Craigslist Jennifer Miller & Chris Dauberman They had a car for sale, 2004 Nissan Sentra 1.8S, and wanted to sell. A car Ms. Miller won in a divorce settlement, be/c her ex-husband cheaked on her. Paments were made thru western union and had a Internet

"To make a long story short, I have all email orrespondance, all recipets and original ad posted.  Please let me know once again if there is something that I can do, or if I am just chasing my tail.  "

  Sorry, but you're out of luck.   By now you've probably read the scam warning that is at the top of every Craigslist post.  You pretty much did everything that it says not to do.

   The bottom line is that you sent untraceable cash to someone you don't know.  Even if law enforcement was interested, they'd have nothing to go on.  The names, numbers and emails were all faked and the scammers will pop up again in a week or two with different ones.  It's pretty easy to do on the Internet. 

I am sorry to say that you are a victim of the 419 scam. At this point the best you can do is call the Secret Service and your local police but the money is long gone. When you send money via Western Union or Moneygram virtually anybody can pick it up and then disappear. The scammers can simply make up new names and email addresses every time they decide to scam somebody.

The red flags of this scam are usually an incredibly good price for the item, a seller in another state or country and payment through a service that enables the scammers to remain anonymous. Why would eBay Motors be involved in a car sale through Craigslist? Why would an eBay Motors employee write from an email address that says 'craigslist' and comes from 'usa.com'?

Lastly, here is the warning page from Craigslist itself:

http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams

Wow !  It's hard to believe that there are still idiots who fail to read the WARNING about buying a car that is PLAINLY displayed on Craig'sList.  PT Barnum was right - there IS one born every minute.

Polaris for $1,900 with a $5,500 blue book value.  Jennifer was the seller and was getting her hubby back for cheating.  someone else had paid for freight.  the deal was to go through "e-bay motors".  they needed me to send the money via "western union".  they then needed another "$1,000 for insurance".  All money was to be sent to England.  

Wow.  Just ... wow.  How did you even get to see the car ads on craigslist without seeing the following warning they have posted on their website:

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How to recognize a vehicle scam attempt on CL:

Shipping a vehicle to you is suggested by seller eBay Motors or another intermediary is specified by seller.  Payment by Western Union or a money wire is requested.

Price is unusually low (fraction of blue book value).

If you see these tell-tale signs, flag ad as "prohibited" and avoid Offers to ship a vehicle are virtually 100% fraudulent.

eBay has no involvment in craigslist for sale ads, and any eBay or similar emails or web pages you receive are fake

Never use Western Union or wire transfer to pay for goods - only a scammer will ask for this, and any funds sent will be lost

Do not buy vehicles sight-unseen, regardless of low price. The vehicle does not exist, and any money you send will be lost.

Stories about divorcees or departing servicemen needing to sell quickly at a low price are generally fraudulent


If a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

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I suggest contacting the police.