Re: SCAM Alert: Please Read
Thx Doug ! Your efforts are greatly appreciated.
Re: SCAM Alert: Please Read
Smitty ! Great idea ! Perhaps Doug could start a forum here on Apex for just that sort of thing ? Racers are a helpful lot :)
been there, bought that...
Fair enough. If anyone's looking in the CFR , let me know if I can help.:thumbsup:
BTW - it's easier to get scammed than you might think...
Just to pass on some advice...I was in the process of buying a car on eBay. I even wen to look at the car which was about 3 hours from my house. Because this was car that didn't sell via the auction, I received a "next chance" purchase email from eBay - something that they legitabley did at some point. Like if you were the second hihest bidder if the winner flacked out.
Anyway, to make it more confusing, I was talking to this guy via his eBay email account. And someone phished his eBy email account! I hate to admit this, but I wired some money to a bank account. When I finally realized there was something up (and this was just by chance, becuse the transition was seamless), I contacted my bank who were not able to do anything! The wire had gone through, but was actually in a phase where it was still on hold at his bank. Nothing my could do could get the other bank to KEEP the hold on. I then personally called everyone I could at that bank trying to get the money to not be released. But all to no avail.
After all, I could prove fraud, and I legally had no rightful access to this person's account! So if you just think these scams are massively obvious schemes from Nigeria, think again! This was an individual, who had a real bank account - perhaps even opened under a real name! After all, why bother opening up accounts on fake ID, when nothing can happen to you anyway! I tell you, I was mortified that I was so powerless in a situation where I thought I caught him just in the nick of time.
Of course, after the bank's standard few day wire hold period, the account was closed! Nobody likes to admit being scammed, but I felt it is worth the humiliation to maybe help someone else. (this may seem like a highjack from Apex, but we all buy stuff from eBay).
Imagine the frustration: I'm actually speaking to bank executives at this guy's bank and – THEY BELIEVE ME – but... it's not my account!! After all, theoretically I could be the one scamming them, right? So the protection is a double-edge sword. LAPD didn't care, told me to report to the FBI's Internet Crimes Unit. You know what they do? You fill out a form on their website! And they are unreachable! Only available by the internet, through the form. And I had the guy's name (fake or not), and the account number. And for two whole days, the money was still in his account! Real life is not like TV cop shows, that's for sure. And...since I GAVE him the money (vs. him stealing it from my bank account), it's not considered bank fraud! So just in case any of you were feeling like you did something dumb today, hopefully I made you feel better....
Never in the WORLD would I have thought I could have been angled like this. It's the leveraging of the brand credibility of an ApexSpeed or an eBay that can trick you. Obviously a lot easier to ignore a random spam email from a Welsh Countess who says her fortune is held up in a trust and she just needs some help getting it out. But as outrageously obvious as those email scams are, they actually work on some people! So....buyer beware.
(PS - I've bought seven cars over the internet over the past 13 years - sight unseen - and never did I not get what I paid for. In other words, I KNOW how to buy stuff over the internet. A lot of it hinges on being able to trust people in the classic car/vintage racing world (and doing a lot of verification). The one damn car I go and actually look at!! And test drove!! Boom. Very ironic. Happy hunting.