Responses to inquiry of 4 adds on Craig's list for 4 different cities in Utah, asking around $3820.00 for a $7000.00 car. The phone number he gave me was in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I got suspicious when the voice mail prompt had a British/African accent, and tried to press for the location. Note: he says he is stationed in North Dakota
Hello and sorry for the late reply. Hope I’m not too late and you didn’t already purchased another car.
For sale is my ‘01 Mazda MX-5 Miata, convertible, in immaculate condition with only 33,196 miles, rust free, no scratch and hasn’t been involved in any accident. Engine is a 1.8L L4 FI DOHC 16V with an automatic trans. The interior looks great (never smoked in). This car needs nothing and comes with a CLEAN title.
I want this transaction to be smooth and I don’t have much time at my disposal to waste my time with endless discussions. I believe $3,800.00 (not negotiable) is more than a fair price.
You can reach me at (605) 610-4273 or you can email me if you are interested.
Thank you,
Lt. Magnus, John
…
The car is at Minot AF base, North Dakota, where i am currently stationed, until May 18, when I will be deployed to Afghanistan. This is why I must sell it before that. Shipping won’t be a problem for me. I will take care of that, with no costs on your end.
This is a large amount and I would like to conduct the deal using an authorized third party like eBay using their Purchase Protection Program, so this should eliminate any trust issues. They will keep a deposit until the purchase is final, and you test and accept the car. If you will not get the car as described, and also a clean title you will receive your money back.
To be able to use this program you need to qualify. I have been approved
3 years ago and I was very satisfied. So, if you are interested in buying my car just let me know your name and shipping address.
I will forward them to eBay’s protection program and wait for the approval.
The ad generated a great deal of interest and people have been calling me non stop and the line was down for a while.
Scam reported at FightTheScams.com
cmgoodlin says:
Im a victim and I want him caught and lets find a way for us to get our money back………
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:37 pm
mtnfok says:
Sounds exacly like the Wrangler ad, only a different Air Force Base and different deployment date. Subsequent e-mails from this fraud gave a different vehicle and different deployment date. We didn’t realize how many scam artists are out there. It is bad enough to be scamming people for their hard earned money, but to play on peoples sympathy that they are in the Armed Services and being deployed, that is an absolute outrage!
May 24th, 2009 at 10:07 am
jeannemonk says:
I initially fell for this guy’s ad this week as well. Right now I’m playing along with him just to see what info I can gather from him. In my case, he is Lt. David Larson, stationed at Grand Forks, ND, deploying June 15 to Iraq. He had two other Craigs List ads running locally (Seattle, WA area) at the same time, under different names, which were removed the day I found them. I requested info on all three, but the ad that caught me was just like the one mentioned here. The vehicle was a 2005 Chrysler Town and Country for $3700. Interestingly, I used my real name on all three emails, you would think the guy would suspect something himself, but he must have so many ads going that he pays no attention to the names of his victims. Besides the price being “too good to be true”, several other things didn’t seem to be right. One was the Palm trees in the background of the pictures, so I knew it wasn’t in North Dakota. The fact that the seller would ship for free didn’t make sense. He wanted to use EBay as the third party for their protection service, but when I checked with EBay, that service was only available with vehicles listed on that website, which this van was not. When he emailed me the “official” EBay request for funds, the protection was for $20,000 max, whereas EBays amount is actually $50,000. (EBay says if you get an email supposedly from them, the same message will be in your “Inbox” in your account.) I have now started playing along with one of the other ads also, this one for a 2004 Honda Accord LX for $2200. The “seller” is Juan Villamizar, deploying to Afghanistan with the Army in July. The car is in Salt Lake City, Utah. In both cases, he is using DAS shipping. EBay and Craig’s List both have warnings regarding this scam and others like it, but I imagine with the economy the way it is, this creep is making a killing off of people trying to buy a vehicle at a really low price. I joined this today just to contribute this info, hoping someone else will benefit from it. Thank goodness I have a habit of researching anything I buy before I do. I still ALMOST got caught, even though I warn all of my children about the scams going on!
June 3rd, 2009 at 5:57 pm