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Regular
Posts: 84
| I've been looking for a 57 Dodge Coronet for a project. As I surf the internet I found one listed out in Oregon with an email address. I emailed the guy and his name is David Mauldin. He told me he sent the car to New Jersey to ship to a friend in Germany. The friend had medical issues and could not take the car so it is for sale now. He stated he was an engineer for an oil equipment company and had been sent to a oil rig in the Gulf so he is not available. He had an official email address under his company name even. He gave me the site of the shipping company and said that they are a broker company that specializes in cars. He sent me many pictures of the car and said it was $8800 firm and this shipping company would deliver it. If I liked the pictures then set up an account with the shipping company and they would manage the money between the two of us much like pay pal. Upon reciept of my money they would deliver the car and if I was satisfied they would then transfer the money to him. The site he gave me for the shipping company was amazing and looked very official on line. It was called Aitch Freight. I started investigating it on line and It shows to be an actual company out of the UK. They had a terminal in Oregon. and others in Europe. However nothing in New jersey. The website looks really like a solid freight specialty company where you can set up an account and ship and recieve. To test him, I told him I had a good friend that just happens to live in New jersey and could easily stop and look at the car if I could have the address. He avoided that and told me to just get with the shipping company and they would deliver the car and I could check it over then, but the pictures showed the whole car in good detail. I researched the Oregon terminal address and it does exist owned by another trucking company. I then emailed him that I smelled a scam here and he could verify his car ownership by sending me a picture of the title. He then promptly dropped all communication with me. No I did not send him any money so no loss. But that brokerage company looked so real I was amazed. I have since read that this scam has been pretty rampant in Australia. Anyway I just wanted to post this on this site to warn others to be aware of this routine if you come accross it. I have discovered several cars listed on sites like Trovit, odle and general ad sites are scams. Imagine the very idea of scamming a Forward Look car - geez. |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 5008
| you should always ask for one of us local guys to check it out if you can.
Even if you cant actually send someone, just act like you are. You will soon see the scammers runs like ****roaches.
I've been surprised a lot of scammers are on these forums and I ran into one on the 300C site. He emailed me the whole "ill send you a a check send me back the difference!".
I guess the 300C are easy to scam since they are old guys? not internet savvy? |
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Expert
Posts: 3891
   
Location: Northen Virginia | too many scammers around, never buy a car without seen it in person. They are hundred of stories of that kind.
Edited by hemidenis 2017-12-23 1:01 PM
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 943
| I often buy stuff sight unseen but this is good to keep in mind. The "can I have someone come look at it" test will weed out all scammers, since they have nothing to show you and are somewhere in Nigeria, hoping to get money out of you so they can take lessons on how to type English ...  |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 494
Location: Alberta | I think there was a similar scam advertised on KIIJII here in Calgary Ab, for several mos. this past summer I talked to the guy on three occasions, the story was much the same the cheque was going to a buddy working off shore "yada yada yada". All I can say to you is what I've been told "you know what they call this don't you? answer: experience" The definition of experience is, wiser after the fact. You can't rewrite history you can only learn from it. In my case the old saying "TOO SOON OLD TOO LATE SMART" always applies. I have now been self diagnosed with AFD also I'd buy them all if I could………………………….. |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 5008
| get phone numbers and call after you exchange emails. That was obviously a scam... I work on an oil rig... hah nice one. My friend shipped it but I cant blah blah blah.
get names and addresses, you can use the county real estate to look up the actual owner of the property also here in the states. Hell you can look up peoples names in voter registration and court cases.
For example: I think all "counties" in the USA have searches now. Public property records.
Lets take a nearby county of mine: Medina County. And look for anyone, smith jones etc
http://www.medinacountyauditor.org/property-search.htm
You can also see if they had a speeding ticket or crime if they lived in that county also. |
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Expert
Posts: 2519
Location: central Illinois | I once expressed interest in cars a guy on here had for sale. We messaged about several and I finally settled on one. I hired an inspector through a company I found on the web and it was inspected within a week. The inspector took around 200 pictures, did a thorough inspection and included a video of it running (with the owner sitting in the background) as it puffed blue smoke out the tail pipe. The inspection showed "homemade" rocker panels, very questionable bodywork on the quarter panels and fenders, etc. That $225 was the best money I've ever spent.
I can't imagine trying to buy a car sight unseen without hiring a professional. You get an honest unbiased report and you confirm what the car really is. |
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Got Scammed This Week
