Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Was it a Scam or Not??

     The past few weeks I have been looking around, trying to find a nice and dependable car for under $2000.  I found a lot of nice cars and realized how many dealerships were within 50 miles of me as well (lol).  However, it seemed like every time I found one that I wanted, it had already been sold before I called and I was about to give up hope... to be perfectly honest with you!

     Just when I thought all hope was gone,  I came home on Friday and my husband showed me a picture of a GORGEOUS car that the owner only wanted $1950 for.  As he told me about the conversation he had been having with the owner all morning via email I got excited, but the car was in another state and would have to be shipped...

     Being the pessimistic that I am.. I wanted to know more and ask questions.  After a few more emails back and forth I grew more excited because I felt like it was legit, but I was also suspicious due to a few little details....


  1. The car was way to nice to be only $1950... Especially when the price included it being shipped to me.
  2. The Google account of the owner... Did not have any posts, likes, nor a picture and they only had 1 friend, whose page was the same way to a 'T'!    
  3. The PhotoBucket Account had only the pictures that they had sent me of the car. 
  4. The original listing for the car was on CraigsList
.... O.Kay all of these things could be nothing, but Flags were waving because even if someone doesn't share much stuff on the web, most people have friends and have posted at least once or liked something (just my hut feeling).

     The owner had convinced my husband that things were legit; and through conversations I felt okay about it somewhat; therefore, he told the owner we were ready to move forward with the deal....  This is the part that really made me throw up the stop sign!!!

     The Agent that would be handling the deal sent us an email with the information we needed to make the purchase.  However, this is "supposed" to be from an Amazon Vehicle Protection service and yet there is no listing on the Amazon website for this service and no phone number on the email either.  (????)  

     The owner happened to email right after and asked if we had all the information; and my husband said yes and that we would be sending the money shortly.  The owner then sent a message thanking him and signed the email.. "God bless  you and your family", which made me feel a little less suspicious and I thought that maybe we were getting a good deal due to their hardship with the illness of a child and needing money.

     The kids were getting out of school and I was going home to get our youngest daughter; and my husband was going to get our oldest daughter and then go into town to send the money.  We chatted briefly a little more, mostly me asking him if he was SURE he wanted to move forward.  He agreed to email the 'Agent' and ask him to give him a call, just to verify things first; and he did.

      Not long after, my husband calls and says that an email came in from the 'agent' and he claims that he can not call because the company does so much business that the phone lines are tired up!  ... 

   ..."Ummm, Yeah Right!!!   If you want me to send you $1950, you are going to talk to me!" was my response.  

     I told him I would email the owner and ask them to contact us; and we agreed he would call once he got into town before he did anything.

     As I waited for the owners reply, I started thinking about everything and my doubts kicked in overdrive.   I started searching the internet to see if I could find the company that was planning to ship the car.  Just as I was searching I came across a question someone had asked about this company on Yahoo Questions that was ideal to our situation; and she was wondering if it was a scam!??  

       **Red Flags was popping up EVERYWHERE!!

    The owner's reply follows saying that they would never do anything to scam anybody, they enjoy their freedom and life too much.. blah blah blah.... But again, not willing to call me!

     So... I picked up the phone and called my husband!  Once he answered, I read him the question on Yahoo and the comments; and then I told him that my gut was telling me this is not right; and that I would rather end up with a lemon than have someone scam me out of all of that money and he agreed!

    Later on that night, still wondering Was this is Scam?  I asked my husband if he was going to email the owner or the agent and tell them we were not interested; and he said no.  

    He said.. "If it was a scam they won't even try to contact me again!  Because they will know I was suspicious and they will move on."  

    It's been 6 days now and no one has tried contacting us again to see if we have sent the money or if we were still interested...  Is this because they sold the car to 1 of the other 4 people who were interested?  (or)  Because it was a scam?  

    What do you think... Was this a Scam or Not??