Evidently someone took a check from an African buyer in payment for his car. The check bounced before the car was scheduled to be picked up for shipment. But your car is not necessarily what the scam is intended to take from you. They're after your cash.

The way it works is like this: the buyer (usually from an African country) sends a check for payment for the car. The check is for too much money, so he asks the owner of the car to cash the check and then send the overpayment back to the African buyer. The African's check is no good. So the sting is that they get you to send the money back before you know if their check has cleared.

In early February 2001, one of our advertisers was contacted by "a Nigerian buyer." The buyer offered to purchase our client's vehicle at the full asking price. The seller was told that a Nigerian buyer would gladly pay the full asking price of $22,000. However there was someone in the U.S. that owed him $31,800. He wanted our advertiser to accept the larger amount and then he said he would trust the seller to send him the rest of the money.

Something about the above offer bothered our advertiser and he forwarded the offer to me. I promptly emailed him back to watch out for any proposal that comes from Nigeria. For the uninitiated, Nigeria is the "scam capitol" of the world. This country has the most corrupt government and the worst reputation for dishonest schemes known today. Many of the scams are implemented with the help of Nigerian immigrants living in Chicago and other parts of the U.S.

If you are contacted by buyers who identify themselves as being from Nigeria, refer to this link: http://home.rica.net/alphae/419coal/

posted 04-06-2003 05:25 PM         

They are also contacting us bird breeders trying to get macaws or other parrots too