Internet Snowmobile Scams

As most of you already know there are lots of different scams happening in the online classified world. It affects all web sites, not just the big ones!

Normally the story goes like this. You are contacted by the scammer who offers to send you a bank note for more than you are asking for the item you are selling. Once you get that bank note then you are supposed to wire them back the difference. What ends up happening is their bank note to you is not legit and if you wire them back money then they walk away with your cash. They constantly change the story in their scam, and more people do this every day. Why you ask? Because it works! Do not fall for this scam!

My suggestions are:

only do transactions in person (if possible)
avoid any sellers or buyers overseas and only accept cash, or a check from a bank that you can actually verify the funds
Even if you get a cashiers check I would not turn over any merchandise until the funds have cleared your account!
Be sure to confirm the other persons identity by looking them up in a phone book and checking their ID.

Here is a real email from one of these scammers:
EMAIL FROM: Lee Foster
Thanks for the response concerning the sale of the "Polaris SKS", go get the advert off the web and consider it sold to me, You dont have to bother about the pick up but presently i am schedulled to leave for holland on a business engagement and this will last me five working days but i believe my trip does not stop this transaction as i will be informing my business associate in the state to make out a certified cashier cheque of $7,500 to your care as soon as you receive the payment you will deduct your cost price and additional $100 then you will transfer the balance via western union money transfer to the shipping company that will handle the pick up of the "Polaris SKS" the reason being that i have other consignment which they will pick up for me,they will aswell responsible for the signing of all titles relating to this transaction and the pick up..
Kindly provide me with your full information
Full Name:......................
Adderss:.......................
State:...........................
City:............................
Zip code:.........................
Countary:...........................
Home phone number:................................
Cell phone number:..............................
I look forward to doing business with you. and complete contact information for the cheque delivery if my mode of payment is considered and if i can trust you with my fund. I look forward to doing business with you.
Regards............

There are some obvious ways to pick out these scammers.

Usually they have no knowledge about sleds and speak VERY POOR English. I mean look at that email, the guy can't even spell COUNTRY right!
They are usually not worried about the price of the sled, all they care about is sending you a check and that you use their shipping company.
Another dead give away is the use of a free email service such as hotmail.com, yahoo.com and netscape.com. People that can not email me from their real email address that is assigned to them from their Internet Service Provider never get much attention from me.

There is another side to these scammers as well! All of the above is for those of you trying to sell a sled. Below is for those of you looking to buy sleds.

Pretty much all the same rules apply, except:

the scammers will place phony ads on the site for sleds that they do not even own
They simply go to ebay and steal a sled description and then use it as their own description
Then they underprice the sled by at least 50% and you'd be surprised how many people contact them and fall for this
REMEMBER ONE THING....if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!