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Wow! We listed my minivan on Autotrader and Craigslist the other day, since the Atlanta dealer says our Smarts should be here in the next week.
Now, I am an experienced Ebayer with literally thousands and thousands of auctions under my belt, and I read their Trust & Safety board avidly, which is an eyeopener, I might add, so I consider myself "up" on pretty much any online scam.
But I am just blown away by the number of scam calls I am getting about this van. Two people from out of state have made offers sight unseen, another is sending his son on a plane to come and see it, one got all bent out of shape because I wouldn't take an out of state Bank of America cashier's check (I politely suggested going to BOA together , in the van, natch, and getting one), and the absolute frosting today is some guy who wants to wire me the money, if I'd just be kind enough to give him my checking account number............yeah, like that's gonna happen, buddy!
It just appalls me that there are people who have nothing to do but sit around and make scam phone calls like it's their job. It's an ugly, sad statement on society. Even if only one person in twenty falls for this line, it's a good living, I suppose.
Has anyone else experienced this? Any other twists I should look for?
A wire transfer to your checking account is relatively risk free IMHO. Your bank will give you a special routing number other than yours for the transaction. Safer than a cashiers check.
I ended up buying a hot laptop there (after having Dell verify that it wasn't stolen). Still had the original owner's info on it, so I returned it. He was glad to have it back, reimbursed me.
After that experience, I paid closer attention to the other ads there. Many appear to be from scammers.
My Avalon is listed on Autotrader and I have gotten calls from people from onestopmotors.com and thebiglot.com, both rip off places. A Toyota dealer called me pretending that he had a client, but really wanted me to trade my Avalon for a new Toyota. I have had two legit calls but no test drives yet.
Both of those calls came from a local newspaper ad. I was thinking about craigslist....should I reconsider?
I listed my SLK on Ebay a year or so ago. Complete nightmare, two fake bidders, ended up costing me a couple of hundred bucks in listing fees. My own fault for being so smug I could sell anything on Ebay.
Relisted it on Autotrader, at a higher asking price, and it sold in a week to a very nice older man, God bless 'im, from south Georgia who was thrilled to get it. I hope his wife forgave him. My dad has a tendency to come home with little unexpected surprises like that, too, lol!
I think my scam calls are coming from Autotrader, though, since the Craigslist ad didn't go up til yesterday. One very persistent scammer has called and emailed repeatedly. He called within (I am not exaggerating here!) twenty minutes of my completing the Autotrader listing. Someone from the same 407 NJ area code called within half an hour of my putting up the Craiglist ad, too.
IMHO, there's no escaping them anywhere. I remember the dealers and "selling services" that called us nonstop when we listed a Honda in the Atlanta newspaper fifteen years ago. They've just migrated, and..........mutated!
Snakefarm, too too funny. There was a similar website a while back, now defunct, called bustedupcowgirl. Scammers would email her about horses she had for sale, and she would follow through and post all their back and forth emails. Throughout it all, she would give them running updates of how "their" animals were doing. There was one about a mule that was hysterical.
When she'd get the fake cashier's check, she would stall them and stall them, and their emails would get more and more heated, about how she was "stealing" their money, and she'd answer back stuff like she'd gotten drunk and gone riding the mule, who'd broken it's forelock (she'd throw stuff in for her own amusement), and she'd had to shoot it.
It was a shame she took the site down. I'd read it every few weeks for the laugh.
Wow! We listed my minivan on Autotrader and Craigslist the other day, since the Atlanta dealer says our Smarts should be here in the next week.
Now, I am an experienced Ebayer with literally thousands and thousands of auctions under my belt, and I read their Trust & Safety board avidly, which is an eyeopener, I might add, so I consider myself "up" on pretty much any online scam.
But I am just blown away by the number of scam calls I am getting about this van. Two people from out of state have made offers sight unseen, another is sending his son on a plane to come and see it, one got all bent out of shape because I wouldn't take an out of state Bank of America cashier's check (I politely suggested going to BOA together , in the van, natch, and getting one), and the absolute frosting today is some guy who wants to wire me the money, if I'd just be kind enough to give him my checking account number............yeah, like that's gonna happen, buddy!
It just appalls me that there are people who have nothing to do but sit around and make scam phone calls like it's their job. It's an ugly, sad statement on society. Even if only one person in twenty falls for this line, it's a good living, I suppose.
Has anyone else experienced this? Any other twists I should look for?
Sold mine 24 hours on Craigslist, didn't even get the pictures up. Asked $10,000, got $8,000 cash. smart dealer would only give me $3500. Best way to prevent the scammers, first one who shows up with the cash gets the car.
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