Sellers beware of buying scams

[Traveler]

I don't think any of you would fall for this but I wanted to post it, you might run into this, or a version of it.

I have a neighbor that is computer dumb. He gets through email and that is about it. He is trying to sell his motorhome on the internet. I listed it for him at traderonline.com
It's been on there for a month little or no contact.
Saturday My freind was contacted buy email from a perspective buyer.
The buyer asked serious questions, and we spent a lot of time answering them.
This morning the buyer emailed and said he wanted it, and My freind needs to email the buyer his bank account so he can wire the money.
My freind has no idea what his bank account was so he called me. When I got involved, of course I reviewed all the emails, and returned to the guy, We will wait for payment until you arrive to pick up, just bring a cashiers check.
He keeps trying by using lines like, i don't want you to sell it out from under me, or I am not sure when I can get there, so i want you to have your money.
I asked for a phone number so we can talk, and get this cleared up faster. He would not do that either.
Never gave me a name or address.
The email address was something I cannot pronounce, at yahoo.com, so it was really untraceable.

I simply told him unless he called, forget it, If he called I would give him an address to mail a deposit to.


You can see they just wanted the bank account of an elderly gentleman and was going to clean him out.
The motorhome was listed for $29,900.

Let your freinds and relatives know, never give out your bank account. Especially our Elderly, more trusting freinds.

[Queen of the Forest]

Oh my goodness! Thankfully he turned to you for your help. This has been happening WAY to much lately. I've been hearing from more and more people about these scams.
Great job on being there for your friend. ?http://www.fourdoorbronco.com/temp/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif

Could he really withdraw money with just the bank account number? ?I know people legitimately wire money into bank accounts all the time, they have to know the account number. ?

I know a buddy that use to put $20 a paycheck into a friends account that had cancer when he cashed his check at the bank...

I always thought the way it worked was:
Anyone can put money in, but you have to have serious I.D. and proof of ownership of account to take money out.

I agree though, if the guy can't call up or provide a phone number to prove he is legit then he can find a different motorhome.

[Traveler]

If you have a bank account number you can do many things. Tranfer money to pay pal, or use it for many online options.
The worst part is, it is like an overdrawn check.
The bank will send the money whether you have it or not, If a person transfers out $1,000 and you only had $200 in the account, most banks will send the money, and send you an overdraft notice.
There is no protection like on a credit card, you are liable for the whole amount, and getting that money back can be difficult, especially if the person stealing your money is not in the USA.
A debit card will not get you cash if you don't have it, a wire transfer will.

There is a scam going on now around the country, an business or person outside the US will obtain a stolen credit card, call up a business like superwinch, order 10 winches, and sell them on ebay.
With a credit card, the card owner doesn't have to pay, the business ends up on the short end.
The person has already had the stuff shipped out of the country before the business finds out the card is stolen.
Then they are untouchable.

just to add to Traveler's comments...I found this online.

Just because someone "wired money" into your account, does not mean they wired money into your account!
What? ?What the heck did he just say? ?Some scammers tell you they wired the money, say $14,000 to your bank account, and "oops, we wired you too much, it was supposed to be $4000, but you know, typos happen." So they ask you to please wire them back the difference of $10,000. ?Most people know once money is wired into your account, it's good as cash, right? ?So if they say they wired $14,000 into your account, you check for it and see it, then there must be $14,000 there, right? ?WRONG! ?The scammer lied to you. ?He did not really wire money to you. What he really did was send a fake cashier's check to your bank to deposit into your account. ?Of course your idiot bank deposits the "check" into your account for you without your endorsement or permission, then you wire the scammer the $10,000 that they "overpaid you." ?You even checked and saw there was $14k in your account because your idiot bank posted the funds before the check bounces a few days from now. Unlucky you, their check bounces a week later. ?Why did this scam work? ?Because you gave them your bank account information, and you thought they wired you cash, which they did not. ?It alos worked because your bank is run by a bunch of morons.

[ronnie]

Well I had a scam run on me back in 2005 when I was selling my motorcycle, They asked if I would cash a check and send them the difference. I never heard of this scam, I got the check, went to the bank to have them verify it. I had several employees from the bank hold the check, run and verify it. I was told that it would have to have a hold on it for 2-3 days. I was fine with that. When I went to cash it, instead if having them hold for the 2-3 days to verify it, they gave me the cash. I asked them about holding the check, they said it didn't need to have a hold. well about 10 days later I got a letter in the mail. I went to the bank to verify what the problem is. I was informed that the check was a fraud. I turned around and said then why didn't you put the hold on it like I was told? They didn't answer me. Then they said the check was printed on the wrong paper. I then said why was that not said to me when several of your employees including the assistant branch manager who held the check. They never answered me. Since i had an account with them, they frooze my account and took some of thier money back. I filed a compliant with the local police, the FBI, Secret Service, and Houston PD. No one seems to eager to follow up with these crimes. I ended up filing for bankruptcy, and cleared that and some other bills that accumulated from when I was hurt on the job. I consider myself to be fairly intelligent and leary of people. I had everything verified, and I still got scammed. The bank will not take any responsibility for their role in it. Unless it is cash I don't sell anything. A very expensive lesson that I learned.

[Traveler]

Audra was bidding on a Centurion a while back on ebay. We got beat out at the last minute.
Then a couple days later she got a email saying first seller backed out. So we decided to start perusing it.
Things started off great, then a couple days into it the seller says, free shipping. That is when she tried to call the seller and behold that truck was already gone with the new owner and the person emailing us was a scam.
It seemed really legit. There were really no signs of fraud, a couple of things didn't feel right, but very believable right up until the free shipping part.