john_morgann@aol.com – 2008 Honda Civic for $2900 CASH on Craigslist
This was a typical scam ad – big pictures, email address in an image – but because it said “cash” I decided to look into it to see just how this “transaction” would be handled. Nothing new, really, but in case you haven’t seen one of these scam messages before, here it is:
Hello,
This 2008 Honda Civic LX with 40,250 miles, runs and drives excellent. This car has been extremely well maintained and it is fully paid. No accident, clear title, free of encumbrances and liens. I bought it when I was serving in Edwards Air Force Base,CA.
I have dropped my price to $2900 (purchase price) since this is an urgent sale and I need to sell it before October 20, when I will be deployed in Afghanistan with my platoon replacing the troops scheduled to come home.
I have decided to use eBay for this sale (recommended by craigslist). The car is already at our Military Logistic Department form Edwards Air Force Base, crated and ready to go. The Logistic Department will deliver the car to your home. I will offer a 10 days period to inspect the car from the moment you receive it, before I will have your money. The shipping will be free for you!
If you agree with my price $2900, I need your FULL NAME AND ADDRESS, so I can inform ebay that I have a buyer! I will forward your details to them and then you will receive an invoice(with no further obligations or fees). Like this you’ll be able to talk with them directly and ask all you want to know.
Hope to hear from you soon,
SGT. John Morgan
It’s been reported to AOL’s abuse department.
Scam reported at FightTheScams.com
jclark says:
John_Morgann scammed me today. I got this exact letter and a form to wire the money through western union to an ebay motor ‘agent’. Great detail in how the money would be held for 10 days while I inspected the car…after I sent the 2900 the next email was that i should send 1450 more. I am dumb but not stupid. I finally woke up and new I had been scammed.I received confirmaton letters from eBay Motors (eBay@onlinevppsupport.com).I wrote John and said you ripped me off, he wrote back and said yeah…sorry*
October 7th, 2011 at 10:13 pm
DisgustedInDenver says:
He *wrote you back*? That’s disgusting.
I’m no expert with what to do when this happens but I think it would probably be worthwhile to report it to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (ic3.gov) and your local law enforcement agency. A lot of these scammers operate outside the US, which makes them very hard to catch. But if you give as much information as you can to these agencies they may be able to help; it will at least be in their database then for future reference.
One thing I want to mention for anyone else who is reading this – pay attention to the URLs these people give you. eBay operates from ebay.com, not onlinevppsupport.com. (I just tried accessing that URL and got to a page that says it’s under construction.)
I’m so sorry about this. If anyone has any suggestions about other ways to deal with this, please comment.
October 7th, 2011 at 11:39 pm