It appears that there is a "south american" scheme which is an on going issue. We have had it happen with one of our cars for sale. I honestly knew nothing about it. Then my father was getting somthing like 10 - 20 emails a week from interested parties in south america. We were thought it was a bit odd, so we never replied or sold the car to the gentlemen. Check out the story below. Here is the short of what happens with buyers from south american (NOT TRYING TO STEROTYPE, BUT I WANT TO BE SURE YOU ARE AWARE!)
This appears to be pretty common, but I never heard about it before.
Corky
(The information below was copied from a BMW site. IT is real and we have had experience with it)
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This is an odd one that I was wondering if any of you had experienced.
Just before I moved to Hong Kong (land of the face mask) from the UK, I put my 1602 up for sale on the BMW UK Owners Club website. I didn't sell it in the end and it's being looked after by a friend ready for my return next year. Apart from some genuine interest at the time (2 years ago) I have had a fairly regular (about 2 per quarter) stream of emails from various people in Africa wanting to buy it and export it there. My bull$hit radar has been pinging away like an Iraqi air defence battery because I think they're only trying to get enough details to commit a fraud (either ID theft or worse - stealing my hard earned folding stuff). By the way, I've ignored every one of them. Would it really make sense to export a car with a value of 2.5 grand sterling to Africa or am I missing something?
Here's the latest email received today:
michael george on 10 Jul 2003 10:23
Memo
10 Jul 2003 10:23
From: michael george
Mail Size: 3643
To: Gilbert@soton.ac.uk
cc:
Our Ref: Your Ref:
Subject: interested buyer
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hello,
i saw your advert via the internet and i am interested in the purchase of
the car and , i am a car dealer based in cotonou,The Republic of Benin in
West-Africa who is into importation, i have a local shipper that takes care
of my shipping so shipping is no problem, as soon as the transaction is
completed my shipper will come to pick it up.my only request is if you will
accept a cashier check drawn in United States Bank, so if this is ok by you,
kindly let me know your last price offer via email and forward me your phone
number. expecting your urgent response
Thanks
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Step one: you receive the check and you make a deposit.
Step two: you ship the car.
Step three: your bank calls and tells you that the check is fraudulent and that you are now an accessory to a crime.
Step four: You go to jail and your car is in West Africa.