We should all F with him and just flood the site with fake info and say we all wanna buy, haha. That should keep him busy for a few days and hopefully stop a few scams or two.

 

I have used google checkout. It does not appear to be a scam. In fact credit card transactions are safer than sending a check. You are protected by google checkout as well as the credit card. Your credit card should have good fraud protection. If not your not using the right card.

 

Once again: no one is disputing Google's authentic check-out site and service... The Scammer's web address for checkout was different than the real one...

 

The scam has been out there for some time on many different forums. Just do a search on "Google Checkout Scam" to see a ton of posts. Here is a sample of another similar post around a different car, note that it is identical to the email the OP got about the Z.

"Hello,
2007 Cadillac CTS-V LS2 6spd. 405 h.p. - $ 16,700
The car is still for sale. The asking price is $16,700. It is located in Tatum,TX and the VIN is 1G6DN57UX70101195. The car is registered on my name and the title is clear (no lien). It is in great condition, no dents or scratches. It was always garaged and the regular maintenance was done in time. It wasn't involved in any accident and has never suffered any kind of damage. Also this is a non-smoker car.If you have any questions regarding the car or you want extra photos or the CARFAX report (for free) just let me know! I had a buyer offering $18,000 and I've lost about 2 weeks waiting for him to pay just to find out in the end that his loan wasn't approved. I've lowered the price because I'm in desperate need of cash it's either the car or the house so if you don't need a loan you can have it.

I'm currently signed up for a protection program offered by Google Checkout and I would like to close the deal through them. If you are not aware of this program you should know that it will allow you to test drive and inspect the car before paying me. You will have a 7-day inspection period to decide whether you want to keep the car or not before they release the funds to me.
If you are still interested and have cash just send me your Google id (if you don't have one just go to www.GoogleCheckout.com) and I'll ask them to fill you in with the transaction details.

Look forward hearing from you.
Dr. John McCannon"

 

The site in the OPs first post is for customers. The www.checkout.google.com is for merchants. If you log into the buyers site, it will take you to the www.checkout.google.com/buyerSignup site so you, as a buyer, can set up your account. If you log into the merchant site, it takes you to the www.checkout.google.com/agentSignupSccount site to sign up for a merchants account the first time you log in. If you want to be safer, log into Google through another service (Gmail) and then connect through the services menu.

I am not disputing that the ad itself is bogus, but the posted site is legit.

 

the way i look at these scams, if you are stupid enough to fall for the scam you deserve to loose your money, just plain and simple!!!!

 

Cool.... but I do see that in all of your above examples sites are listed as checkout.google, not google.checkout..

 

 

I agree about falling for stuff. Its the old "if it looks too good to be true, it probably is".

I actually ENJOY buying vehicles as the game is part of the fun. So when I see someone in an ad (even a scam one) state that their program allows me to "test drive and inspect" the car, I think "Yeah, no ****, I would do that no matter what method I use to pay!!!" RED FLAG for a scam!

I guess I am just old-fashioned but if I found a car somewhere out of state I wanted, I would contact someone local to the car (maybe even one of you guys?) pay them for their time to go look and then fly there with cash or a cashiers check to buy it.

If the seller was not open to any of that process and shrugged at the way its is usually done, then I am suspicious and move on. And once you get past the first contact, emailing is out....I want to talk to a real person on the phone.

I just wish there was a way that scammers like this could be shut down but I guess crime will always be around in some fashion or another.

 

 

I work part time at a place in Reno that sells classic cars. We've had a scammer who TWICE sold a 66 Vette that we had. He got two people to send him checks for 15k each. He made 30 grand off of this scam. When the lady (first buyer) called to find out when she would get her car I was dumbfounded! I actually asked her if it smelled kind of fishy to begin with. I mean, 15 thousand for a restored big block 66 Vette? She said, "Yea, but the deal was to good to pass up". I did feel sorry for her, because she was a nice lady, and very distraught by this time. It happened again about a week later. The guy that handles our account for fleabay said they were going to get the FBI involved with this person (or persons). We've even had counterfeit bank checks. If it sounds to good to be true, well...........

 

They can and they do, actually. There's no such thing as a website that can't be traced back to its originator. The problem is that some of these scams are hosted outside the US. Once it goes outside the US, but the scam is contained in the US, it's extremely difficult to get international cooperation to catch the perps. The reason for this is that the international hosts do not like to throw their customers under the bus because the majority of their customers are people that are committing crimes (like sharing pirated material or doing these scams). However, yes, we can catch them with enough effort. Every single thing done on the internet leaves an electronic paper trail. (If you think formatting your computer prevents people like me from finding out what **** sites you surf, think again... LOL)

Actually, you'd be surprised. The majority of people over 40 years old do not understand the concept of "phishing". In fact, many "youngsters" don't know as well. The problem is that they don't get that anyone can buy a "legit looking" domain and host any website they want on it. However, internet and computer savvy people know small details that would prevent them from being scammed, (i.e. like I know that Google uses 'sub domains' for all their projects and websites. Meaning, everything they do comes from *.google.com [mail.google.com, apps.google.com, code.google.com, translate.google.com, and so on])

I've had lots of friends ask me to fix things on their laptops or computers because they were fooled into downloading or buying crap they got from a scam. One of my friends actually spent $50 on one of those viruses that try to get you to buy a fake virus removal software. (Sucks for him)

To the original poster, thanks for the heads up! I really hope this is an eye opener for some of the less computer savvy on here.

 

To the original poster, thanks for the heads up! I really hope this is an eye opener for some of the less computer savvy on here.

my pleasure... and you are SO right--this scammer, at first, had me really going!!