My wife and I have watched these car scams for years. As someone
pointed out earlier, they all specify "shiny paint." She have inquired
to a number of these sellers, just to find out what was up (no
intention of taking the bait) and they all (same person or group, no
doubt) answered pretty much the same thing: I'm a single mom, being
transferred to afghanistan, can't be around to show the car, but your
$500 deposit to me will secure it so you can come see it. Or some
variation on that theme.

If the car is nice, and the price is very low, and they don't show the
plates, it's a scam.

Jim

On Sat, Nov 21, 2009 at 5:35 PM, Allan Streib <streib@cs.indiana.edu> wrote:
> Mike South <msouth@GMAIL.COM> writes:
>
>> I thought it might be a good idea to pose as a mark--ask what it would
>> take to ship it, has he had a mechanic look at it (but don't ask to
>> have my own mechanic look at it), etc. �Somewhere in there ask whether
>> the handle to the crank that lifts the top up and down is in good
>> shape. �If he says it is, we know he doesn't have one :).
>
> Nice idea, but I doubt it would come to that. �The scams pretty much all
> involve sending some amount of money in advance, or having to cash a
> money order and wire the seller some amount of it back (the money order
> turns out to be a forgery), etc, often with a complicated tale of woe
> designed to evoke feeling of sympathy and trust.
>
> Craigslist has some stuff to watch out for here...
>
> �http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams
>
> Allan
> --
> 1991 Vanagon GL
>