The following information came
from one of our clients that could have been burned by the following scam.
We received a similar email from someone in South Africa wanting to buy Jeep
parts from us using the same method as described below. Be careful if you
are selling your Jeep (or parts) to someone outside of North America.
If anyone wants to buy your Jeep or parts from outside of North America there is a 99.9% chance that it is a scam, especially if they are going through, or claim to be an agent. To better protect yourself and eliminate bogus emails use your phone number as a method of contact and don't even put your email address in your ad. If someone is legitimate they will phone you to make arrangements to buy your Jeep.
The Attorney General's office has issued a warning about selling merchandise over the internet and accepting cashier's checks drawn on foreign banks. The scam runs as such: person shows interest in a product but only has a check for more than the amount, asks seller to refund a portion of the check to them and offers a small fee for their trouble, US banks do not pay close attention to the cashier's check until it is refused by the issuing bank and found to be a forgery, bank sue's seller for all funds, seller loses merchandise, $9000.00, and credit rating!
This is the actual email that was sent to our client...
Hello Thanks for the mail. Am interest in the Golden Hawk CJ7 I am interested and would be willing to buy it at that price $7000 and I like it.
I am located in England and have an International shipping agent that will come pick it up from your house and ship to me. I will arrange for payment by sending your full name and address to my client in the States who is owing me the amount of $9,000 to issue you a cashier cheque for this amount. which is a refund for a cancelled order I placed with him, and being a refund the amount can only be written on a single check. I know it is more than the Golden Hawk CJ7 but after getting the check, I need you to cash it and deduct cost of the Golden Hawk CJ7 then do me a favour of wiring the remaining balance to my International shipper via money gram and the address of my international shipper in the state will be sent to you as soon as you cash the check so that the balance can be sent to me for the pick up in your house. You will also deduct $200 for running around and for the charge fee for wiring back the difference. After this is done and he gets the money, he will then pick it up from your residence and ship to me. So, confirm this and send your full name and address including phone # for mailing the check payment to you as soon as possible. Waiting for your urgent reply.
Kind regards,
mike
and this one....
fred bruce
[fred_bruce1111@yahoo.com]
Thanks