Nigerian Auto Scam -- Read and be careful

[Radar]

I know this is long, but its very imporant.

I was close to becoming another victim of the Nigerian Auto Scam. I'm going to explain how it all happened. Read and be careful when selling your car.

Okay so I have had my car for sale on Auto Trader. I get an e-mail from a guy that is wants to buy my car. He writes in broken english but is very nice and replies quickly always. So we agreed on 12,900 for the price of the car (which was obviously great for me, too good to be true) he was giving me 300 to help pay for a few minor repairs. The buyer who goes by the name Tony Jackson claims that he is in Europe and works for a holding company that deals in buying and selling new and used cars. The buyer tells me that he has money over here in a bank that is here from a previous deal that had gone bad and that he's going to actually send me a check for 17,300. Once I get the check I'm supposed to cash it and immediately use Western Union and wire the remainder of the cash to a shipping company (MSC Ocean Liners) in the Netherlands.

So on Friday I received the cashiers check (Friday plays into the picture) and went to my bank and deposited it. I took out 12,000 in a check to pay for my new car and took out the remaining 4,400 in cash to go to Western Union. So I had the cash and went to Western Union and wired the money to this guy named Lucky Campbell who is supposedly the senior accounting manager of the shipping company. Then I went home to pick up my stock seats and summer wheels for the car. My good friend was coming down because I was buying his 540i from him. We're playing some craps in my basement and talking about the whole deal. The second he heard that I wired money back to a shipping company he said, "Hey man we gotta look into this". His friend had just lost 6000 on a scam that sounds exactly like this, turns out to be the same scam. So we discuss is while we're out for dinner. We go back to my place and do a search for overseas auto scams. I found a message board where somebody described my situation the word for word talking about the guy. So then we start to get worried. I was luckier than you can imagine. I sent the money at about 3:00 my time which was like 10:00 in the Netherlands. So most places over there were closed.

I was instructed to e-mail the shipping company as soon as I sent the money. So I did that and received an e-mail back from them saying they got the money just fine. But since we had realized it was late there we got on Western Unions website and checked the funds. Turns out they hadn't yet picked up the funds mainly because its the middle of the night. So at 2:30 am I call Western Union and put a stop on the money and have it sent back to me here in Indiana. So we have the money back and all is okay on my side. I talked to the fraud department at Western Union and they had heard about the scam and gave me the number of the US Secret Service because they had a hotline setup for this exact scam. I called the hotline and was told from a machine to forward any e-mails to an address.

I get an e-mail in the morning from the buyer saying theres been a big mistake and they weren't able to get the money, this is after they had already told me the got it okay the day before. They said it was to be picked up by me, which it was since I called Western Union, and that he wanted me to immediately go to Western Union and fix the problem. So I told the guy I can go when I get back to school cause right now I'm still at home. So at this time he still thinks he's got me but now im playing him.

So I get back down to Lafayette and go straight to my local dealer to talk to my friend there. I'm playing him a message from the buyer on my phone and he says to me. This guys name isn't Lucky is it? I'm like how did you know that name. He says to me that there had been an Arab man that had been in 2-3 times and that he always said to call himself Lucky. Lucky was the name of the person that I was supposed to send the money to originally. The buyer speaks with a very heavy accent that sounds like its from the middle east somewhere. The guy wouldn't give my friend at the dealer a straight story and kept lying to him and would never tell him his real name. He just kept saying to call me Lucky. Finally my friend got pissed cause the guy was just full of shit and said get out. This whole side of the story could be just a huge coincidence but I don't know.

So I then head over to Western Union and get the money back that I had orginally wired and immediately put it back into my account. I then received a message from the buyer saying that that Lucky Campbell from MSC Ocean Liners had been killed in a car crash. LOL Now he wants me to send the money to a new guy that is in Germany who works for a different shipping company. I reply to him telling him I'm not going to be able to send the money until Tuesday becasue the banks are closed Sunday and Monday for MLK Day.

I figure they planned on the check being on here on a Friday so that the banks would be closed for the weekend and the check wouldn't be sent by the bank to be cleared until the next business day. Also all government agencies are very hard to get ahold of on the weekends.

So I've still got this guy playing into my hand now. I have his cell phone number which I have traced to the Baltimore area. I've also traced his IP but havn't been able to get past a router in Philiadelphia. I'm waiting to hear back from the Secret Service or the FBI to see if there is anything they want me to do.

If your selling your car here are things to look out for.

1. The buyer writes with really broken up English and all e-mail address you deal with come from free e-mail sites. The ones they used were

zenithholding@fastermail.com
mscoceanliners@elvis.com

2. The buyer has a very amercian name but has a heavy middle eastern accent.

The names used with me were

Tony Jackson, Lucky Campbell, Ellen Adams, Grace Duke

3. The buyer sends you a list of local Western Union's to use to wire the money to the shipping company.

4. They send a cashiers check, it comes from a bank in Florida but the originating address comes from somewhere else. Mine said it came from Maryland but then had NIG (nigeria) as the Country.

5. Most important, they're sending you extra money that you need to wire back to a shipping company. Essentially they're just looking to make a quick and easy 5000.


So it turns out that im going to only lose about 200, the original Western Union transfer fee. About the best lesson I've ever learned for 200 dollars and much better than losing 4400. If I can save at least one person on this site that will make me feel better. Hopefully since im still in contact with this guy and he thinks he's got me we can actually get him.

For more information about the scam go here

http://www.netscams.com/Forum/YaBB.cgi?board=news

http://www.usedcarmart.co.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=15

I'll let you know how it all turns out.

[Jeeves1991M5]

You should screw the secret service... i can show ya how to work a .12 guage REAL quick

[Jeeves1991M5]

... not that i condone violence or anything....

[Matthew C Smith]

Be careful out there everybody. If it seems too good to be true, it just very well may be!

[alen]

cool thanks for the update. i personally wouldn't sell my car overseas, anyways. again, thanks for taking your time to write the warning.

[tdc]

I don't get it. You received a cashier's cheque for $17,300? And you didn't deliver the car yet?

A cashier's cheque is as good as cash from my experiences.

Shit, send that dude my way. I could use a free cashiers cheque for $17,300.

[Radar]

Its a fraudulent (sp?) check. It looks just like a real one but its not.

[J Clark]

holy shit, my friend just went thru this with a guy named "Smatt" in Austrailia. he guessed it was a rip from the beginning when some austrailian wanted to buy my friends beater 95 civic for 7,500$ us.

SAME EXACT type of scam tho. watch out.

[BooostedA4]

i ahve had a couple people from over seas try this also. I just dont email them back cuase i know its a cam.

When you cash a 10k check at any bank, the bank must report it to the government. Then they look into it and relize its a fake check and you sent the extra money to the guy...who makes out and you probbly already spen the cash on a new car and then your ****ED for the cash.

If you went through your basically laundering money for them. Im sure they get away with this ALOT from the stupid people out there...no offense, you were smart enough to get out before it got bad.

[Syko]

Have you never heard of this before? It's widely known.

[bimmerdawg]

Ive had the same thing happen to me selling stuff on ebay.. Usually from indonesia... Theres a lot more scams out there then we know...Kinda weird how they aren't getting caught. I wonder if they go on these sites and read about themselves. You can go into ebay and read forums about these scams...

[bimmerdawg]

all of them always deal with Western Union Transfers b/c you cant trace and cancel as easy as other services. Always be aware when dealing with international and western union

[Iwannadinanm3]

i had this guy e-mail me for like 3 of my cars i had on auto trader, he said he was from ireland or something, just to scare him, my last reply was that i'm going to forward the info to the fbi, never replied again lol

[Moteursport]

Welcome,

To the year 2003.

[clor0x]