overseas car sale

[jeff s]

Is there any way not to get screwed when selling a car to someone outside the USA? Say a guy in Nigeria or wherever wanted to send a money order or check. Can the seller wait until it clears before shipping the car and not have a chance the bank comes back later and takes the funds back?
I've heard some stuff about counterfeit money orders and checks.
What's a seller supposed to do?
thanks
Jeff

[andrewb70]

Is there any way not to get screwed when selling a car to someone outside the USA? Say a guy in Nigeria or wherever wanted to send a money order or check. Can the seller wait until it clears before shipping the car and not have a chance the bank comes back later and takes the funds back?
I've heard some stuff about counterfeit money orders and checks.
What's a seller supposed to do?
thanks
Jeff

I think the only way to handle that is through an escrow company.

Andrew

[Tiger]

I wouldnt do that, just do a google on "nigeria scam" and see what jumps up.

[Restomod]

Dont Sell Anything To Anyone In Nigeria!!!!!!

[Van B]

I've never done it internationally, but how about an electronic fund transfer? I have an account I keep very little money in that I always have money sent to. As soon as I know it is there, I transfer it into another account.

To add to your earlier comment, if the buyer would not wait for funds to clear to your satisfaction, I would call off the deal.

[paulk68]

I would stay far away from something like that

[Chevy350]

That sounds like a good thing to do, Jeff, and was what I was planning on writing about.

A friend of mine recieved some strange emails from "England", even with an english phonenumber, as a reply to some cars he offered for sale online (In norwegian text I might add). The email was written in what I would call "strange" english - obviously written by someone not native, but still different than how a person with read/write problems would write. I adviced him to let it go and just forget it, then only some days later it was all over the news about "Norway being under heavy attack by nigerian scammers"...

[StRacerDuke]

I don't think anything good has come out of Nigeria. If it's possibly another country and the person is ligit, you've had phone conversations, and you feel comfortable with it then use a third party international escrow company.

Also be aware of market exchange rates with the banks. I had a little bit of a problem with this while living in Italy for a year and banking in California. When ever I would transfer $$ to our Italy property owners account it would never be the correct amount due to banking fees that weren't listed or market rate fluctuations, despite my detailed calculations. I always transfered a little extra for goodwill and it ended up being right. I think a third party escrow account would help solve this though. Just a warning that it could come up as an issue and you may have a few hundered less than you're expecting.

[dropit69]

id do what van said my buddy sold a boat to a guy in sweden thats what he did..it ended up all legit and both sides were happy

[Foudie]

I wouldnt do that, just do a google on "nigeria scam" and see what jumps up.

check out www.419eater.com there is some funny stuff on that site.

[neki67]

That sounds like a good thing to do, Jeff, and was what I was planning on writing about.

A friend of mine recieved some strange emails from "England", even with an english phonenumber, as a reply to some cars he offered for sale online (In norwegian text I might add). The email was written in what I would call "strange" english - obviously written by someone not native, but still different than how a person with read/write problems would write. I adviced him to let it go and just forget it, then only some days later it was all over the news about "Norway being under heavy attack by nigerian scammers"...

I don't know 'bout Norway but here in the Netherlands the Dutch police in cooperation with Interpol arrested a lot of internationally operating Nigerian scammers earlier this year.

Then again English is also not my native language so I hope you will believe me . . . . .

[Bandit]

Flags pop up in my head and bells and whistles go off when I hear about business propositions from Nigeria. Reminds me of all those "official diplomatic" emails I kept getting in my email junk box from supposed exiled government leaders, who had millions of dollars that they needed to hide, and out of all the people out there, I was the only qualified person who could hold it for them! Of course, they would return the favor by giving me a large percentage of the money! All I had to do was give them my bank account # so they could deposit my cash!
What I really couldn't believe was when I heard that a few people go missing every year after actually taking a trip to foreign countries to set up such "deals" with these con artists! I guess what they say about "a sucker born every day" is true!

Just be careful and use common sense, I think you'll be alright.

Paul

[Tiger]

sweden is VERY different from Nigeria, being Norwegian I know what I'm talkin about.
My advice is still to stay away from Nigeria.
Im somethin seems to good to be true is it!

[Chevy350]

I don't know 'bout Norway but here in the Netherlands the Dutch police in cooperation with Interpol arrested a lot of internationally operating Nigerian scammers earlier this year.

Then again English is also not my native language so I hope you will believe me . . . . .

I Believe you! Haha I just don't think norwegian police are advanced enough to pull something like that off...

Funny thing, I recieved this since the last reply to this thread:

Annonse: Chevrolet Malibu, 1979, 2.000,-
Link: http://www.autodb.no/cgi-bin/car/requestframe.pl?nr=1258737

Navn: Avavi Gilbert
Adresse:
Telefon: +1
Mobil:
Telefax:
Poststed:
E-post: [email protected]
Svarmåte:
Melding:
Hello Seller,

How are you and how is everything going with you?

saw your advert off-net and my client is really interested in buying it, i will like you to get back to me with the below informations;

Maker:

Model:

Colour:

Present Condition:

Last Asking Price:

Present Picture Of The Advert If Available:

Reason For Trying To Sell The Advert:

Hope to read from you soonest with all the details.

Best Regards.
Avavi Gilbert
+447011138168

Yeah, right! It went right in the junkmail-dumpster...