Another scammer

[wrightp]

One of the trailers I was looking at on Craigslist seemed too good to be true - and it was! The guy's name (maybe) is James Varlam, and he would not tell me where the trailer was, and that he would use e-Bay as an intermediary for payment. He was in a hurry to sell it, and something seemed fishy, so I googled his name. It immediately came up with the same name (from last year), with the scam being that he would sell the same vehicle numerous times, and have people send payment via "e-Bay", but it wasn't really. They never "hold" money in accounts for payment. Lots of people lost thousands; glad I wasn't one of them. So, I filed a complaint with the FTC, not that it will do any good. Pisses me off!

[northidahocowgirl]

Good thinking to check though! People suck

[FlyingCowgirl]

Lots of scams out there. My cousin was selling a schnauzer puppy and she was telling me about this buyer. It sounded fishy, like the Nigerian Scams out there. I warned her and she still didnt' feel like I knew what I was talking about. However, she was guarded after my warning and basically in the end, she got a fake money order for WAY over the amount of the puppy and the bank (bank of america) verified that it was fake. Classic Nigerian Scam. Thankfully, she lost nothing.

Here is information from the FTC website:
www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt117.shtm

I don't take checks when I sell things unless it's someone I know, cash only. ATMs are everywhere, there is no reason someone cannot go to an ATM and get me cash.

Just be careful and weary of odd behaivor.

[highwayoflife]

Wow, near miss. Good for you to Google the name, wrightp. Most people wouldn't think to do that. Googling companies or potential sales is a great way to find out if it's a scam or legit.

[wrightp]

Yeah, I was amazed it came up right away. Guy's stupid to keep using the same name!!! (But I'm sure glad he did!)