Nigerian GT Scam

[DRIVEBY]

My friend Tom in LA has just begun looking for a used GT. He calls me and asks my advice and I told him to call Shelby at Elite Autos, which he did and almost bought one. Next day he sends me an email with an attachment from AutoTrader.com with a few GT’s attached. One, a 2005 located in Augusta GA, great condition, all 4 options, and with 8500 mi is listed for $100K. Right away I tell him that’s too good to be true, but he follows up on it. He calls the number, but phone line is disconnected. Two days later he receives the first of many emails from a William Hartwig. I also inquire and work my angle out of Chicago :secret:, but warn him to be leery. I Google the name of the supposed owner and it gives me a retired US Navy Captain. William also has an official looking Gmail account. The AutoTrader listing was removed after 4 days.


With that said, here’s the emails that followed:

WILLIAM - March 31
Hi,
I apologize for the delay. I was busy. The car is still for sale. My selling price is $100,000. Clean and clear title in hand. No accidents. The price is low because I must sell the car fast. I have a serious financial problem and the sale of my car is the last solution.
I have a clean CARFAX report and I can send it to you. Also, I can send you the pictures and more details too. Just let me know if you are still interested.
Where are you located?

ME - March 31
Hi William,
Thanks for getting back to me. I am in Chicago, IL and would like to come down at your convenience to see the GT.
In the mean time, I would greatly appreciate a copy of your CarFax report & any pics you have.
Feel free to call me anytime at 773-XXX-XXXX.

William actually sends me the CarFax report, which looks good. He also sends about 8 pictures, but none include the VIN #. I have a friend at Ford who got me a CarFax and all service records. The car appeared legit and was never in an accident.

WILLIAM - April 1
Hi Grant,
I am working in the US Navy and now I am on a mission on the Persian Gulf. I am on a aircraft carrier and I don't have phone access. I am selling the car for a low price because I have financial problems. The vehicle is currently located in CA. (he sends Tom the same email except that the car is in GA) The vehicle is already at the shipping company ready to be shipped. I already arranged the deal with another person but he changed his mind because he found another vehicle. He already paid the shipping charges. You will not pay shipping charges. Shipping is free. The car is insured in case of damage and it takes 7 days to be delivered at your door. It will come with all the necessary paperwork (clear title, bill of sale, warranty documents, user's manual, insurance etc). I signed all the paperwork and I have the clean and clear title ready for transfer.
This is the VIN#: 1FAFP90S56Y400910. The vehicle is registered in my name and I am the 3rd owner. There is no lien on the vehicle.
The general condition is impeccable. The vehicle is like new, completely working, perfect running condition, with no hidden damages or accidents, no dents, door dings or scratches, it has always been garage kept, non-smoker, still smells like new, no pets. The car has 8,500 miles.
I will send you the pictures (in zip format) and the carfax report in my next messages. Check your email. The messages may not come to inbox.
If you are still interested just let me know and I will send you more details in order to make a safe transaction.

ME - April 1
Hi William,
Car looks good and I appreciate the CarFax report. I can make it out to CA to inspect the car and do the deal on sight. Just send me the information and I'll come out there ASAP.
Hopefully this Fri to Mon is good. Do you have someone to meet me at the shipping company?

WILLIAM - April 2
Grant,
I can only deliver the car to your front door because I am not in US in this moment. The car will arrive at your door in 7 days. The shipping is paid. You will not pay shipping charges. As soon as the vehicle will be at your home, you will have 7 days to inspect and test drive the car. If you will not like the car 100% you will ship it back at my expense :bs. I'm sure this will not happen because the car is in excellent condition.
The car is at the shipping company with all the paperwork inside. You will receive all the original documents and keys with the car. I signed all the paperwork and the title is ready to be transferred to the new owner. You will have the chance to inspect the car before I will be paid.
The only way we can do this transaction is through Ebay because I want a smooth and safe transaction.
If you are interested to buy my car, please send me your full name, shipping address and phone number so I can register the transaction with Ebay. Ebay will reply you with more details and informations about this transaction.

WILLIAM - April 2
Tom,
Savannah, GA. I will make the deal through Ebay so they will send the payment instructions. Send me your details so I can register the transaction with Ebay. If you accept the conditions from Ebay we can make this deal. If not I will find another buyer.

Tom sends his Ebay info and gets this message:

WILLIAM - April 2
Date: April 2, 2009 12:21:15 PM PDT
From: eBay <support@vehicle-pay-program.com>
To: XXXX@earthlink.net
Subject: eBay Customer Support - Item 2006 FORD GT
eBay sent this message to Tom XXXX.
Dear Tom XXXX,
In order to complete this transaction you must make the payment via bank-to-bank electronic wire transfer of US $50,000.00 to eBay Motors bank account number 0383777587. eBay Motors will secure the payment until you will receive, inspect and accept the vehicle. Or, if it is the case, eBay will refund the payment to you. After payment is secured, the Seller is authorized to ship the vehicle. Your funds will not be released to the Seller until you have received and approved the merchandise you are purchasing. You will have 7 days to inspect it. If it is complete and as described, you should accept the vehicle. If you refuse the vehicle, you must ship the vehicle back to the Seller within 10 business days and the refund will be sent to you. The Seller will support the return shipping charges. If the vehicle is accepted, you will send the remaining balance of US $50,000.00 to eBay Motors and eBay Motors Financial Department submits the payment directly to the Seller within 3 business days.
Sincerely,
eBay Customer Support (Trust and Safety Department).

ME - April 3
Hi William,
Just to be sure, I ordered another Carfax and the GT came up clean with no problems just like you said. Are we going to be using PayPal on Ebay? It seems like the most logical way to go about the transaction - that way neither of us has any worries.
My username on Ebay is XXXX. So I guess you'll set it up there and I'll give you the shipping address then?

WILLIAM – April 4
Grant,
I will make the deal through Ebay so they will send the payment instructions. Send me your details so I can register the transaction with Ebay. If you accept the conditions from Ebay we can make this deal. If not I will find another buyer.

ME – April 4
William,
That sounds good, but wouldn't it be better if I wire you, say $5000 using Western Union (or does the US Navy have a banking service) as a good faith deposit to hold the car for me?

WILLIAM – April 5
Grant,
What are you talking about? That will be better but I may take your money and disappear.:lol The payment will be made only by wire transfer not by money orders which are not safe services.

ME – April 5
William,
Cool, I just thought I could hold the car with the deposit & save you any charges through Ebay.
Nonetheless, before I send the money, could you take a picture of the GT with the VIN number and today's newspaper with the date visible & while you’re at it, include your Stupid Ass Scamming Punk Face in it as well! :usa

Funny that I haven't received any emails since. Fortunately, we were able to see thru this scam pretty early, but as we know, some people will get suckered.

I hope if anyone knows of this William Hartwig and he actually does own a GT, they could alert him that someone is trying to steal his identity.

Tom is still looking for a Tungsten for about 100K. :driving:

 

[Empty Pockets]

Roger all that.

But regardless of the car he ends up buying, the first comment Bony (God rest him) would make is, "Have a PPI done by a knowledgable expert before spending a dime."

"Carfax" isn't the end all & be all by ANY means.

 

[shelbyelite]

I feel he will be looking for quite some time at the $100k mark. Soooo many scams out there. Please be careful guys!

 

[djs]

You know, I hope there's a special place in Hell for these scam @$$holes.

 

[Spirit's Son]

These guys are getting somewhat smarter. They are pulling actual VIN #s from real cars for sale, usually with the same pics.....seems legit right?

google is your friend:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=1FAFP90S56Y400910&btnG=Google+Search&cts=1239161357208&aq=f&oq=

notice two listings for this car previously for sale at a realistic price.

Stay safe out there guys.

edit: also, notice he said it was an 05, but the VIN is from an 06.

 

[GT4JR]

scam artist

Well, this William is the same guy scamming a 2002 BMW Z8 for $50K on Auto Trader; he gave me EXACTLY the same e mails; I knew something was wrong when he did not agree that I fly to Texas to inspect the car; I did little more research and got hold of the REAL Owner who confirmed that William has been reported to the FBI and Texas police; yes the Z8 is for sale but for $120K.
Guys, be careful with those Too good to be true deals!

 

[shelbyelite]

They can report these guys to the police till they are blue in the face, but 95% of these scammers are over seas and the local law enforcement here in the states can do nothing. People need to WISE UP and follow the rule that if its too good to be true, it probably is! Also, do your homework. Never wire money to a person that you can not go meet in person. Also, get a phone number to call the person at, from the start of communication. If they cant be reached by phone, RUN! I could go on about this for days as I have had to deal with the BS scammers for years. I can spot them a thousand miles away, but every great once in a while, one is good enough to atleast spike my interest. Please be careful!!!!

 

[S592R]

If you have an email address for one of these guys send me a pm. I'll do a back research and hand over the "listed name" and IP address of registry. If its overseas then its dubious at best. Most military vessels/installations still carry a US IP address.

 

[fjpikul]

Grant, you have a PM from me. Frank

 

[FB GT40]

Nigeria

I don't care what it is - or how it comes to you - if it is any way associated with Nigeria - it's a scam.

Several years ago my company got scammed on a relatively small transaction paid for by a credit card which cleared. Money in the bank. The s**t hit the fan when B of A called a month later and wanted their money back! The lawyers worked it out from there. :thumbsdow

 

[DRIVEBY]

Hey Frank & S592R, I've sent you both PM's. Thanks for the help!

 

[MAD IN NC]

JUST GOT THIS! I BETTER OPEN THE FILE ATTACHED IMMEDIATELY :rofl:rofl:rofl

I'll bet Frank turned me in :bored



oh, btw the sending email is FBI DEPTGOV [fbideptgov_co.za8@msn.com]:rofl:rofl:rofl:rofl

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ANTI-TERRORIST AND MONEY LAUNDRY CRIMES DIVISION
F B I. HEADQUARTERS, WASHINGTON, D.C.
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
J. EDGAR HOOVER BUILDING 935
PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, NW WASHINGTON,
D.C. 20535-0001


Attention Fund Beneficiary


Note you are advice by the authority above to open the message attached and report to our office immediately.

YOURS TRULY,

John S. Pistole- Deputy Director
FBI DIRECTOR MR. ROBERT S. MUELLER III

 

[Silverbullitt]

These guys are getting somewhat smarter. They are pulling actual VIN #s from real cars for sale, usually with the same pics.....seems legit right?

google is your friend:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=1FAFP90S56Y400910&btnG=Google+Search&cts=1239161357208&aq=f&oq=

notice two listings for this car previously for sale at a realistic price.

Stay safe out there guys.

edit: also, notice he said it was an 05, but the VIN is from an 06.

If it is an 05 Tungston you better jump on it. That would be as rare as sonic blue.:rofl:rofl:rofl

 

[thrashdu2002]

:rofli agree with DJS, i hope there is a special place for these @@@holes in hell. just so you guys know my fiancee and i have been getting calls from the international prize lotto company and they also use a couple of other names. but they are super rude and they tell you to just send $150 bucks to them so they can send out a package that has the state seal of approval. i asked what my fiancee won(knowing it was a scam, im in sales.) and the guy said 1.5million. i said wow thats awesome, if you stack that on the 3.5 million we wond last week according to another scammer were doing pretty good. the guy got really pissed when i said that and i hung up the phone. he called back 3 times verbal abusing me. i said i was tracing the call with a computer program i have. he freaked out and said he would have me thrown in prison for calling him a scam artist and told us the FBI was coming to arrest us:bs

i told him that we wanted some in and out burger since they are on there way. he didnt understand what i meant because of the huge language barrier. i asked him if he goes to school to become a scammer:rofl and the guy got really upset and told me to ***k off.

needless to say after those two calls they havent called back.

 

[RALPHIE]

Here's a new one -

Dear Respected,

My name is Miss Lidana Williams a 20 years old girl, My mother died with her baby during delivery and my father Hon. Mr Felix Williams later died last year as he was poisoned by his family brother. My late father was a wealthy Gold and Diamond miner and on several government appointments, on that the $7.7 million Usd was legitimately earned and deposited with an international bank here, concerning the deposited $7.7 million usd, I am contacting to help for its investment in your country and I have the inheritance Will as the Rightful owner and every other deposit proves and papers.

I got your contacts and your profile during my desperate search for a foreign partner, I contacted you to seek for your partnership to assist me to move this money to your country for investments.

My questions are; (1) what will be your percentage for your noble assistance?? (2) Can you be of help to invest the money into Fisheries production and management, Real Estate or Hotel management as soon as you received the funds? (3) Can it be possible for me to further studies in your country ?

Note that this is 100% legitimate and will forward every details and related deposit documents as soon as you write me.

Get back to me with this e mails (lidana.wlliams84@gmail.com)

Best regards,

Miss Lidana Williams.

 

[HHGT]

I would ask for Recent Pictures and Breast, Waist and Hip size and then go from there. Also ask about cooking and cleaning skills, other wise please keep it at a casual level.

 

[MNJason]

I would ask for Recent Pictures and Breast, Waist and Hip size and then go from there. Also ask about cooking and cleaning skills, other wise please keep it at a casual level.

LoL

 

[Empty Pockets]

There's no end to the different types of $$$ scams out there.

I recently rec'd an email SUPPOSEDLY from a family friend (the scammer hacked/pirated her ACTUAL email address!) claiming to be in London...'been mugged...mugger got all her money, credit cards, cell phone, blah, blah...but, she still had her passport...her plane leaves in "X" hours...hotel mgr won't let her leave w/o settling the bill...needs $$$ assistance...blah, blah blah...you can finish rest of this :bs story yourself.

The story ITSELF was obvious :bs just from the ACCOUNTING of it...but, add the fact that "Mary" wouldn't have handled a situation like that in that way, AND the sentence structure/verbiage wasn't hers, AND the fact she wouldn't BE in London w/o her husband(!) in the first place, and red flares were going up like it was the 4th of July.

I sent a terse reply to the scumbag (similar to Silverbullitt's oddly enough!) asking him where he ranked in his graduating class at "Scammer U." and suggested he needed a LOT of post grad work.:mad

 

[Neilda]

"Here's my photo, I haven't doctored it. Honest."

 

[GTRob]

Nothing new. This type of scam has been running for many years. First it was wire the money to an escrow company (that the scammer set up with a web site, etc). Then the new ones got lazy and started doing this eBay Motors account scam.
Here's the newest one I received in my email spam box. Got to give them credit for being different as I have not see this one except that it is based on a movie from a couple of years ago:

Greetings!
I am an American Soldier in Iraq. During a normal inspection routine along Haifa Street, built and occupied by the late Saddam Hussein. On one of his hide outs we discovered an unusual bulge in a cellar, which I presumed to be storage room and as I proceeded to have a closer look at it, we found several metal boxes piled on top each other and locked with padlocks.
I believe however that all these belongs to late Saddam Hussein while he was still alive, and because of this reason, I instructed the soldiers with me to move all the boxes containing the cash to keep the funds to ourselves, so as to help establish ourselves when we return from Iraq. Reply for more details.
My Sincere Regards,
Major Kent Rideout.