DesiBaba

So as alot of you know, i've been trying to sell my car for the longest time now, but ofcourse given the great market for used E, its been 4 months and i still don't have a buyer.
Well it all changed yesterday afternoon when an individual called from chicago really interested in my car, and wanted to pay $35,000 for it. I'm like are you serious why would u pay over my asking price. Turns out he's some loaded easten european dude and only would be here for few months and he is in luv with this car and has to have it NOW. I'm like ok, whtever floats his boat. So we set up a meet few hours later, him agreeing to pay with cash/cashiers check if he does like the car. The dude and his cuz show up in a late model Carrera, so seems like they're in money to be able to pay cash/cashiers check without financing the amount. The individual doesn't even test drive the car, lets his cuz drive it and make the decision for him. I say whtever again. The guy pulls out a cashiers check, seemed authentic, i insisted on making copies of his ID. Everything seemed fine, i signed over my title(there's still a lean on it). Off they go in my shiny just detailed E.
Just on a hunch i tried calling the bank to verify the funds last nite on my way back from the sale, ofcourse the bank is closed. Called them this morning, turns out freaking check is a FAKE. Oh it hit me then, how stupid i have been to make a deal like that. I trusted the guy, seemed geniune, when its always been my life theory to not trust ANYONE, and then i go do something like that. Maybe i just got too desperate to sell, i really hated the car lately.
But then again i have given cashiers check myself when i bought the cars before so i trusted that medium of payment. Arghhhh....
I called up the police this morning, ofcourse cop goes well lets fill out the paper work and tells me 'u know it all takes time, i'll have a report ready for you sometime middle of next week' hello this is my car we're talking about, dude do something now. The car is proly already halfway accross the ocean on its way to europe.

JWS3

Wow.... sounds like you got b*tt****ed pretty bad. Sorry to hear. Hopefully the police can help. Contact your insurance agent as well.

HELL ONA HARLEY

I've known a few brothers that have "burned" their Harleys and have had them "stolen" to get out form under them, but your story is a new one....

xraymd

Do you have teleaid or can you activate it? Maybe MB could tell you where your car is.

starbrite

That's why they call these kind of people "con" men, because they trade on your "confidence". The "sleazy" looking guy's check would probably be good.

AkMadness

I agree if you have Teleaid service you can have them trace the cars movement and current location. Just a suggestion though I assume you've already thought of this idea.

Sorry to hear about your car man, my buddy got screwed outta his money by a con man using a very convinceing story and even made a fake website called www.betatransport.com, supposably a very experienced transporting company based in Texas. The site was so legit looking it even allowed you to type in a tracking number and see where the vehicle and everything was, a day later into the process moneys gone, his new car gone the seller is no where to be found.

mannnu81

man, it sucks that there people out there dedicated to swindeling others. i hope one day they get whats coming to them

X72

It is too late for you, desibaba. For anyone else reading this thread, there have been a lot of these counterfeit cashier's check scams going on for quite a while involving expensive items being sold on eBay or by owner like desibaba.

A cashier's check is easily counterfeited with all the nice computers, scanners, and printers we have. The crooks know that in the mind of many, a cashier's check = cash which is very far from the truth nowadays.

A cashier's check is a piece of easily counterfeited paper; much easier than making counterfeit cash. I would only accept a cashier's check if I could verify the check at the exact bank branch it was issued from, meaning I would only accept a local check. I would verify the check with the exact bank officer that issued the check if possible. I would only do the transaction during business hours at the bank branch so I could verify the check just prior to handing over the car to the buyer.

I went to sell my sister's Lexus IS 300 and was approached by a swindler like what you encountered desibaba saying that their buyer was in Europe. I had read the link I posted below so it was obvious to me right from the beginning. I played along a little while and then forwarded my messages with headers to the fraud link of the online site I had used that had generated this crooked lead.

I didn't get any good offers in the time frame I allotted, so I sold the car to Carmax.

Desibaba, you didn't tell us where you advertised the car and how these crooks found you. Your message sounded like your distaste for the car clouded your judgement.

I wonder if your auto insurance will cover this or not.

Check out http://www.carbuyingtips.com/fraud.htm

luxury1

Let me ask you guys this. If you found a buyer and used the dealer to handle the paperwork (as if you were trading it) are you still at risk for scam or does the dealer assume the risk?

X72

desibaba, thanks for posting your experience since I am hopeful that someone reading this thread will be a lot more cautious when selling their car.

William
2003 E320

X72

Talk to the dealer and ask the people in the finance office how they verify payment. My guess is that since they are in business, they can run credit checks on the buyer or they can run an ID verification software that can weed out ID theives since they ask questions (old addresses, vehicles) that an ID thief is very unlikely to know.

sosh

You did a very dumb thing right from the start. You did not insist on a settlement when the banks were open, you should have smelled a rat when he offered more than the ask and you did not insist that the car not leave before the funds were verified. Having been in the aircraft business most of my life I have seen all the scams that are out there. This one is very common. We would accept a treasurers or cashiers check as a deposit but final payment was always in the form of a wire transfer and the aircraft never left our possession until it was verified that all checks had cleared and that the wired funds were in our bank. I clearly remember a crew from a middle eastern company that we kept here for over a week and the funds I guess are still not here and that was over 11 years ago. They also stiffed the hotel in which they were staying with a bad credit card. They had even presented us with a fake fed wire number. This deal was worth over 4 mil.

Barry45RPM

What a hard hit Dude. Now you've got no car and a note that you must pay. Tough, tough break.

Just to file this away, I always conclude a private sale in the guys own bank & get cash from the bank.

jimbo1mcm

Thanks for posting your loss. That took courage. You have a lot of guys out here that would have gone down the same road. Forget the idiots that have hammered you on this forum. It's pretty easy to be a "Monday morning quarterback".

Miguk_Saram

Desibaba,

Sorry for your misfortune.

Thanks for posting your experience, it makes us all that much wiser.

intrinsico

Oh man, please keep us posted on what's going on, it's unbelievable how much guts these people have. A few questions/points:
- did you get the license plate of the Carrera?
- where were the driver licenses from and do they have the actual pictures of the guys? The cops might be able to do something with that
- does the car have Lojack?
- did the insurance company say that your theft coverage might save you or is this not considered theft?
- try to contact not only your local police but also the FBI (should have a counter draud department or something like that). Again, the pictures on the IDs might save you
- have you tried doing a Google on the guys' names, phone numbers or reverse lookups (switchboard.com) on the phone numbers and/or addresses? There are even websites (for a fee) that reverse lookup cell phones.

You have to act as quickly as you can. Scams like these should not be this easy to pull. I feel for you and I hope you'll get out of this clean.

Sergiu

DesiBaba

Thanks for all the replies,
HELL ONA HARLEY, Dude if I wanted to do a insurance scam...this isn't the route I would take...actually I wouldn't take any route...because I don’t' want to risk my whole life for chum change like that. I'm appalled that you would even suggest something like that.
That being said, I heard back from the local PD, who got hold of the crook thru his cell, Crook's story is he had given me cash for the car, and he has signed receipt for it, which I never signed any receipt except signing my title over to him. Then he goes, oh maybe his cousin gave me the check, well that makes me a rich guy, getting $70Gs for that car. Cop told him that they have his counterfeit check; at that time he hung up saying talk to his lawyers.
Which makes me very confuse, if he's a genuine crook...y would he give me his real cell# or address (actually that still has to be investigated).
Today's headline; local PD won't do anything because the transaction didn’t happen in their jurisdiction, so now the local PD of where the transaction took place, would be investigating the matter, and may go out tom. to Chicago to check on the address that was on the ID. What bullcrap, I thought police should have jumped on the case right away as soon as they heard from the guy. Or it only happens in the movies I guess.
-No I don’t' have Teleaid activated on the car
-No lo jacks
-Insurance company/Police dept. all are taking it as 'Theft by deception'. So there's some hope of recovering the cash, I guess.
-PD has told me that Secret Service might get involved in this matter too, because of the fraudulent amount & counterfeit matter.
-No I didn't get the license plate of Carrera, should have my wife was thinking about it, but then got distracted with the baby. It was Illinois license plate. So it should help in narrowing down somewhat unless that was a stolen vehicle in itself too.

I swear the check looked very authentic, with all the necessary information on the front of the check and the back. But then again I have never seen a cashiers check from Chase Bank, so I didn't know alot of info. was missing from the check. This is a pretty big lesson for me, and def. not the best way to experience it. But then again if these obstacles arent' in life, it would be heaven on earth.

DWP

Try not to share that particular information with the police. You caught a major break when the perp surfaced, and you don't want the police expanding the scope of their investigation any more than strictly necessary.

starbrite

Well said DWP !

HELL ONA HARLEY

Sorry if I offended you, but I found your post quite bizzare and at first thought it was a joke... I personally would never post on the web what a fool I was for accepting a rubber check for the sale of my car, Period..... I mean whats the point???? I don't think you really did anyone here any favors by doing so as it is simply common sense and business 101. I agree with barry and my private sales also always end at the buyers bank. Its like having to tell your 16 year old daughter not to take candy from a stranger or help him look for his lost puppy (should no better at that age). At any age past puberty it should be well known accepting checks of any kind from a stanger is a no no... Well, at least is was where I grew-up....
Good luck, Unfortunatly it now sounds like you'll need it.

AndrewAZ

If you get the secret service involved I think you should be fine. Being on the wrong end higher levels of government such as the SS or FBI is never any good, especially the IRS... Good luck at getting your car or money back keep us all posted.

I am sure the police have done this but if you have his cell phone you can track it back to the cell provider and they can give you the address to the guy and his information but this request will need a warrant by your local police. Depending on his network the cell phone company could pin point his location if his phone is on or on a call to within 3-5 square miles possibly 10-20 feet depending on the cell phone provider and number of towers in the area. It would be hard to get them to do a triangulation but they can do it, they have the ability since your cell phone sends a coded signal to a tower so they can tell what tower your phone is talking with and with 3-4 towers they can triangulate the position to 10-20 feet, with a few towers more like a city block or 1 tower 3-5 miles.

AkMadness

Glad to hear there has been a break through in your situation!

jimbo1mcm

Don't want to really burst your bubble, but the local PD is not going to triangulate a cell phone for a fraud deal. They have murder cases they don't even do it with. I am sure the cell phone is disconnected by now anyway.Good luck.

sosh

Not if its a prepaid cell phone which most criminals use. Info will not tell them anything. Besides that car is most likely out of the country by now in a container on the deck of a ship. Unfortunatly police seem to blow off car theft and fraud. I do not understand this as if a crook put a gun to your head and stole 50 grand they would be interested.

Jakarta Expat

Could it be that they figure the car is insured and the money maybe not? I could speaking from a point of naivity but then I have not interacted with the US cops in the last 20 years.