all others pay cash.?

Source: http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2012/09/07/american-car-nigerian-scam/

2012 ncaa basketball tournament walt what time is it current time