Craigslist selling fraud leads police to Anchorage
Photo by: Acloudman
Police in Jefferson County, West Virginia is looking for a fraudster in Alaska when a local man complained he was duped by a man calling himself Jack Stevens from Alaska.
The victim said he encountered the ad placed by the man at Craigslist. The ad offered a 2007 Honda CBR 600 motorcycle for $2400. The cost included shipping charges from Alaska. At the time, the offer seemed attractive.
The victim decided the deal was worth pursuing. He answered the ad and after a few exchanges struck a deal with Stevens. He sent across the $2400 asked by Stevens.
The complainant panicked when the bike failed to turn up and there was also no sign of the man calling himself Stevens. He reported the matter to the local police.
Police in Jefferson County took out an investigation into the scam. After studying the case, it believed the scam to be the work of overseas fraudsters. In the meantime, they came across a court warrant against a man named ‘Jack Stevens’ in Anchorage, Alaska. They decided to pursue the lead if for nothing else but to rule out the possibility of him being in anyway connected to this scam.
The police have not reported yet whether they found their man or not. But this should make people trading at Craigslist wary of any user going by the name of “Jack Stevens” there.
Source: adn.com
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October 30th, 2008 at 11:14 am
[...]wrote Craigslist selling fraud leads police to Anchorage [...]
November 4th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2008 03:29:35
To:
Subject: 1998 Toyota RAV4 - $4300
We almost lost 4300.00 from believing what was for sale on Craigslist; I viewed Craigslist after we had obtained the money; below are the e-mails we recieved. I contacted EBay and they DO NOT HOLD MONEY FOR ANYONE EVER!!!!!
It all looked so real. We had already obtained the money.
She told me the car was “wrapped and ready to ship”, which is why we could not drive the 90 miles to view the car….In MT cars are shipped on trucks and never have I seen any type of wrapping on them.
Please warn others of this scam, it is in MT now!
THIS IS A FRAUD!!! DO NOT FALL FOR IT.
So sad people like this can get away with using others.
December 13th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Thank god I found this website - I was contemplating a purchase on a 2002 minicooper for about 3k, which was too good to be true but intriguing enough.
So, I got the emails from ebay but the thing is, theyre super unpolished. So I researched it a bit more and I found this wbesite and after reading Lindas emails, which were exactly the same as mine, I realized were probably dealing with the same person.
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December 22nd, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Thank you so much for posting this!
I was in the process of emailing with someone about a Honda which looked too good to be true, and thanks to you I have not lost $2900. It seems like alot of people are doing this scam. Why can’t ebay or craigslist do something about it?
Thank you!
January 12th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Looks like Morgan Lewis doesn’t stop.
She scammed me on ebay 3 years ago for $115!
February 12th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I just ‘found’ the most perfect Acura TL in the world and was so ready to buy it. But thank you for reminding me that if it’s too good to be true then it is TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE. I won’t be a ‘Sucker’ today!!!
February 21st, 2009 at 12:48 pm
We just got scammed out of $4300!!! I wish I had done more research before actually falling hook, line and sinker. My son found a 2004 Toyota Tacoma TRD Lifted 4×4 on Craigslist for $4300. After contacting seller, the item was removed off of Craigslist. She contacted us in the email below:
Re: Toyota Tacoma
Wednesday, February 18, 2009 9:37 PM
From:
“Maria Kaser”
Hello and thank you for question,
The 2004 Toyota Tacoma is in great shape, no engine problems, damages or hidden defects. It was always garaged and never kept outside. I`m a single mother with 2 children because I divorced with my husband and after the divorce I own this truck, I don`t need it and that`s why I`m selling it so cheap. The price for the truck is $4300 with shipping included. We will use eBay`s protection program for our safety. I just need your full name and address so i can open a case.(with no further obligation or fees).
Thanks,
Maria
We got a loan from our local bank to purchase this truck, until we were able to sell my son’s current vehicle and repay the loan. We were told that she was going to go through eBay Motor’s Vehicle Purchase Protection Program, to protect both seller and buyer. We received an email from “eBay Motors”, with all the instructions on sending payment. We were told that once we sent payment, she (Maria Kaser) would start the shipping process. Instructions for payment were to send money via Money Gram to an “eBay Financing Center Agent”, whose name was Tom Nelson. He would hold the money until we received the vehicle; in which we would have 5 days to inspect the vehicle and make a final decision.
After we sent payment, we were told to fax a copy of the receipt to a number, which was supposed to be the eBay Financing Center’s Central number. After getting a confirmation email from “eBay Motors” as follows:
Flag this message
Order Confirmation #009239709 Case ID: 1014123285
Friday, February 20, 2009 6:19 PM
From:
“eBay”
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eBay Logo
Order Confirmation #009239709
Item Description: 2004 Toyota Tacoma TRD Lifted 4×4
Dear Ronald A. Maguire,
Your payment is Valid , the seller was inform to start the shipping , please don’t miss to inform the eBay after you receive the vehicle !
The Seller has three business days to provide the tracking number of the shipment.You will receive a shipping confirmation shortly.
Check mark
IMPORTANT: Your funds will not be released to the Seller until you have received and approved the vehicle you are purchasing.
Sincerely,
eBay Motors Financial Department
We got concerned then, because it stated our name as “Ronald A. Maguire”, which is NOT us at all. We started looking for this woman via internet and found that the address she gave us for herself, is actually the address of a newspaper, “Spring Hope Enterprise”, in Spring Hope, NC. We called them and asked for her to be told they didn’t know anyone by that name. We did several more searches via internet on Maria Kaser, to come up with NOTHING!!
We are now out $4300….PLEASE BEWARE AND DO NOT PURCHASE ANYTHING OFF OF CRAIGSLIST THAT DOESN’T ALLOW PHONE CONTACT. DO NOT PURCHASE ANYTHING FROM ANYONE STATING THAT THEY ARE RECENTLY DIVORCED AND GOT THE VEHICLE FROM THE DIVORCE. IT IS A SCAM.
I pray that word will get out and no one else falls for this like we did.
February 24th, 2009 at 11:01 pm
the scam is alive and well
i just saw it in california, same name, same numbers, same car!
i teased the con artist for a few emails
she says to send the money to georgia even thou she is in north carolina
its not a she, most likely
i asked it, to send me its phone number, reply, its phone is broken
these scams are done alot on craigslist
including theft indenity, on rentals units
they ask you to fill out a credit report
with all the money craig makes, you would think he could have better controls
he says he total relys on the craigslist viewers to filter fraud
come on craig
and
what are you doing with all that money, anywho
one interview, in all these years, wtf
March 2nd, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Oh, my goodness!!! We have almost lost $4500 for exactly the same thing. Too good to be true deal. It seemd so real! The “person” who was selling was named Heather McAllister in Michigan and the name of the “financing agent” was Dennis Broen, San Jose CA … the IP address of email was: 72.14.246.241 THere should be something done about this!!! We are about to contact FBI http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx about this. Terrible!!! The person should go to jail.
March 6th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Wow, I started searching because I knew the deal was too good to be true and you all have confirmed that! This was a 2000 Toyota Tundra off Craigs list…guys name Swunsiaq Swunsiaq. LOL. Was going down the ebay path and even kind enough to split shipping! Listing is already flagged on Craigslist, but didn’t understand why it “disappeared” until finding people who have been scammed already! May NO ONE get scammed!
March 15th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
I wish I had found this website earlier! I was scammed by the same person as Leigh! Everything Leigh wrote is a carbon copy of what happened to me! I wish these scums would get caught! I will never buy from Craigs List again!
April 6th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
I just got scammed out of 2400.00 dollars same thing nice car. I will hunt this person down no matter what it takes. I hate peple that do this. Who do I contact to report this?
April 14th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
I hope more people have common sense these days. Who’s in their right mind would send money to something they don’t see. At least try to get a contact number from the person who’s selling it. Or just buy yourself a Southwest ticket to go look at the car. It’s a cheap investment rather than sending money to some scammer oversea.