"Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage."
- C. S. Lewis
Sunday, August 10, 2008
My mother-in-law is shopping for a car, and she's been approached with this scam on numerous occasions so far:
Hi,
I'm Calvin Smith, you inquired about my 2005 Honda Civic EX Coupe Special Edition (VIN: 1HGEM22985L071701).
I apologize for the delay, I'm in the military and now I am in United Kingdom and that's why I couldn't reply in time. If you are still interested in buying it, I'm asking $5,350. It has a clean title, very well maintained, always garage kept, no rust, excellent condition, runs and sounds 100% perfect with no leaks or noises. All power and optional equipments are working perfect. I have to sell this car as fast as I can because in three weeks I will be in Iraq and I think I'll stay there for a while that's why I'm selling it so cheap. I intend to buy a new car when I'll get back home. If you want to buy the car, I can ship for free within US with one of our military airplanes so you don't have to worry about the distance. If you are interested we can use a third party escrow broker, Moneybookers (http://www.moneybookers.com/app/help.pl?s=escrow), to secure the transaction and to handle this whole process for us. Using a reputable E-Commerce third party escrow company will secure the transaction and you will receive the car before I'll get paid and of course I'm also covered because the funds will be kept safety into the escrow account. This is the best way for me even if I'll have to pay some extra money for their services. I'll cover the broker's fee and like I've explained, the shipping will be free because I can use one of our airplanes here and I don't have to pay anything. Let me know if you are interested. You can see some pics on the following link from my personal page: http://picasaweb.google.com/csmth7/CivicEX
You'll love the car, I can guarantee you that!
The funny thing is she's getting all of these scam messages from people who advertise in The Houston Chronicle. Anyway, here's a link that talks about the scam.
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Comments on "Auto Scam":
2. Chris
- 08/11/2008 9:55 pm CDT
"I have to sell this car as fast as I can because in three weeks I will be in Iraq and I think I'll stay there for a while that's why I'm selling it so cheap."
Ummm, nobody going to Iraq with a military unit is going to say "I think I'll stay there for a while." You know exactly how long you are going to be there, and will have known for a good deal of time before the plane even leaves the states.
I'd guess that a simple way to determine if this was a scam would be to ask what unit this individual serves with. The information contained in the answer is readily available public knowledge, and anybody that wanted to expend the effort could find out whether or not this was an above board type of thing.
3. GinH
- 08/12/2008 4:11 pm CDT
This is not about the scam, so I may be totally outta line asking this. . . Is anyone else completely jonesing for LOST?? Does anyone know when it's coming back??
I miss Hurley.
Leave a Comment:
it might have me, if it wasn't for "I can ship free with a military airplane"........now THERE's a good use of my tax dollars :)