What do you think? Scam or Legit

I responded to an ad for the car listed to be in Cleveland. I got this response:

"Hello,

This 1991 BMW 318iC runs and drives excellent. It is in immaculate condition, meticulously maintained and hasn't been involved in any accident. Everything works in the car: lights, gauges, radio, seats, windows, locks, a/c blows ice cold, etc... It has no leaks or drips and does not smoke at all, slightly used in 100% working and looking conditions with a clear title.

I was serving in Fort Lewis, US Army base near Pierce County, Washington and now I am deployed in Fort Wainwright, Alaska. The car is still in Fort Lewis, US Army base and will be delivered from there.

I have dropped my price to $3,250 (purchase price) that includes delivery and handling to your address since this is an Urgent Sale! I need to sell it before April 06th, when I will be deployed in Afghanistan with my platoon replacing the troops scheduled to come home.

If you're interested to conclude this purchase in a timely manner email me your Full Name and Shipping Address to open a case with Amazon Payments. They will contact you to explain the entire procedure without any obligation to buy it or fees.

The financial part will be managed by them, which means that you will have a 5 days inspection period before committing to buy the car. In this way both, buyer and seller are 100% covered during the steps of this transaction. If the car is not in same condition as I said, you will ship it back on my expense and Amazon Payments will send you a full refund. But I assure you won't be the case.

I don't want to offend you, but the car is priced for a fast sale so if you intend to apply for a loan or financing please do not reply to this message.

Hope to hear from you soon!

SGT Sharon Hedman

P.S.: I have made a photo bucket album for car: http://s1057.photobucket.com/albums/t395/1991BMW318ic/?start=all "

Sounds like a scam to me, but since the car is pretty nice I thought I'd run it by you guys.

Could be legit, or a very clever scam. I think I would try talking to her on the phone.

Looks like a very nice car!

Scam, without a doubt scam. And its a common one. They use the military deployment to get you feeling all warm and fuzzy about them being legit. They offer to ship the car to you, just send money first, goodbye money.

And there's no such thing as Amazon Payments, at least not for private transactions such as this.

This one has common several features of scams.

In reply to JThw8:

https://payments.amazon.com/sdui/sdui/personal/money

There is...but its probably something like Google Checkout, you send the money, they recieve it and promptly remove it from their account, and there is little that Amazon can do to get it back for you. Other than telling the other person that they are very bad and mean.

Chances are all their personal info linked to the account will be completely falsified so no one can track them down.

I am a little familiar with this..... I will say thankfully it was for a small amount of money (less than $200)

Crap. Thats what I thought.

Looks an aweful lot like this one I got about a truck: "Hello,

This 2001 Toyota Tundra runs and drives excellent. It is in immaculate condition, meticulously maintained and hasn't been involved in any accident. Everything works in the car: lights, gauges, radio, seats, windows, locks, a/c blows ice cold, etc... It has no leaks or drips and does not smoke at all, slightly used in 100% working and looking conditions with a clear title.

I was serving in Fort Lewis, US Army base near Pierce County, Washington and now I am deployed in Fort Wainwright, Alaska. The car is still in Fort Lewis, US Army base and will be delivered from there.

I have dropped my price to $4,950 (purchase price) that includes delivery and handling to your address since this is an Urgent Sale! I need to sell it before April 06th, when I will be deployed in Afghanistan with my platoon replacing the troops scheduled to come home.

If you're interested to conclude this purchase in a timely manner email me your Full Name and Shipping Address to open a case with Amazon Payments. They will contact you to explain the entire procedure without any obligation to buy it or fees.

The financial part will be managed by them, which means that you will have a 5 days inspection period before committing to buy the car. In this way both, buyer and seller are 100% covered during the steps of this transaction. If the car is not in same condition as I said, you will ship it back on my expense and Amazon Payments will send you a full refund. But I assure you won't be the case.

I don't want to offend you, but the car is priced for a fast sale so if you intend to apply for a loan or financing please do not reply to this message.

Hope to hear from you soon!

SGT Sharon Hedman

P.S.: I have made a photo bucket album for car: http://s1177.photobucket.com/albums/x352/2001toyotatundra1/"

SCAM,

Ask them for their DSN number and what battalion they are assigned to. That way you can call them.

The Army base, or the Joint Personal Property Shipment Office, (JPPSO) will not ship any vehicle or property to anyone without a Power of Attorney.

That's B.S.

Nigerian Prose 101:

I need to sell it before April 06th, when I will be deployed in Afghanistan with my platoon replacing the troops scheduled to come home.

email me your Full Name and Shipping Address to open a case with Amazon Payments. to explain the entire procedure without any obligation to buy it or fees.

If the scammer included some albums of personal photos on their PhotoBucket account, and used a name on the account, it would be more believable. Just grab random photos of birthday parties and stuff from the web, its not that hard. Wait, why am I helping the enemy?

Scam. But... for giggles, one easy way to find out - ask for the pick-up price and that you will be there tomorrow to look it over.

^^ That's what I always do. Or, "What a coincidence, by best friend/cousin/whatever lives not 20 minutes away! I'll send him over to check it out tomorrow."

Scam scam scam, any car price that "includes shipping" is a scam no doubt. You could be 2,500 miles away or 35 miles away, and that's a price difference of over $2,000, no way a $3,200 car has that kind of allowance built in.

JThw8 wrote: Scam, without a doubt scam. And its a common one. They use the military deployment to get you feeling all warm and fuzzy about them being legit. They offer to ship the car to you, just send money first, goodbye money. And there's no such thing as Amazon Payments, at least not for private transactions such as this.

This.

"If you're interested to conclude this purchase in a timely manner email me your Full Name and Shipping Address to open a case with Amazon Payments. They will contact you to explain the entire procedure without any obligation to buy it or fees." = Scam

I meant to add, any time you get a story it's probably a scam. If someone has a car for sale, they should be with the car and you should be able to check it out in person. If you can't, then they don't have the car or there is something else wrong. Once you start getting the multiple paragraph long stories with the detailed methods for payment then you know it's a scam. No legitimate car sale from an individual starts offering escrow, x online payment processor, etc etc.

In reply to dculberson:

Yeah, I know. But it was such a nice car!!!

I know, there was an awesome deal on a GTO once that I SO wanted to be real. But the reply came back, "I am in Kurdistan and must sell the car ..." dang.

SCAM! You don't "deploy" to Ft Wainwright, Alaska, you transfer. Alaska is not a deployment but an assignment. You deploy to a mission like war (ie:Iraq/Afghanistan) or emergency relief(ie: Hurricane relief like Katrina). And transfer to Alaska allows you to take a car with you. Why isn't it with her in Alaska. Now granted I wouldn't take a convertible to Wainwright (ie: Fairbanks) having lived/stationed there in the military but you could. Also, Ft Lewis hasn't been Ft Lewis in a couple years, it's now Joint Base Lewis-McChord or JBLM for short. They combined McChord AFB and Ft Lewis to one base. If it was a legitimate sale, there would be a POC around the Tacoma area with access to the car. The Amazon payment thing is a clue also. Maybe luck is with you and it is legit. Talk on phone.

I've seen the same ad for a different BMW (I'm done with convertibles). Sorry.

That is screaming scam to me. If it was legit they wouldn't get into how you're going to pay etc. Walk away.

This is a BIG SCAM GUYS.. LOOK AT THE EMAIL HE / SHE SENT US!!

I asked to call her here is the response

Hi,

Right now I`m in a military base, getting ready for Afghanistan. I prefer to be contacted via e-mail, I will not have access to the phone the next five days because of my work schedule. Please understand I can't use a military phone line for my personal or private phone calls. Thank you for understanding.

If you want to buy it please email me your full name and address for delivery so I can initiate the transaction through Amazon Payments.After that they will contact you with all necessary information about this transaction(terms,buyer protection,payment instructions,invoice,etc.).

Waiting your email.Thank you. Sgt. Hedman

also here is the 1st email:PLEASE DONT BE FOOOLED!!!! Hello,

This 2004 Subaru Impreza WRX STI runs and drives excellent. It is in immaculate condition, meticulously maintained and hasn't been involved in any accident. Everything works in the car: lights, gauges, radio, seats, windows, locks, a/c blows ice cold, etc... It has no leaks or drips and does not smoke at all, slightly used in 100% working and looking conditions with a clear title.

I was serving in Fort Lewis, US Army base near Pierce County, Washington and now I am deployed in Fort Wainwright, Alaska. The car is still in Fort Lewis, US Army base and will be delivered from there.

I have dropped my price to $3,550 (purchase price) that includes delivery and handling to your address since this is an Urgent Sale! I need to sell it before April 06th, when I will be deployed in Afghanistan with my platoon replacing the troops scheduled to come home.

If you're interested to conclude this purchase in a timely manner email me your Full Name and Shipping Address to open a case with Amazon Payments. They will contact you to explain the entire procedure without any obligation to buy it or fees.

The financial part will be managed by them, which means that you will have a 5 days inspection period before committing to buy the car. In this way both, buyer and seller are 100% covered during the steps of this transaction. If the car is not in same condition as I said, you will ship it back on my expense and Amazon Payments will send you a full refund. But I assure you won't be the case.

I don't want to offend you, but the car is priced for a fast sale so if you intend to apply for a loan or financing please do not reply to this message.

Hope to hear from you soon!

SGT Sharon Hedman

P.S.: I have made a photo bucket album for car: http://s1155.photobucket.com/albums/p558/SUBARUIMPREZA2004/?start=all

You know, it may not be a scam. I can find out for you, but I'll need you to send me your full name, Social Security number and bank routing number for your primary checking account...

fast_eddie_72 wrote: You know, it may not be a scam. I can find out for you, but I'll need you to send me your full name, Social Security number and bank routing number for your primary checking account...

Hey, I didn't become the crown prince of Nigeria by falling for stupid stuff like that. I'm williing to hire you to find out for me, but I'm going to need some earnest money in order to know you're on the level.