While I was trying to sell my car on CraigsList I received an e-mail which said:

Goodday,

I am Dr Charles Anthony and i am interested in buying your car which you posted on the net for sale .I would like to know if the car is still available for sale while you furnish me with your final selling price.

I will await your kind and timely reply soon so that we can proceed on how payment would be made.

Hope to read back from you.
Dr.Charles

I replied with my price and got this answer:
“Dear Seller,

Thanks for you quick response.am ok with the price and the conditions,i will like to tell you that i will be paying with a Certified cashier check through a client of mine in us dollars and as for the shippment,my shipper will come for the pick up at your location upon your confirmation of receiving the payment and i dont want you to look for any other buyer. i would have love to come down for the pick up,but am not chance to do that now but am satisfy with your discription of the item i will like you to give me the following so that your payment can be sent……………..

1….your full name to be on the check
2..your full contact address to send the payment to
3..your zip code
4.your mobile land number to reach you.

I will expect your mail.asap.
Regards
Dr.Charles

At this point I know it’s a scam. Here’s a person using a yahoo e-mail address buying a 1996 vehicle without seeing it first and then wants it shipped somewhere!

When I checked their IP address I found:
196.220.0.154
OrgName: African Network Information Center
OrgID: AFRINIC
Address: 03B3 – 3rd Floor – Ebene Cyber Tower
Address: Cyber City
Address: Ebene
Address: Mauritius
City: Ebene
StateProv:
PostalCode: 0001
Country: MU (has anyone ever heard of Mauritius?)

I wrote them back and asked for their contact information and was told

Dear Jim,
Thanks for the mail,i live at new jearsy and now i’m on business trip to canada but i have contacted my client concerning the payment and i was told that the cheque would be send to your address today or tommorow
morning.

I want you to prepair the car and pack it outside immediately you got the cheque ok.
Hope to read back from you when you got the cheque
Charles

I’m sure what was supposed to happen here was they were going to send me a bad check and then ask for a refund after it was deposited, but before it was discovered to be a fraud.

I wondered if there was something that could be done before the scammer found out I was aware of their plan so I called the FBI and they told me to call the Secret Service. The woman at the Secret Service told me that there was not much they could do because these countries will not help us prosecute them. She did tell me to visit this website
http://financialcrimestaskforce.com which I did and posted my story. I also did some reaserch and found a slightly different version of this scam with the same MO and IP address
http://www.terrificpets.com/scams/scam.asp?bad=2149 and I’m sure that there are more.

I’m also posting here and telling you BEWARE!