We have seen a significant rise in the number of comments our our blog post, The Craigslist/eBay Car Scam. Desperate times bring out the greed. Fortunately, most are like this comment from Franco:

Man, I just went thru this ordeal. I thought the offer to buy a good car with low mileages was too good to be true. Then I got the emails from “ebay”, I thought it was all ligit. But then I decieded to check Kelly Blue Book for normal average prices on the type of vehicle I was trying to buy, and red flags went up immidiately. Why would someone desperately wanna sell me a vehicle for so low, and loose thousands of dollars…thanks to this blog, I appreciate everyone’s comments and insights, and on the author or creater of this page!!

Unfortunatley, some are like this one:

This actually happened to me, so as a reault I lost $3000.00 outta the deal. I live with my cousin and her husband, and we were looking for a used car for me. A friend of her told us he saw a 2004 Dodge Neon on craigslist that was selling for $2800.00. Well, we looked into it, but apparently not good enough. He had pics of it up and everything. Seemed to be legit. I guess we shouldn’t have been so eager to jump on a deal.

Someone came into our store this week upset, thinking we were eBay, and asking why we hadn’t sent them their car. I asked her about the transaction. She pulled out her MoneyGram receipt and fake eBay e-mail and I asked her to have a seat. I had to tell her that she’d lost $2500 and would never see it our the car again.

Many of the comments are placing the blame squarely on the shoulders of the scammer. Don’t get me wrong, this is a nasty thing that these scam artists are doing. There’s nothing excusable about it and it needs to stop. I feel bad for the people who are drawn in to the trap.

On the other hand, some of the blame for the loss lies with the victim. There’s greed on both sides here. The scammer is preying on an easy victim. The victim, not yet realizing that they’re a victim, thinks they’re preying on someone selling a car well below market value.

If you receive an offer for anything and it’s too good to be true, do your research. It doesn’t matter how many times you say it, if it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t. The majority of the comments we’ve received have been from people who are doing their research, finding our site or another site warning them of the scam, and realizing the scam before it’s too late.

Every one of these fake offers from the scammer is set up the same way. The price is always way too good to be true. The seller’s story is always the same. When they send the fake eBay e-mail, they are almost always littered with spelling errors. All of them come from an e-mail address that is NOT eBay.com, but usually some variation.

Please, please, please. To those who have taken responsibility and done their research, thank you! To everyone, pay it forward by sending someone you know to our our blog post, The Craigslist/eBay Car Scam. Help stop this scam and the victims from losing thousands of dollars.

One last comment…just think about this. Imagine if the scammers put all that creative energy into doing something productive to make the world a better place.

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