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57 °F 5 Day Forecast Tuesday, December 23, 2003 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | eSouthernOregon | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find a Rental Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Email Story to a Friend December 11, 2003 Thanks to a little of his own detective work, Mark Sanders saved himself a lot of money and grief by avoiding an international cashier�s check scam targeting people who sell their vehicles online. Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli Car sale attracts scam Jacksonville man smelled a rat when he received a cashier’s check from Nigeria By ANITA BURKE Mail Tribune Mark Sanders of Jacksonville went online looking for potential buyers in Southern Oregon for his 2001 Volkswagen Beetle. Instead he found himself the target of an international scam. Sanders listed his Bug on AutoTrader.com several months ago. His listing doesn’t even show up on the Web site anymore, but around Thanksgiving he got an e-mail from a prospective buyer who claimed to be in the United Kingdom. "It was a pretty generic e-mail, just asking ‘Do you still have the car and how much do you want for it,’ " he said. Sanders said he still had the car and named his price — $14,500. The person at the other end claimed to have a buyer willing to pay that price. As they worked out the deal via e-mail, Sanders became wary. Advertisement The potential buyer wanted Sanders to send him money upfront to pay a shipping agent, also located in Britain. Sanders refused. Then the would-be buyer offered to send Sanders a cashier’s check to cover the cost of the car and shipping if Sanders would forward money to the shipping agent via Western Union. He agreed, but was still skeptical. "I had a feeling it was a scam," he said. At Great Pacific Trading Co. in Grants Pass where Sanders works, a co-worker’s friend had been scammed into accepting a bogus cashier’s check when selling a motorcycle. In June, Medford police reported that two Medford residents selling luxury vehicles online had been overpaid with counterfeit checks apparently originating in Nigeria, then pressured to return the excess funds as soon as possible before the scam could be uncovered. Victims in those two cases lost thousands. "I was alerted to the possibility of a bad cashier’s check," Sanders said. He gave out only his post office box and cell phone number in an effort to protect his privacy in case the prospective buyer turned out to be a con artist. When the $16,800 check arrived Tuesday, it came via FedEx from Lagos, Nigeria, not the United Kingdom — but it had all the original document printing and watermarks. The names were typed in with a typewriter that Sanders wasn’t sure looked exactly right, especially after all the other red flags the deal had triggered. He called the bank it was drawn on — First National Bank in Haines City, Fla. "I said I had a check that I wanted to verify because it looked suspicious," he said. The bank employee asked him to read out the numbers printed across the bottom of the check. "She knew immediately, before I even got through the numbers," Sanders said. She told him the bank had stopped using that series of checks because of fraud problems, so the one in his hand was a fake. Sanders is hanging on to the check, his car and his cash. He’s notified the Secret Service, which investigates international fraud. A Secret Service agent told him that the scammer had created an elaborate web of deception so all the addresses, names and e-mail addresses were false and the creator couldn’t be tracked. "He advised me to tell everybody I knew and warn them," Sanders said. "My warning would be to verify funds are there, even with a cashier’s check." Waiting to verify a check from an international source can take a week or longer, Medford police said, but it’s worth the wait. Money sent outside the country is almost impossible to retrieve, police said. Reach reporter Anita Burke at 776-4459, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2003 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback 3 WEEKS FREE! ADVERTISERS SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Real Estate Showcase Food for Thought Hike of the Week Wellness Connection Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Openings Prime Times