David and all,
Good fill in to reinforce the awarness on a new scam.... Thank You.
Information is a good thing our lists do for us.
John
John,
This is a an up and coming Nigerian scam, since people have wised up to
the old help-me-get-my-millions-out-of-the-country scam. It also points
up a weakness of sorts in the banking system.
The usual method is for someone to offer (via email) full price for your
car plus some. They have someone that they claim owes them some money in
the US. They say this friend will send/give you a Cashiers Check in
excess of the purchase price and please send them the difference, usually
a few thousand dollars. They even tell you that you can wait a few days
(usually 10 or so) for the Cashiers Check to clear the bank.
The thing is that the check will clear the bank, you think you have good
funds, and you think there is no risk to sending out the excess cash.
What happens is that it takes the banking system around 30 days to figure
out that the check is forged. They will then charge the forged check
back to your account. The car was never the issue as the scammer never
cared about getting it, so you haven't heard from them since you sent the
cash.
It sounds like people are getting wise that anything to do with Nigeria
is a fraud, so now the Nigerians are pretending to be Swiss. Either
that, or the scam has spread.
In this case, the "freight forwarder" was probably just a front for the
scammer.
These jerks scan Internet classified ads for new meat. I got one based
on my ad on a Jaguar club site. I know a friend that got one based on an
ad he placed concerning his MGB.
The lesson (besides the usual "if it sounds too good to be true...") is
that even a Cashiers Check can bounce. John is right, especially if you
don't know someone, cash is the only way to go!
-David Littlefield.
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