SCAM Alert: Please Read

[dc]

Hey guys,


We just got a tip from one of our forum members that there is someone actively looking to scam buyers with items that they do not have. There is someone going by the name of "Garry Snook" using the e-mail address of garryspencer41@gmail.com. DO NOT DEAL WITH THIS PERSON or wire him any money.

He is targeting people looking to buy cars, trailers, parts or anything else of value. This is the e-mail people are receiving:

Hi,

Just in case you have not got what you wanted, I'm selling
one. Let me know if your still in the market to buy.

Thanks,

Snook

He is requesting payment for said items via Money Gram or Western Union. That should be a MASSIVE red flag for anyone. DO NOT send anyone money via any wire service that is not your bank to anyone's bank, using actual names and bank account numbers. Those transactions are not safe, unless you know the other person.

Do not send money to anyone not registered on ApexSpeed without some post history or verified background. If in doubt, run a background check. Do not send money to anyone via Western Union.

Use a reputable shipping and delivery service to pick up race cars and expensive items. They will usually do the transaction for you in lieu of your attendance, and not turn over a car before payment is made. uShip is a great source for finding a general auto transport service. Having a Western Union sent to a Walmart to be picked up by the guy's sister-in-law is not. There are plenty of threads here about shipping race cars. Most of those companies will handle the transaction for you.

Before conducting any transaction with anyone that has sought you out, take 2 minutes and Google their e-mail address in quotes. It will save you a lot of headaches and pain.

And most of all, pay attention to your gut instincts. If it sounds too good to be true, it likely is. If you think something is "off," then avoid the deal. If anything throws a red flag in your head, walk away. Too much to risk in most cases here on ApexSpeed.




For the record, this person is NOT a registered member of ApexSpeed, nor did this attempted transaction happen through the PM system. We have been manually approving registrations for the forums since December of last year and are on high alert for anything that even remotely looks inappropriate. We are doing our best at keeping the problems off of our forums, but there is always a chance that someone slips through. Just be careful with any internet deal where a large sum of money is transferring hands without seeing an actual item in person.


dc

[dc]

I should also note, that a very successful method of proving that you actually have the item to sell or the seller has the item you want, is to photograph the car, engine, wheels, etc. with a card or sheet of paper with your/their real name, forum username and today's date in the picture of the item. If someone is worried about your sale, or you are worried that someone might not be honest with you, have them send you today's photos with their current information in the photo (not on the photo).

The scam above seems to have been trying old photos to sell a well-known car here on ApexSpeed that was sold 4 years ago.



dc

[mikey]

Note most of these scams start out as phishing attempts. They actually target both buyers and sellers. The email usually fails to indicate what it is that you are actually wanting to buy or sell. Almost every time I post a for sale anywhere, I get one. It just says " Hey I saw your for sale ad, please contact me if you still have the item"

I'm sorry, but you'll have to be more specific than "item" ha ha. DELETE!

[dc]

Very good point. A little common sense goes a long way in internet transactions.

They prey on the fact that you are eager to buy/sell and will overlook your better judgement (if you have any to begin with), and make a foolish mistake. Easy to do when you are desperate to buy or sell.

[dc]

A similar scammer has also now been taking liberties with our forum members. Here are some of the details and things you should be highly aware about when seeking or selling expensive items, especially when approached by someone from outside of the US.

His persona is Michael Chapman and his email is autoshop019@gmail.com. He had used the username on ApexSpeed and other websites of "Jdox" and was registered as "Jeff." His registered IP address on our forums was 41.203.64.129... from Nigeria. He claims to be in the UK and he will claim to have something you are looking to buy—wheels, carbs, chassis, wings, bodywork—anything. He will send you photos of the item that he found elsewhere on the internet. His next modus operandi will be to tell you that his PayPal account is not working at the moment and that you should send him a money order or Western Union. This should be a massive red flag.

Please, guys, when you are in a position of making a purchase or sale on the internet, do you due diligence on the other party and at the very least SEARCH their e-mail address on Google. You might be surprised what you find sometimes, and it literally takes seconds to do...

• http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb...ems-fs-270700/
  
• http://forums.aaca.org/f143/body-tag-356877.html
  
• http://forums.pelicanparts.com/7634041-post1.html
  
• http://www.mmoc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?t=52023
  
• https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/fe...-diffuser.html
  
• http://m3forum.net/m3forum/showthread.php?t=454898

His account has been banned form ApexSpeed, as have all Nigerian, Russian, Chinese and Indian IP address blocks. We do everything we can to keep this trash off of our website, but there is no 100% block for people who want to do bad things. Just please be aware of the potential for bad dealings.



dc

[racerdad2]

Thx Doug ! Your efforts are greatly appreciated.

[TimH]

My experience with ApexSpeed classifieds has been 100% positive, though I did get a little nervous once about somebody with a low post count.

Thanks , Doug.

[Robert J. Alder]

Wow! I dodged a Snook bullet. He approached me with his "Just in case you have not got what you wanted, I'm selling one. Let me know if your still in the market to buy." the email from Snook had my WTB subject in his subject.

But there was no response when I asked for condition and price -- twice. Turned out I got what I wanted from another ApexSpeed seller so I quit (mercifully) pursuing Snook.

Thanks for the heads up.

[formulasuper]

A similar scammer has also now been taking liberties with our forum members. Here are some of the details and things you should be highly aware about when seeking or selling expensive items, especially when approached by someone from outside of the US.

His persona is Michael Chapman and his email is autoshop019@gmail.com. He had used the username on ApexSpeed and other websites of "Jdox" and was registered as "Jeff." His registered IP address on our forums was 41.203.64.129... from Nigeria. He claims to be in the UK and he will claim to have something you are looking to buy—wheels, carbs, chassis, wings, bodywork—anything. He will send you photos of the item that he found elsewhere on the internet. His next modus operandi will be to tell you that his PayPal account is not working at the moment and that you should send him a money order or Western Union. This should be a massive red flag.

Please, guys, when you are in a position of making a purchase or sale on the internet, do you due diligence on the other party and at the very least SEARCH their e-mail address on Google. You might be surprised what you find sometimes, and it literally takes seconds to do...

• www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/general/ot-michael-chapman-anyone-else-here-been-approached-him-items-fs-270700/
• http://forums.aaca.org/f143/body-tag-356877.html
• http://forums.pelicanparts.com/7634041-post1.html
• http://www.mmoc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?t=52023
• https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/fe...-diffuser.html
• http://m3forum.net/m3forum/showthread.php?t=454898

His account has been banned form ApexSpeed, as have all Nigerian, Russian, Chinese and Indian IP address blocks. We do everything we can to keep this trash off of our website, but there is no 100% block for people who want to do bad things. Just please be aware of the potential for bad dealings.



dc

He's still trying, I just received this from him in reference to my post about wanting wheel centers:
"I have 2 original brand new Jongbloed
centerlock wheel centers to fit 13" rims with 18 bolt holes on a 10
1/16" circle pattern in excellent shape and condition. I'm asking 250
GBP and I will be shipping via UPS or FedEx on a 3 - 4 working days
delivery and will accept payment via Money Gram as my PayPal is
currently dormant. What's your complete shipping address?"

[dc]

Remember guys, if you don't put your e-mail address out in the open on a post, and the bad guys are not registered on the forums, they should not be able to contact you.

I tightly screen all users and have since mid-2012, and am blocking IPs to countries known for hacking and cracking, so it's a good idea to keep your deal communications through PMs and e-mail accessed through the forums.

His IP is banned here, as his account, so if he is still sending you things, it's also possible that he may have found other posts you may have made elsewhere on the web.

[Dave Gomberg]

One of the guys on the Prod forum got hit by the same clown: http://prodracing.com/prodcar/viewto...=unread#unread

Dave

[dc]

Yep, Harold is a member here and alerted us to the Michael Chapman scam. Hard to tell where he sourced his victims, considering how many forums he trolls.

[dc]

Tomorrow I will make a brief instructional video on how you can search for the source of photos to make sure they are original. It's a neat little trick that most people aren't aware of, and easy for anyone to do.

[marshall9]

That would be helpful. I recently bought a 92 FF that was race ready and turnkey advertised. I know better, but did it anyway for a reduced price. Frame up underway now....life doesn't get much better than having a new car under you, if you can block out the dollars it takes to get there..... Next thing ya know , ya wake up with 20K in a 12K car.

I am to the point now, that I think , unless a car has a new engine and gearbox, it is worth nearly nothing, other than frame value.......nice ld19s, that need piston kits, and master cylinders......wheels that are not true, missing hardware, and existing hardware bolts that are Home Depot Chinese, no air filters, broken master switches, coil placement that doesn't leave room for a HANS...single spring throttle return, with, shocks that need rebuilt, heims, rod ends, head/valve work ,to get rid of excessive leakdown, new suspension springs, Duck Dynasty sway bar setup .....and much more....

[Smittty]

Hi Marshall, Have said this before and will again....There are enough of us out here that we could form some sort of loosely organized group of volunteers to lay eyes and hands and cameras on these "race ready" or "turnkey" items or cars to help curb this sort of thing. The boat guys do this, so do the aviation people. I know, I know, you have to accept this sort of thing some will say....but maybe not. I'd be willing to travel to local (+/- 50 miles) sites and do a prepurchase inspection for a fellow member for the cost of fuel and a descent meal - worth it? Some stuff would be missed, but some would be caught. Email pics, condition reports and such to a prospective buyer at their direction. Informational purposes only. Would this help? Just a thought folks.....this c*** happens too often. Smitty

[racerdad2]

Smitty ! Great idea ! Perhaps Doug could start a forum here on Apex for just that sort of thing ? Racers are a helpful lot

[marshall9]

Hi Marshall, Have said this before and will again....There are enough of us out here that we could form some sort of loosely organized group of volunteers to lay eyes and hands and cameras on these "race ready" or "turnkey" items or cars to help curb this sort of thing. The boat guys do this, so do the aviation people. I know, I know, you have to accept this sort of thing some will say....but maybe not. I'd be willing to travel to local (+/- 50 miles) sites and do a prepurchase inspection for a fellow member for the cost of fuel and a descent meal - worth it? Some stuff would be missed, but some would be caught. Email pics, condition reports and such to a prospective buyer at their direction. Informational purposes only. Would this help? Just a thought folks.....this c*** happens too often. Smitty

I had a guy look at it prior. he did a great job and found things that helped me negotiate a reasonable price for us both. I am not saying that the car was intentionally misrepresented, just that it always takes a lot to get it up to my standards. By this, I mean, unless you buy a new car, and sometimes, even then , there is a lot of work to do. It's hard for a seller to accept the fact that his car needs as much as the asking price to be a competitive, no excuses car. I did not get scammed, but I do think that sellers over estimate their car's potential when running ads. Especially sellers, that don't keep records, not even knowing what ratios are currently in the gearbox. They say," I would just take it to the track and run it." That's a kind of drive it until something breaks mentality, and keeps me from enjoying the social aspect of a weekend, lol. I think we should have a grading system for advertised cars, as a turnkey car would be one that ran last weekend, was a contender, but for, and the but for has been addressed... not one with a providence and has only been patched since , as things go wrong.

[Smittty]

Fair enough. If anyone's looking in the CFR , let me know if I can help.

[Charles Warner]

I just received an email from someone offering to trade a lot in Panama for my RT-4 that specifically mentioned Apexspeed.com. It had all the earmarks and red flags of a furriner-inspired scam: poor grammar and spelling, nebulous return address, yadda, yadda.

His name comes across as John Newcombe (I.e. the Aussie tennis player of some 40 years ago) and no subject comes across in the subject line.

It's one advantage of the smart phone that you can look at these without much fear of a viral attack.

[Agitator]

I'm pretty sure John Newcombe is a real guy (and Apexspeed member) from Alabama. Used to race Vees and is now into higher horsepower cars. Not positive though.

[dc]

I'm still trying to find some time to make the image search video for you guys. Hopefully I will get a chance tomorrow between interviews.

One thing to make sure, if you come across a scam like Charles did, don't be afraid of posting the perp's e-mail address, name and contact info here if you have anything. If you have an IP address, too, all the better. The simple fact that it may eventually come up in other searches from other forums might help someone else out down the road.

I can also cross reference actual members here and run their IPs and e-mails here and see if I come up with anything, too.

[dc]

How-to: Google Reverse Image Search

[Charles Warner]

Great tool! Thanks.

[-pru-]

Thanks Doug. That's pretty sweet...

[JWidrig]

I had an attempted scam to sell parts from a VD RF82 from a Bernard Clifford in the UK. Would not produce current photos of the parts for sale and wanted Money Gram. I found all the same photos of a car last sold in Idaho via race-cars.com. Email he used is bigben1435@gmail.com.

[Mike Holland]

Any one heard of a Jacob Torres? Just had a reply to an ad that I placed looking for tires. I have already found what I needed and posted in the ad. He is not listed in the FB drivers section.

Hello,

Let me hear if you have got any leads/order to your WTB ads. If you
are still in the market, i can help you out.

Best wishes,

Jacob

[Robert J. Alder]

Me too. Just today I got a direct inquiry from Jacob Torres about one of my WTB ads, saying exactly the same thing, verbatim, i.e. that he "can help" out but offering no specifics. No info or money has changed hands yet. I too would appreciate any feedback. No reason to suspect, but......better safe than sorry. Looks fishy, huh?

Jacob Torres <jtstandardsales@gmail.com>

[dc]

Sometimes, when an e-mail is sent through the forums, and the sender is a registered user, I can trace their IP address to see where they are coming from. A similar scam attempt was made a couple of days ago that was traced back to Nigeria and not the UK where the user said he was from.


Sorry to say, anytime someone is approached by here anyone form the UK looking to "help out," the chances that it is a scam is very high. Keep the radar on high and the BS meter open. The world we live in now, unfortunately.

[Feffman]

There's another troller who's name supposed name is Jim Oliver. He's sticking mainly to the bike forums for now (I'm engine shopping) but claims to be "hearing impaired" so won't pick up a phone to call and his Pay Pal account is defunct so he'd like a MoneyGram.

Feff

[EffOne]

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.

[Monte]

I have received an email from this Michael Chapman guy after posting a WTB mustache nose and wing for 98 VD. The email just said that he had many stock parts available if I have not found what I was looking for. Then asked for my phone number and signed it "Michael Chapman, United Kingdom". That's it.....no other info on the email.....I did not reply.

Chris M.

[Nardi]

EffOne, I admire you for admitting what happened to you. Tough situation and you have my sympathies.

[Steve Demeter]

EffOne, I admire you for admitting what happened to you. Tough situation and you have my sympathies.

I agree.

If you have what you think the guys name is, why not try googling it and show up at his residence with some heavy armament and maybe some friends in pin striped suits carrying violin cases and ask nicely for your money back.

"But ask NICELY" (Patrick Swazye in roadhouse).

[R. Pare]

, but I wired some money to a bank account..

NEVER just wire money to an account for a purchase like this. Do it person when picking up the merchandise, or do it through Paypal.

[formulasuper]

EffOne...."I was in the process of buying a car on eBay. I even went to look at the car which was about 3 hours from my house."

From this it sounds like you already know where the seller is, so what's the problem?

[DaveW]

EffOne...."I was in the process of buying a car on eBay. I even went to look at the car which was about 3 hours from my house."

From this it sounds like you already know where the seller is, so what's the problem?

If I read his post correctly, the scam was from a 3rd party who phished the seller's eBay email account. So the seller would not have been the thief.

[formulasuper]

If I read his post correctly, the scam was from a 3rd party who phished the seller's eBay email account. So the seller would not have been the thief.

Ah, you're correct Dave. As most of us know that's why it's important to always check "My Messages" on your ebay account to verify the email was actually sent from ebay. If the payment had been thru paypal he probably would have been covered unless the buyer had violated ebay/paypals policies.

[ewcmr2]

David Hill sent me a phishy email about my WTB "item".

-Hi, I can help with the item(s) you are looking to purchase. You can
-send me an e-mail if you are still in the market with a phone number
-to reach you.
-Cheers,
-David Hill

I requested a VERY specific picture and haven't received a reply. Searching Apexspeed doesn't turn up a David Hill. Googling his email returns bike related scams. His e-mail is hilld293@gmail.com

[Robert J. Alder]

Yup, I too got one of these from Dave Hill. DELETE. Don't respond.

[dc]

Just a small tip for ApexSpeed users, if you have your contact info (PMs, e-mail address, etc) in your User Profile and don't put it out in the open on a forum post, the only way for a non-user of the forums to get a hold of you is to join the forums and send you the note through the forum system.

Best to have all contact come through the forum PMs or e-mails to at least get another filter for the bad guys.