Hello friends, on a lark I spotted an ad for a Mini. It was clearly too good to be true, but I was intrigued enough to write. You should see the reply. Instinct tells me it is a scam, and I'm intrigued as to the nature of this particular scam.

The ad was posted on a Cincinnati Craigslist. Its important I mention that, as you will see below. So I wrote a brief note, indicating my interest.

The response was, copied over word for word:

"Hi,
First of all I want to thank you for your interest for my car. I sell it at this price ($4000) because i just finished the divorce with my husband.Now as a women i don't need it. This car is in excellent working conditions, no scratches, flaws or any kind of damage, slightly used in 100% working and looking conditions and comes with a clear title.The car has 11814 original miles.From the begining you have to know that for the payment I request only secure pay, I prefer the ebay.

If you are interested in buying it please provide me your full name and address so I can initiate a transaction case.
It is simple and is great for both parties so that any lack of trust is eliminated.
I will wait your answer(if you are interested to buy) very soon."

as to which I said I would come view the car, and pay cash if everything was OK.

The response?

"Hi again,
The car is already at the shipping company in Clifton Forge, VA sealed and ready for the shipping.I'm very busy with my job and I'm left out of the town so I can't meet in person with you so this is the reason why I chose to sell my car over the internet
Here's how our deal works :
In order to complete this deal the payment must be sent to ebay. As soon as they receive the payment will notify me to start with delivery.After that you will receive all information about delivery so you can be able to track your shipment online.ebay will hold your payment until you receive and inspect the car (you have 5 days for inspection) If you will find the smallest problem with the car you will ship it back on my expense and ebay will send you yourfull amount back.
Now, if you are serious about this and want to move forward, I would need your complete name and shipping address so I can open a case with ebay and after that they will contact you and will explain you better how the whole process works so we can complete this transaction successfully and in the best manner !

Looking forward to hearing from you"

.... I think not.

So there it is. Once again, how does this scam work?

The horrific english is a clue that something is wrong. lol, i prefer the ebay. :D

I prefer the ebay too... :rofl

You should have told them you were local and no shipping is needed.. see what happens then.. ;)

My first guess is that they are looking for email addresses to sell to spammers. I fell for something similar on a 16:9 nav screen that seemed to cheap to be true. The payment and shipping details were too fishy for me to pay, so I never did, but from that point forward I get all kinds of spam in my Yahoo mail.

I've gotten reponses from similar scams when I inquired about a product. When they ask for my information my replies usually goes like this:

Name: Inmate # 187
Addresss: NY State Federal Penintentiary
1 Kiss My MuthaFkn A** Street
B**chville, NY 12345

Phone: 911 - death row division.
Bank: All that I robbed..


LOL...I get a kick out of these scams and send them some f**ked up replies.

What they are hoping is that you'll be foolish enough to send payment (or a deposit) for a car that doesn't exist.

What they are hoping is that you'll be foolish enough to send payment (or a deposit) for a car that doesn't exist.

correct, my friend that builds custom bikes and usually sells them on ebay has been used by these types of scams before.

He lists his custom bike, it doesnt sell because it doesnt hit reserve. A scammer then steals his bike pic, creates a user account with a name very similar (bob'scoppers vs bob'scoppers69) but lists his email address, relists the bike (same pic, same email etc).

So then the post goes live which says some $2000-$4K is due as depsoit within 48hrs of closeing. the bidding closes at 1000's less that what would be expected and the person (thinking they got a unbeleavleable deal) sends deposit to scammer who then takes off. poof never to be seen or heard from again.

my buddy then gets irate emails demanding that the bike be sent. Turns into a big mess. hes shut down about 3 of the various scams when he recived email questions about the bike and he wasnt listing it.

Hello friends, on a lark I spotted an ad for a Mini. It was clearly too good to be true, but I was intrigued enough to write. You should see the reply. Instinct tells me it is a scam, and I'm intrigued as to the nature of this particular scam.

The ad was posted on a Cincinnati Craigslist. Its important I mention that, as you will see below. So I wrote a brief note, indicating my interest.

The response was, copied over word for word:

"Hi,
First of all I want to thank you for your interest for my car. I sell it at this price ($4000) because i just finished the divorce with my husband.Now as a women i don't need it. This car is in excellent working conditions, no scratches, flaws or any kind of damage, slightly used in 100% working and looking conditions and comes with a clear title.The car has 11814 original miles.From the begining you have to know that for the payment I request only secure pay, I prefer the ebay.

If you are interested in buying it please provide me your full name and address so I can initiate a transaction case.
It is simple and is great for both parties so that any lack of trust is eliminated.
I will wait your answer(if you are interested to buy) very soon."

as to which I said I would come view the car, and pay cash if everything was OK.

The response?

"Hi again,
The car is already at the shipping company in Clifton Forge, VA sealed and ready for the shipping.I'm very busy with my job and I'm left out of the town so I can't meet in person with you so this is the reason why I chose to sell my car over the internet
Here's how our deal works :
In order to complete this deal the payment must be sent to ebay. As soon as they receive the payment will notify me to start with delivery.After that you will receive all information about delivery so you can be able to track your shipment online.ebay will hold your payment until you receive and inspect the car (you have 5 days for inspection) If you will find the smallest problem with the car you will ship it back on my expense and ebay will send you yourfull amount back.
Now, if you are serious about this and want to move forward, I would need your complete name and shipping address so I can open a case with ebay and after that they will contact you and will explain you better how the whole process works so we can complete this transaction successfully and in the best manner !

Looking forward to hearing from you"

.... I think not.

So there it is. Once again, how does this scam work?




First off: The listing is from Craigslist but the seller wants to use eBay as an escrow agent. BIG RED FLAG: eBay is not an escrow agent for sales!!

Second: The seller gets your email address and sends you an email from what looks like a legitimate eBay address along with all the trademark eBay logos. The email contains your personal information (which you provided to the seller previously) and redirects you to send money to an account (which is usually overseas but unknown to you).

Third: You send money and never hear back from the seller, eBay, and never receive the car. The money goes to a foreign account and is immediately withdrawn.

Final result: Your money is gone; the person is untraceable; you have nothing to show for it. That is how it works. :rolleyes :shifty

Hello friends, on a lark I spotted an ad for a Mini. It was clearly too good to be true, but I was intrigued enough to write. You should see the reply. Instinct tells me it is a scam, and I'm intrigued as to the nature of this particular scam.

The ad was posted on a Cincinnati Craigslist. Its important I mention that, as you will see below. So I wrote a brief note, indicating my interest.

The response was, copied over word for word:

"Hi,
First of all I want to thank you for your interest for my car. I sell it at this price ($4000) because i just finished the divorce with my husband.Now as a women i don't need it. This car is in excellent working conditions, no scratches, flaws or any kind of damage, slightly used in 100% working and looking conditions and comes with a clear title.The car has 11814 original miles.From the begining you have to know that for the payment I request only secure pay, I prefer the ebay.

If you are interested in buying it please provide me your full name and address so I can initiate a transaction case.
It is simple and is great for both parties so that any lack of trust is eliminated.
I will wait your answer(if you are interested to buy) very soon."

as to which I said I would come view the car, and pay cash if everything was OK.

The response?

"Hi again,
The car is already at the shipping company in Clifton Forge, VA sealed and ready for the shipping.I'm very busy with my job and I'm left out of the town so I can't meet in person with you so this is the reason why I chose to sell my car over the internet
Here's how our deal works :
In order to complete this deal the payment must be sent to ebay. As soon as they receive the payment will notify me to start with delivery.After that you will receive all information about delivery so you can be able to track your shipment online.ebay will hold your payment until you receive and inspect the car (you have 5 days for inspection) If you will find the smallest problem with the car you will ship it back on my expense and ebay will send you yourfull amount back.
Now, if you are serious about this and want to move forward, I would need your complete name and shipping address so I can open a case with ebay and after that they will contact you and will explain you better how the whole process works so we can complete this transaction successfully and in the best manner !

Looking forward to hearing from you"

.... I think not.

So there it is. Once again, how does this scam work?



Well if you really wanted to do a service to the community you could follow his directions and see what happens. Then we would know EXACTLY how the scam works.

i dont think they get that much by selling your email address to spammers. i think they are just hoping for find some naive enough to actually fall for the scam. the escrow service is a phoney, and they just take your money.

Easy. Ebay does not hold money or participate in the financial side of transactions in any way. They do not do TTP type transactions (Trusted Third Party). So the account you transfer your money to cannot really be ebay, but actually the scammer and you'll never hear from them or your money after.

I hope you looked into forwarding this to both Ebay and the FTC?