Need Help - Avoiding Scams while selling a car - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

nola911 · 11-30-2007, 07:13 AM

Well, I would say the story makes sense, and when he says he is just visiting, he probably means he is visiting to take advantage of holiday shopping at a HUGE discount with trash american money. He might even be scouting opportunities to buy good that he can import back to UK and sell to finance his trip or make money. That is all fine and dandy, but I would still be a little nervous with a 40k deal.

When dealing with consumers, I always do my buying and selling in cash. I would insist on it if he is international. Go to your bank with the man to deposit the money, this will assure the funds are good, the bills are not fake, or hot (the chances are very unlikely).

I have a question too. If you sell a car that is insured and sell to a scammer, does insurance pay for it if the funds never show up? I would think they would because the bill of sale is null and void if the funds are not swapped? I would think it's stolen.

tboyer · 11-30-2007, 08:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maxferran

I have a question too. If you sell a car that is insured and sell to a scammer, does insurance pay for it if the funds never show up? I would think they would because the bill of sale is null and void if the funds are not swapped? I would think it's stolen.

I was say a BIG NO to this, insurance companies don't insure "stupid" decisions, they expect proper due diligence, which if you have means you won't need the insurance company.

Perfectlap · 11-30-2007, 08:49 AM

Cash is not king.

I was on a recent trip to south america and well long story short... you won't believe the amount of phoney US cash that is circulating abroad. Illegal narcotics operations reap hundreds of millions of dollars in profits which buy some very sophisticated conterfeiting machines.

Many years ago I worked in federal law enforcement and we interviewed a guy in the clink. While I looked at his file I noticed he had his fingerprints and a set of foot prints as well. I asked one of the guys what that was about and they told me he was arrested after they lifted his foot prints from the phoney cash. Apparently to prepare the paper they would scatter tea leaves and walk over the paper to give it the aged quality. Phoney cash sometimes looks too new. And nowadays you've got color lazer printers that can make anything passports,green cards, ss cards, cash and phoney bearer bonds.

Definitely talk to the bank. Carrying $40K is dangerous.

pteam · 11-30-2007, 10:46 AM

I just had this situation happen to me just recently. I sold 2 hummer limos to a guy in spain. My bank assured me that when a wire clears your account, note "clears" is they keyword, it cannot come back out. The money was wired in my account and a few days after it cleared I let him take the limos. All has been well.

Ask your bank specificially about their procedures.

rick3000 · 11-30-2007, 01:50 PM

I like the idea of having the guy take it out in cash and hand it to you in the bank, then you deposit it right away. There is a chance with any transaction, but since you have met the guy, I doubt he is scammer.

RandallNeighbour · 11-30-2007, 02:23 PM

I'm sure your bank would be happy to scan the money for fake bills if they were going to deposit it. In fact, they might do this anyway just to insure the deposit is legit.

If someone walked up to me with hard cold cash to buy my car, I'd sell it to them in a heartbeat as long as I could verify the cash was not fake.

fatmike · 11-30-2007, 02:58 PM

Thanks all. There is some good info here. What's interesting is that there isn't a simple obvious way to do this. Every method has trade-offs.

I spoke to my bank today (which was some good advice) and they told me the pro's and con's of certified checks, bank checks and wires. As PTEAM indicated, a wire goes into a "pending" status and it can in rare cases be reversed until it "clears". That usually takes 24 hours. I won't explore the check options because he really doesn't have an established account in the US.

I'm leaning toward TBOYER's advice from the 10:07am post. I'll ask him to meet me in my bank with the cash & we conduct the transaction.

bnorman · 11-30-2007, 08:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maxferran

I have a question too. If you sell a car that is insured and sell to a scammer, does insurance pay for it if the funds never show up? I would think they would because the bill of sale is null and void if the funds are not swapped? I would think it's stolen.

Loss due to theft resulting from embezzlement or other unlawful conversion is generally excluded. Don't expect your insurer to to guarantee the fidelity of your buyer.