Victim Location 53901
Type of a scam Online Purchase
Hey guys, my boyfriend and I were looking on craigslist for a new car for him. We came across this amazing vehicle, 2005 Nissan Maxima, for only $1000. We emailed immediately. But the more research I did, the more I realized how shady this was. And I just saw another complaint about this woman (Katelyn R. Krischak). I gave her my cell phone but she would never call even if I asked. I sent her the link that showed her name was used and her exact same story for what she said to me:
https://www.bbb.org/scamtracker/detail/pngurchasescam-80018-CO/235668
I emailed her the link and she replied, "I do not know who that is or why they are using my name."
But it is LITERALLY her exact story.. she told me she got divorced and did not need another car.
Victim Location 94561
Type of a scam Online Purchase
Scammer placed an ad on craigslist to sell a 2012 Cobalt 232 boat. I fell for it initially and responded. After a few hours I received an email stating that she is selling the boat because her husband had a heart attack a month ago and this was his boat. I responded again stating that I was interested and I wanted to see the boat in person. In the middle of the night I received an email stating that the boat is located in Kansas, boat was posted in California, and that if I still want the boat then a company that ships and has escrow will be contacting me. The email stated that I would have 5 days to test it out and if I like it the transaction would then be final. I did give my address and phone number but started thinking that this is to good to be true. Boat is valued at $55,000 and being sold for $8100 and why would you sell it in California if it’s in Kansas? So I started my investigation an realized that the email was fake and Missouri Transporters, shipper and escrow company, was also fake. Thank god I did that and went with my gut, if not I would have been out $8100.
Victim Location 80018
Type of a scam Online Purchase
Seller is selling very expensive pontoon boat for valued at about $40,000 for only 10 grand. The following is her email communication to me.
Hi again, as I said in my previous email I just finished the divorce and I was forced to move back to my home town Kansas City, MO. I have the pontoon with me and it’s already at the shipping company that shipped here. They can have it shipped back if you’re interested and it’s free of charge.
The shipping company name is Missouri Transporters and they will handle the whole transaction on my behalf and they will make sure we are both satisfied with the whole transaction. If you’re looking to buy the pontoon all I need from you is your name, full shipping address and phone # so we can start the transaction with the shipping company. They will send us the tracking # to see the status of the delivery and a invoice. Prior to delivery you will need to deposit 50% of the price to the shipping company bank account, as insurance. The deposit is fully refundable if you decide not to buy it. No hidden fees, no extra taxes. You will also have 5 days to try it out prior to making any purchase and if by any reason you find something you don’t like about it the shipping company will shipped back at my own cost.
If you have any question please don’t hesitate to ask me.
Looking forward to hear from you.
Katelyn R Krischak
Victim Location 33067
Type of a scam Other
I was attempting to purchase a boat from an add found on Boat trader, of which showed a boat for a really unreal price from a private seller. The boat is easly worth 20,000 of which is being sold for 7,7900. The private seller is a woman claiming a sob story of her husband dying and wanting to get rid of the boat. Sent an email with the shipping company holding the boat and making payment arrangements. The company is going under missouri-transporters of which have a website and a customer service line. A shady man speaks to you, stating they want the money bank wired to make payment and delivery of the boat will happen. I looked the up and found out that the website itself was previously linked to a bank wire scam. Please take a look at this, they are robbing people out of money, and lying to steal. I have notified boat trader the website and had their add taken off the site.
Victim Location 28303
Type of a scam Other
As I was searching on cars.com for a new vehicle, I came across a 2008 Toyota FJ Cruiser. When I contacted the seller, she told me she was from HI and lived in Kansas City, MO due to a death in the family. She asked me to wire her money to transport the car, and when I was ready to buy the vehicle, the wiring company would allow all of my wired funds to be given to her. “Judy Davis” asked me for my full information. But never gave hers. Then when I told her to call me about banking issues to resolve over the phone, a foreign woman called who barely spoke English and attempted to hold a conversation with me about the car. She knew nothing about the car and hung up when I asked her too many questions. I then called the escrow company to validate the car (to avoid my stereotype of forgein scams) and the same thing occurred, a foreign man who barely spoke English answered the line after 3 call attempts and hung up on me when I asked for all of his business information. Be warned, this technique to get people to wire money by scamming them on applications is growing. Please stop these fraudulent companies. They almost took my money. And I know they’ve succeeded before me.
Victim Location 28303
Type of a scam Other
As I was searching on cars.com for a new vehicle, I came across a 2008 Toyota FJ Cruiser. When I contacted the seller, she told me she was from HI and lived in Kansas City, MO due to a death in the family. She asked me to wire her money to transport the car, and when I was ready to buy the vehicle, the wiring company would allow all of my wired funds to be given to her. “Judy Davis” asked me for my full information. But never gave hers. Then when I told her to call me about banking issues to resolve over the phone, a foreign woman called who barely spoke English and attempted to hold a conversation with me about the car. She knew nothing about the car and hung up when I asked her too many questions. I then called the escrow company to validate the car (to avoid my stereotype of forgein scams) and the same thing occurred, a foreign man who barely spoke English answered the line after 3 call attempts and hung up on me when I asked for all of his business information. Be warned, this technique to get people to wire money by scamming them on applications is growing. Please stop these fraudulent companies. They almost took my money. And I know they’ve succeeded before me.
Victim Location 49858
Type of a scam Online Purchase
This website was used as a second tier player in an obvious Craigslist scam involving sale of the 28 ft yacht which was priced at roughly 1/3 of the market value. After initial contact with the supposed seller, this site was referred to as the sellers ‘preferred’ escrow/transporter to move the boat from Kansas City to Michigan for our trial use for 5 days with no obligation to purchase.
The hook was to place monies into escrow with this company pending our decision to purchase. This was an obvious scam from the beginning and I was never at risk of losing any money, but this site appears to be linked to potential scams for cars and other products being offered in other markets. Note this language from the site…
"Escrows are very useful in the case of a transaction where a large amount money is involved and a certain number of obligations need to be fulfilled before a payment is released like in the case of a website being built where the buyer might want confirmation of the quality of work being done before making a full payment, and the seller doesn’t want to extend a massive amount of work without any assurance that he or she will receive payment. While traditional escrow service is quite difficult and must be obtained through banks and lawyers, Missouri Transporters provides online escrow services at affordable rates. While the payment is ‘In Escrow’ the transaction can be safely carried out without risk of losing money or merchandise due to fraud. This eliminates all legal jargon and allows for secure transactions and confident buyers and sellers."
Thanks for your efforts to correct this.
Victim Location 64150
Type of a scam Counterfeit Product
I was looking for a boat for sale and came across a deal to good to be true. I contacted them through Craigslist and was asked for my personal e-mail because it would be easier. After a day I was contacted by a woman via e-mail who said this
"Hi
My name is ———— ———- and I’m the owner of this 2013 tritoon 2485 24 Foot Tmltz Rear Lounge Pontoon boat by Tahoe with very low hours. It’s super fast and super smooth.One owner. This pontoon boat is 8.5 ft wide with 25 inch tubes with the luna flooring… It has been very well cared for.Overall I would say this pontoon is in excellent condition.. It’s lake ready and looking for a good new home.. I have a clean and clear title on my name without any liens or encumbrances..comes with the motor,trailer,all the manuals for the pontoon.
I drove this pontoon when I was serving in Missouri at Whiteman Air Force Base. Last week I was deployed to Alaska at Eielson Air Force Base, we are making final preparations before deploying to Syria for a year and do not want to store the pontoon as there is no one to drive it. The pontoon is in Kansas City, MO in Missouri Transporters possession and it will be delivered from there on my expense. Delivery will take 3-5 days depending on the weather and traffic conditions. I signed and notarized the title and the bill of sale and you will receive them along with the pontoon.
The price I’m asking for the pontoon is $6,800 and the reason I’m selling it way below market value is because I don’t have time for negotiations. First come, first served. The financial part will be managed by Missouri Transporters and you will get 5 days inspection period before committing to buy the pontoon boat. Using Missouri Transporters we are both 100% covered during the steps of this transaction. They will hold your money until you get the pontoon boat and I get paid only if you decide to keep the pontoon after the inspection period of 5 days ends. If, for any reason, you are not 100% satisfied with the pontoon boat, Missouri Transporters will send you a full refund immediately and one of their drivers will pick up the pontoon at your location and bring it back to the warehouse.
If you are serious about buying the pontoon, please send me your full name, shipping address and phone # and I will get everything started as soon as possible with Missouri Transporters. They will contact you right away with all the details of the transaction and will explain better the entire procedure. Please see the attached pictures and let me know what you decide.
God Bless you and your family!"
I asked her for her military email and address and phone number. She gave me nothing but sent plenty of information on other subjects.
Next email
"Hi again,
I decided to explain you how the transaction works in a single mail, so read this email carefully in order for you to understand the transaction. We will use only Missouri Transporters to close the transaction.The boat is in Missouri Transporters custody at their shipping company sealed with all the papers in Kansas,MO. The shipping is free because i supposed to ship the boat to another buyer, then he told me that he doesn’t have money to pay for it. He already paid the shipping charges. The total amount that you will pay is $6800. The payment will be handled by Missouri Transporters and they will keep the money on hold until the end of the testing period. This way we can both be protected and insured. You will receive the boat in 48 hours depending of your location and you will have the chance to inspect it for 5 days. During the inspection period you can test the boat or go with it at your local mechanic for inspection. The boat will be delivered directly to your requested address as soon as Missouri Transporters will have the payment confirmation from you. If by any reason you find something you don’t like about it you can send it back at my expense and Missouri Transporters will send you a full refund. I’m sure it won’t be the case because the boat is in excellent condition.
For more info on how it works, I can ask Missouri Transporters to send you an email with more details on how to buy it. They will as soon as have your personal details. If you would like to receive the email from Missouri Transporters with all the transaction information, please reply with your whole name, full shipping address zip code and phone # so I can notify Missouri Transporters that you are selected my possible buyer and they will contact shortly.
Thank you!"
I then got an invoice from MT which says the way of payment is by wiring the money.
Of course I did not. I told her I knew she didn’t have this boat as she sent pictures of a brand new boat with no motor and had a professional boat person look over the pictures who said it did not have the markings of a Tahoe either. So evidently she was not sure what she was trying to sell. This is a scam.
I also asked her for the boat ID number which she did not provide.
Tri-toon buyers be ware!
We are a military family and I find this despicable to impersonate anyone who ever served our country!
Victim Location 68104
Type of a scam Online Purchase
Seller Rebecca Puckett and husband in military are being transferred overseas and need to sell boat as soon as possible. Seller won’t speak with potential buyer over phone but requires buyer to contact Missouri Transporters at 816-298-0464 The buyer must wire money to be placed in escrow.
Victim Location 48066
Type of a scam Online Purchase
Posted a enclosed cargo trailer on craigslist. Price was way to low to begin with with made it obvious. Posted the for sale section of Lansing, Michigan. Used a phone # of 906-379-3078. Once they received my email contact i got a lengthy email with pictures of the trailer for sale. The email continued on about how they just lost their husband form a heart attack and they are just trying to sell everything. Said the trailer is located in MO and that Missouri Transport would ship it for me once funds were sent. They even went as far as sending an invoice showing everything.Talked about how if i didnt like it i could return it at no expense to me. Shipping was free. They would put my money in a secure "escrow" account. They’ve gone to extended length’s to make it look real. Once i did more research and realized it truly was a scam, i emailed back a screenshot of the ScamPulse.com rating, and no response back to that. BUYER BEWARE!!!
Victim Location 83634
Type of a scam Online Purchase
While looking for a used commuter car, I found this add: https://boise.craigslist.org/…/honda-crv-lu…/6608267692.html
2015 Honda CRV with 27,000 miles for $4500. Even though the price seemed "to good to be true" (blue book value for a car in this condition is $15,000), I decided to text the number listed. No answer.
In the mean time, I kept browsing. Then I found another add (https://eastidaho.craigslist.org/…/honda-cr…/6607031942.html) for the exact same car, but now at a different city. Different number, which I also texted. No answer.
Finally, last night I got a text back from a third number. It said, "Please email my aunt, she is the seller." I emailed, asked for details and for the VIN number so I could pull a CarFax. I got a response this morning, telling me that the car belonged to her late father. That she was in the military and being deployed in two weeks, so she could not meet in person due to training schedule restrictions, but that she left the car with a shipper in Missouri. She then explained that if I sent the money to the shipper, they would put the money in a secure account, ship me the car so I could test drive it for 5 days, obligation free. Then if I decide to keep it, tell the shipper and they release the money to the seller. If not, ship it back and seller pays the cost and I get my money back in 12 hours. She also gave me a website to check out the shipper.
I went to the website, and only the main page existed. All other links in it sent me to pages not found. It did list a phone number, so I did a reverse lookup on it, and I found a listing in the ScamPulse.com saying that this business (or any of its 15 other aliases) is not affiliated with them, but that several customers have reported it as a scam. After you wire the money, you never get the car, nor your money back.
She emailed me again this morning saying that I didn’t need to pull a CarFax because she already had. She attached it. The thing looked legit. I copied the VIN number to check myself, and it told me the VIN didn’t exist.
Victim Location 94541
Type of a scam Other
Online car classified (cars.com). Seller of a car recommending this company to transport car out of state.