Warning to people posting ads

[CarissaGTS]

I think that TampaRacing should post a warning to people who post ads in the classifieds making them wary of scams. Some unsuspecting people may fall for this.

I had an ad up and was contacted by a "Johan Santana" who wanted to send me a check for the car without even seeing it. I was very skeptical but I also didn't know it at the time but there are scamers out there that do this. This is exactly what the person tried to do to me:
value of cashier's check often far exceeds your item - scammer offers to "trust" you, and asks you to wire the balance via money transfer service
banks will often cash these fake checks AND THEN HOLD YOU RESPONSIBLE WHEN THE CHECK FAILS TO CLEAR, including criminal prosecution in some cases!
scam often involves a 3rd party (shipping agent, business associate owing buyer money, etc)I found relevant information from craigslist when I posted my car there.
This is what the scammers do....

Recognizing scams
Most scams involve one or more of the following:
inquiry from someone far away, often in another country
Western Union, Money Gram, cashier's check, money order, shipping, escrow service, or a "guarantee"
inability or refusal to meet face-to-face before consummating transactionFor other helpful info check out
craigslist | avoiding scams and fraud (http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.html)

[GsT Racer]

good advice. We need to be careful about this, because scammers try any and every way to make some free bucks.

Also, the lottery scams, "Fundraiser" scams, and Orphanage scams.

The lottery scam being where someone tells you that you won whatever lottery and all you need to do is send money to cover some fees and taxes, and they will send you your winnings.

Fundraiser scams get you to send money to a charity or something, and its not really a charity.

Orphanage scams, (or similiar, my dad gets a lot of these by email), you get contacted in someway to help sponsor a child, or a sick person, and send money to them. Or someone is dying and they want to give you a million dollars to give to a charity, so send them the $5000 western union fee and you will get your million dollars, etc.

Dateline NBC is did a piece on this called "To catch a con-artist", where they get in contact with con-artists and mess with them, similiar to the "To catch a predator" series. A lot of useful information on protecting yourself.

Warnings/stickies should be posted and also the chance to contact an Admin if a problem occurs or is detected. I'd say put some option to contact special investigators or police or something, but I think that would be over the top and could get tremendously out of hand.

[Puto]

http://www.tamparacing.com/forums/general-car-chat/445802-selling-cars-online-what-not-do.html