Saved From A Bad Scam??

This is off topic, but a warning to us all!

A neighbor lady (60's?) is cleaning up a small property that she leases (leases the land, but owns what is on the land). She no longer wants the lease, and the owner isn't going to lease it any more, so she is just clearing it all off. There is a big shed, 5th wheel camper, and a small mobile home. She asked me to help her in getting rid of stuff, in return I go the shed! (pictures are of me dragging the thing home!! )

Anyways, fast forward a week or two, she tells me that she had a guy call her wanting to buy the 5th wheel camper trailer (30 foot in decent condition). She said that this guy claims to be a friend of her ex husband, however they have never met. He out of the blue offers her $2500 for the camper (which I think is too much) Cash, and he said he will pick it up as soon as he can. She called it a deal, and said they would talk later in the week.

This is when it starts to get weird.

She calls him a few days later, and he tells her to sign the title, and send it to a PO box in our town, and that once he got the title put into his name, he would then go out and put the wheels on the trailer, take it off the blocks, and drag it back to his place. He said that after he had it at his house, and in his name, he would meet her somewhere and "get her paid up". She agrees.

She starts telling me this story the next day, just so that I know some guy by the name of Darold is picking up the trailer! I hear little red flags everywhere!! I was SHOCKED that he expected to be able to do all of that, before any cash changed hands?? I told her absoultly not, and that I would have the signed title, and meet him at the trailer when he wanted to pick it up, and that he would hand me the cash before the wheels went on it, period. I told her my concerns, and that I honestly thought he would probably drag the thing home, and never talk to her again, and she would never get paid.

She tried to call him that day to tell him the changes in the deal, but he didn't answer the phone, so she left a message. 2 days later she called again, phone number was no good. He called her a few days after that and she told him the situation, and he said that "Because you clearly don't trust me, I am no longer interested in buying it from you. Either we do it my way, or not at all." and she just hung up on him.

She was shocked, I was just baffeled. To me it was clearly a scam waiting to happen, and had I not said something, I believe he would have done nothing short of steal that trailer from her.

To camp it all off, she asked her ex this morning about this Darold guy, he doesn't know of one. . . .

Good for you Bryce! Sounds like you saved her from losing money, and a trailer. But also the heartache of learning she was scammed.

A friend of her ex didn't raise any flags? If a friend of my ex called I wouldn't be able to hang up fast enough. Tony

He wasn't trying to steal the trailer.

He was after the personal information on the title, and the signature.

People complain that the younger generation has no smarts... What part about "in person, in cash, no exceptions" do people not get in dealing with stuff like this?

Simple, you don't get the item or the title until I get the CASH!

That's a lot less heartache than learning you were scamed and now you don't even have the trailer.

Signing the title leaves it "open", anyone who has the title owns the vehicle. He either planned on stealing her trailer, or perhaps more likely, he already stole a trailer and needs a title for it.

You did her a good deed either way Bryce.

A lawyer once told me to NEVER sign the title till you get the money. The title is what matters.

Even then, you're only half way safe. Unless you take one of those marking pens and check each of the cash bills. We sold a truck, got paid in hundreds, and many were phony. Luckily I knew where the sleaze-bags lived.

Morality and ethics went out the window with the development of computers and the Internet. Now scamming is a way of life to a lot of people. As Elmer Fudd would say: "Be Vary, Vary Careful".

(quoted from post at 16:40:14 03/13/17) Morality and ethics went out the window with the development of computers and the Internet. Now scamming is a way of life to a lot of people. As Elmer Fudd would say: "Be Vary, Vary Careful".

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Computers and the Internet weren't the cause of the loss of ethics. People have been scamming other people for 10,000 years. It's just easier to tell the story of being scammed because of computers and the Internet.

Good call !