does this sound like a scam?

[allcarfan]

Guy wants to send me a cashier's check for $3000 for my engine I have for sale. He is in Germany. He said that after the check cleared, ship him the engine and any balance left after shipping costs were paid. i am just leery about sending stuff over seas like this. ANy idea on what something like that would cost?

 

[Gellpak]

Haven't had to deal with that kind of situation, but if you have the money in hand I would assume you shouldn't have too much to worry about. Could always use an escrow service, too...

 

[bnickel]

as long as it is an acyual cashier's check and it clears the bank i don't see what the probelm is. you might want to check with the bank and see if thery have any input as well

 

[Mustang225]

Guy wants to send me a cashier's check for $3000 for my engine I have for sale. He is in Germany. He said that after the check cleared, ship him the engine and any balance left after shipping costs were paid. i am just leery about sending stuff over seas like this. ANy idea on what something like that would cost?

Right now, I wouldn't deal with anyone who's overseas. There are just to many scams going on..esp ebay with classic cars.

Tell him if he wants the engine, to wire you the money. Open up a savings account with $1.00 and give him the info for that account only.

I'm willing to bet that once you mention the wire, you'll never hear from him again.

 

[shockerpimp]

It could be real, but I doubt it. People often do scams like this with counterfeit checks.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/check_scam.html

Read there.

 

[68modstang]

I'm a bit of an audiophile and recently looked into purchasing an amplifier for my system from England. The amp weighed 75lbs. and was about $1300 used. Shipping was about $200 and import duties were another $200. Now, I can probably buy the same amp here with a little searching for $1800. Worth the time and effort to go overseas? Not in my opinion. That engine is going to cost a pretty penny to ship. Just my 2 cents.

 

[mustangracer]

The bank check scams usually rely on the fact people don't wait for the checks to clear. A bank will deposit the money in your account right away, but typically the checks take up to two weeks to actually clear the originating bank, that's when they find out the check is no good. Usually this is after the goods or money have been sent.

 

[mustang2]

As long as you hold the engine and any left over money until the check clears your safe.
The scam that was, and possibly still is, being used on ebay was the buyer would send a fake cashiers check to the seller. The amount of the cashiers check would be more than the total due. They would usually say they were a broker for someone, and there broker fees were included in the check. They would ask the seller to foward the broker fees to "whoever".
The seller would do this, plus ship off the item they had won, because after all it is a cashiers check, it's guaranteed to be good. NOT!!
Plus the seller now gets to pay there bank fees for a bad check.

As far as shipping something that heavy internationally, I don't have any idea how to go about that.

 

[Ozsum2]

No. Scams are where you get screwed. You can't get screwed here because he has asked you to hold the engine untill the check clears. You can't loose as long as you get the money BEFORE shipping.

 

[mdjay]

It's not likely it's a scam. However, I agree with Mustang225. It's the safe way to go. Even if you hold the engine for two weeks, it doesn't mean it can't bounce or come back. Use some form of third party for the transaction or wire the money. I only take wire transfers from overseas. Cashier's checks are not even sacred any more...

 

[allcarfan]

well.....more information unfolded. He wouldnt tell me what boards he was registered on. He just said that he saw my ad on mustang advert. His email address is a fastermail....which is known for scammers.

Now he wants to send me a $3000 check, then me send engine and half the money back, then he will send it back to me...blah blah.

I knew it smelled fishy from the beginning.

 

[DarkBuddha]

The original deal was a typical scam setup to begin with. Forged cashier's checks have become very very prevalent. I've worked in banking for the last 5 years and I've seen these scams more and more recently. Often waiting for the check to clear can take more than 4 weeks with overseas banks. Most folks don't know this and assume a couple weeks is adequate. The fact of the matter is that foreign banks are under no obligatory time constraints for posting transactions as the Fed requires here. Based on my experience, I have a couple simple recommendations:

1. Don't sell to or buy from individuals overseas.
2. Don't do any deal that involves you sending money back to someone.
3. Use your Visa whenever possible when doing transactions since Visa provides excellent protection.
4. Any deal that seems too good to be true probably is, especially on eBay.
5. Don't do any deal that involves a wire transfer to or from your account.

I'm glad you got scared off before doing this deal.

 

[rbohm]

Tell him if he wants the engine, to wire you the money. Open up a savings account with $1.00 and give him the info for that account only.

I'm willing to bet that once you mention the wire, you'll never hear from him again.

i agree with this course of action. i would also tell you to close the account as soon as the money is in it to avoid it being taken out again by him, yes it does happen. only after you hav ethe money in hand would i ship the engine to him. that said shipping internationally is expensive. i thought about having an engine shipped from australia for my falcon, and when i found it would run something like $400 just for the head, i decided against shipping the whole engine.

 

[351carlo]

Obviously DarkBuddha knows what he's talking about, so I'll have to agree with him.

I had a similar problem when trying to sell a projection TV unit. Guy wanted to send me a Cashier's Check....got scared off and didn't bother with it. If it sounds too good...it probably is.

 

[Ozsum2]

Then have him do a direct transfer if it bothers you.

 

[1320stang]

Its a scam. Budda is right, have seen a guy on the FordFE.com Forum that scammed that way. Took like 4-5 weeks to find out the check was bogus.

 

[66P51GT]

It is a somewhat well known internet scam. I've received three or four of these in recent weeks. You should only deal with Money Orders and PayPal on the web unless you have a merchant account and can accept credit card orders.

 

[KnownRider]

I lived in Germany and, as I recall, checks are almost unheard of. They use cash or debit slips to pay for things.

Have the money wired or tell him to procure an internationally acceptable money order from Amex, Barclays, Thomas Cooke, Western Union, etc.

 

[skywalker]

Whens elling things, I simply do not take checks. I'll take a money order from a wellknown source such as western union or the us postal service, cash, or an escrow service. That's the bottom line.

 

[allcarfan]

ok guys.....

i understood it was a scam. Do you all want me to post the email address so everyone can email him?