My nephew needs a cheap beater, so he answers an ad for a '93 Civic DX with 99K miles. He agrees to meet the seller at a Golden Corral Restaurant to see and drive the Civic.

The car's O.K., so they agree on a price of $3800, but the guy wants only cash. Nephew writes the guy a check for $100 to hold the car and they agree to meet the next day to exchange car and title for the cash.

They touch base in the a.m. and agree to meet at the same Golden Corral that night at 8:00 p.m. The guy and the civic don't show. Honest mistake or scam to steal the $100.00?

My guess is the guy maybe has done this multiple times. He gets a check, presents it at vic's bank for cash and then never shows up to complete the deal. Your thoughts?

 

Could be a scam or a hot car. Doesn't sound good to me.

 

wait and see.

 

Can you (or your nephew) do a reverse lookup on the phone number in the ad to possibly find this guy? Of course if he is a professional scammer, he probably used some phone number that can't be traced back.
Another thing (won't help you now, but may make it more difficult for this "seller") is to contact the paper where the car was advertised and notify them of this fraud.
If he does this scheme on a monthly basis, or perhaps has other cars advertised, I think the newspaper would ban his advertising, if they know it is fraudulent.

 

CALL the BANK ASAP......cancel that check!!!

This is a old scam that has always gone on!!!!

 

I'd cancel the check

 

I thought about the reverse lookup also; however, the nephew said it was a cell phone, so no luck there. The guy also had a whole day to present the check at my nephew's bank, so that's going to be tough. Maybe we'll try to trace the bastard through his ad.

 

Contact the police, they can get the information from the carrier by his phone number. Most banks require ID to cash a check and may have written his drivers license number on the check.

Lance

 

good luck to you. I hope it wasn't a scam