craigslist help!!!!!!!?

[Violentsoap636]

So i found this amazing car that i want to buy. i emailed the owner and he sent me this email. i need to know if this is legit before proceeding. also, how can i test drive the car if i do not own it. will my insurance cover it?

Anyways, here is the email:

"Right now I'm in a military base. We are training, getting ready for Afghanistan. I am only allowed to check my email few times a day. We have to stick to e-mail for now. Hope you can understand. Like I already said, the delivery process will be managed by me. I think I can have it there at your home address within 3-5 working days. It will come with a clear title and reg. I am a member of the Google Checkout buyer protection program and using this service you will get a 5 days testing period after delivery. During that 5 days testing period I will not be getting any money. I need to know if you are interested so I can ask Google Checkout to send you the details on this deal.
If interested please include in your next email your contact info for Google Checkout (full name, shipping address,zip code and phone number), so we can get the ball rolling."

should I reply with my info?

[Kittysue]

100% SCAM
1 -Before you look at any cars on Craigslist, this page comes up http://houston.craigslist.org/i/autos?&category=cta/ and has these bullet point
"Do not buy vehicles sight-unseen, regardless of low price. The vehicle does not exist, and any money you send will be lost.
Stories about divorcees or departing servicemen needing to sell quickly at a low price are generally fraudulent
If you see these tell-tale signs, flag ad as "prohibited" and avoid"
2 - Then on the top of every listing page it says in large capital letter and is underlined so you can't miss it "[ AVOID OFFERS TO SHIP VEHICLES ] "
3 - Then on every single individual listing it says in red so you can't miss it
"Avoid scams, deal locally! Do NOT wire funds (Western Union, Moneygram). Beware cashier checks, money orders, shipping, non-local buyers/sellers."
4 - then there is the fact that Google Checkout has not existed since October 2011 when Google got rid of it
5 - Google offers NO sort of buyer protection program and does not allow any sort of testing period
6 -NOBODY is going to spend $2000+ shipping a car already priced below market value
7 - Anyone going into the military would sell their car for cash to a local dealer before they go to basic training. They don't sell over the internet


NEVER agree to buy any car that you cannot
- see in person. If you can't see it in person, it doesn't exist and those are pictures stolen off some dealer's website
- test drive it. If the owner will not let you test drive it before you agree to buy it, the car either doesn't exist or has major problems
- have the mechanic of your choice inspect it, All car sales are on an as-is basis and you can't get your money back if you buy it and discover it needs $3000 worth of work. And never trust a seller to tell you that it's in good condition. It's worth spending $100 on a mechanic so you don't end up spending $3000 on repairs
- verify IN PERSON that the seller's ID is the same name as on the title. If you can't do this you are buying a stolen vehicle which will be confiscated from you and you will be investigated if you try to register or insure it. Don't trust any documents over email - these can be easily faked
- have the owner sign the title over to you IN PERSON in front of a witness or notary. You don't own the car until this is done. You can send all the money you want but if he doesn't sign over the title to you in person and in front of a witness or notary (depending on your state law) then you don't own the car

[faintLover798]

100% scam.

There is no car for sale. There are stolen pictures of someone else's car.

There is only a scammer trying to steal your hard-earned money.

The next email will be from another of the scammer's fake names and free email addresses pretending to be the "Google Checkout buyer protection program" and will demand you pay for shipping fees, in cash, and only by Western Union or moneygram. Or the scammer will want you to "prove" you have the funds by sending cash to a friend and sending him the MTCN#. The scammer then uses the MTCN# to pick up your cash and disappear.

Western Union and moneygram do not verify anything on the form the sender fills out, not the name, not the street address, not the country, not even the gender of the receiver, it all means absolutely nothing. The clerk will not bother to check ID and will simply hand off your cash to whomever walks in the door with the MTCN# and question/answer. Neither company will tell the sender who picked up the cash, at what store location or even in what country your money walked out the door. Neither company has any kind of refund policy, money sent is money gone forever

Now that you have responded to a scammer, you are on his 'potential sucker' list, he will try again to separate you from your cash. He will send you more emails from his other free email addresses using another of his fake names with all kinds of stories of great jobs, lottery winnings, millions in the bank and desperate, lonely, sexy singles. He will sell your email address to all his scamming buddies who will also send you dozens of fake emails all with the exact same goal, you sending them your cash via Western Union or moneygram.

You could post up the email address and the emails themselves that the scammer is using, it will help make your post more googlable for other suspicious potential victims to find when looking for information.

Do you know how to check the header of a received email? If not, you could google for information. Being able to read the header to determine the geographic location an email originated from will help you weed out the most obvious scams and scammers. Then delete and block that scammer. Don't bother to tell him that you know he is a scammer, it isn't worth your effort. He has one job in life, convincing victims to send him their hard-earned cash.

Whenever suspicious or just plain curious, google everything, website addresses, names used, companies mentioned, phone numbers given, all email addresses, even partial sentences from the emails as you might be unpleasantly surprised at what you find already posted online. You can also post/ask here and every scam-warner-anti-fraud-busting site you can find before taking a chance and losing money to a scammer.

If you google "Craigslist car seller scam", "fake truck sale scam Western Union", "fake car shipping company scam" or something similar you will find hundreds of posts from victims and near-victims of this type of scam.