Overhaulin'

Is this a safe car transaction?

I was looking at cars on craiglist and I found this one that stood out and I emailed the man selling it. He replied and gave me the carfax and everything for the car but he wants to ship the car to me and that sounds like a scam. He sent me this email. As I've previously told you, I'm currently involved in a military program, temporarily based in NY, as I'll be changing it for Afghanistan very soon. Due to military security reasons I'm restricted from leaving the unit's facility under any purpose and have strictly limited phone access. The shipping won't be a problem; military has a considerable discount, so I can handle it by myself, with no charges whatsoever on your account. The car will be sent along with all its documents including title, bill of sale, 2 sets of keys, full service records and everything else you'll need. Because it's such a large transaction, I'd suggest using an authorized third party, as Google Checkout for instance. I've done some research and that's the safest way to do it. That's why, I've taken the liberty to prearrange things with them, using their escrow Google Checkout. I thought you might want to see it there before paying me, for that you will have a 5 days inspection period (to test drive it) from the moment you receive it, before Google Checkout escrow releases your money to me. If you are still interested just send me your Google Checkout e-mail address, if you don't have one just go to www.googlecheckout.com and sign up for an account (it's free of charge opening an account with them). As soon you will e-mail me your google checkout account I will forward it to Google Checkout and they will further notify you about our deal. This way you'll be sure that you are involved in a secure and trusted deal over the internet. My regards, Philip What do u think of this? Would google checkout prevent me from getting scammed?

Public Comments

1. run away. never buy a car you havent personally inspected.
2. this is the SCAM/do not get involved in this/these guys are experts and will put you to sleep/big article in sunday ny papers about these things/people are getting scammed out of money so fast you cant believe it/craigslist is almost useless so filled with the scammers/google doesnt do this type/fake papers/cars with liens on them/fake vin numbers
3. Google doesn't have an escrow service for third-party transactions such as this. This is a long-running scam. The car is being sold for WAY under book value, the seller has some sob story (military, moving overseas, divorcing, dead relative, etc.), wants to use some safe-sounding way to protect both of you, etc... it's all a scam set-up. Note this... once you wire the funds, they're collected by the "seller" and they're gone. There is no retrieving them, no "do-overs", and the scammers are overseas. So, no US-based police agency will touch it. Run far from this. Don't believe me? Look at the top of Craigslist, where it says "Offers to ship cars are 100% fraudulent!" --- Click on that link. It'll show you many similar-looking emails from these scam artists. Everyone wants to believe the "magic deal" exists. It does not.
4. At the top of the page on Craigslist, it says in big, bold letters: OFFERS TO SHIP VEHICLES ARE 100% FRADULENT". Did you just miss that? This is a classic scam and anyone that falls for it has zero common sense.
5. Report this ad to Craigslist, it's a scam. Google Checkout has nothing to do with Craigslist listings and does not offer escrow services. Why do people still fall for scams when every single Craigslist autos page has a HUGE warning in big blue letters that "OFFERS TO SHIP CARS ARE 100% FRADULENT" -- at least half of all cars posted on Craigslist are fake and the scam is always the same. They can't be any clearer that this is 100% fraudulent so why do people ignore the warnings then cry that they were scammed