- Location
- United States
GX470 Craigslist Scam warning:
I want to share my experience this week in hope that it helps the others on here searching EBay, CL and elsewhere for a GX of their own. Monday night I found a listing in the Sacramento CL for a silver GX with black wood trim. I jumped and offered asking price once the seller sent me a PDF of both a clean Carfax and the title.
Red flags one and two were that the add was placed natively in a different city than the vehicle was located and that the name on the title was different than the name that the seller had offered. THe seller offered an explanation that he had been passed down the vehicle from his parents when they upgraded vehicles. This sounded plausible, so I continued with the deal and set an appt to fly into Oakland, meet the seller, have the vehicle inspected by a mobile mechanic, and then complete the deal. My bank overnighted me a check made out in the name of the couple who are on the title as directed by the seller.
This morning, I was on a boring overseas conf call, so I decided to do a bit of internet searching. Google searches for the sellers name, phone number and email address all turned up empty, so I moved on to the parents. One of them is a successful realtor, so it was relatively easy to get in touch and quickly find out that they in fact had recently sold their GX, but did NOT have a son.
I immediately texted the seller and politely asked for more information on his identity. He responded hours later that he would meet me at the airport, take me to his house and show me his driver's license (We had previously agreed to meet a mobile mechanic at a hotel next to the airport). I asked him to send me a photo of his DL and he came back with a response that he was uncomfortable sharing a photo of his driver's license with a stranger. I then picked up the phone and left a message with the Oakland Police Dept. I'll let you all know how this pans out. I think it's a long shot, but i'd love to get this scumbag arrested for fraud.
In the meanwhile, be careful out there. Ask lot's of pointed questions. And don't be afraid to walk.
Details on seller (these will likely change)
Phone: 925-558-2027
email: Mmauilover@gmail.com
Last name on title (this won't change until he legally titles the vehicle in his own name): Dinsmore. If you are looking at a vehicle and the title has this name, feel free to get in touch and we can compare notes.
I will update this post with pics of the offered GX once he re-lists it.
--- Matthew Mangus
I want to share my experience this week in hope that it helps the others on here searching EBay, CL and elsewhere for a GX of their own. Monday night I found a listing in the Sacramento CL for a silver GX with black wood trim. I jumped and offered asking price once the seller sent me a PDF of both a clean Carfax and the title.
Red flags one and two were that the add was placed natively in a different city than the vehicle was located and that the name on the title was different than the name that the seller had offered. THe seller offered an explanation that he had been passed down the vehicle from his parents when they upgraded vehicles. This sounded plausible, so I continued with the deal and set an appt to fly into Oakland, meet the seller, have the vehicle inspected by a mobile mechanic, and then complete the deal. My bank overnighted me a check made out in the name of the couple who are on the title as directed by the seller.
This morning, I was on a boring overseas conf call, so I decided to do a bit of internet searching. Google searches for the sellers name, phone number and email address all turned up empty, so I moved on to the parents. One of them is a successful realtor, so it was relatively easy to get in touch and quickly find out that they in fact had recently sold their GX, but did NOT have a son.
I immediately texted the seller and politely asked for more information on his identity. He responded hours later that he would meet me at the airport, take me to his house and show me his driver's license (We had previously agreed to meet a mobile mechanic at a hotel next to the airport). I asked him to send me a photo of his DL and he came back with a response that he was uncomfortable sharing a photo of his driver's license with a stranger. I then picked up the phone and left a message with the Oakland Police Dept. I'll let you all know how this pans out. I think it's a long shot, but i'd love to get this scumbag arrested for fraud.
In the meanwhile, be careful out there. Ask lot's of pointed questions. And don't be afraid to walk.
Details on seller (these will likely change)
Phone: 925-558-2027
email: Mmauilover@gmail.com
Last name on title (this won't change until he legally titles the vehicle in his own name): Dinsmore. If you are looking at a vehicle and the title has this name, feel free to get in touch and we can compare notes.
I will update this post with pics of the offered GX once he re-lists it.
--- Matthew Mangus
