Car Scam. What steps to take.

THE PLEDGE
I found a guy that said he had a 1993 Toyota Supra twin turbo for sale for $5000. So I Blue Booked the car and it was worth approximately $20000. It had low miles, every factory option, custom body kit, rims, it even looked perfect in the pictures. In my mind I was already racing the car around. I found the car while looking for a vehicle near Houston, Texas but, when I contacted the guy by email he told me the car was in New Jersey and that he was in England. I told him I only had $4000 and he told me he would take it because, he disparately needed the money. So I asked him for the VIN number so I could do a Carfax report on the car. He sent me a picture of the VIN, title, and about twenty other pictures of the interior and exterior. I did a Carfax report and it showed that the vehicle was bought in California a couple of months earlier and that the mileage of the vehicle was accurate. When I asked him about it he told me he was the one who bought the vehicle. I had decided that it was a good deal, too good to pass up, so I asked to make the deal. I then received an email from Square Trade saying that he was a guaranteed member in good standing and also received an invoice saying that I owed $4000 and transporting the vehicle was free. I went to a place with Western Union and found out what the rates were to send the money to England.

THE TURN
Something didn't feel right so I searched around Ebay, Cars.com, and Autotrader.com and found the same black supra for sale in Florida, Las Vegas, New York, and Los Angeles. So I sent a copy of the email from Square Trade and asked them to authenticate it. They sent me a response saying that they did not send me the email and didn't have anyone registered with that user name.
So I forwarded every email I received from him including the FAKE Square Trade email along with all of the photos of the car, title, and VIN # to the FBI. I haven't heard any news about it so I don't know what, if anything, happened to him.

THE PRESTIGE
All that said, if a deal looks too good to be true don't act on a whim because, it could end up costing a lot more than you thought for nothing. Had I not taken a step back I would have lost the money to him but, to have lost the trust factor was just as bad. Now I am extra cautious about dealing with people. If I receive a suspicious email I always send it to spoof@paypal.com they usually promptly reply that they didn't send me that email.
Good luck to everyone and remember to be on the lookout for what is really happening. Don't let yourselves be fooled.

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