Victim Location 95212
Total money lost $9,000
Type of a scam Other
A gentleman named Peter Ward Duffy Jr. (Russian, late 20’s/early 30’s, thin, short black hair, poor teeth), posted onto Craigslist Sacramento a "2007 Toyota Sequoia with 55,000 miles". We arranged to meet at the Folsom Speedee Oil shop on 5/5/20 so that a Toyota certified mechanic could check it out. He was an hour late (showed up at 2:00pm instead of 1:00pm) and was very fidgety and seemed very nervous about getting the car inspected (which I had already explained to him we were doing that over the phone the day before). After the car was inspected I paid $125 at the front desk to pay for the general inspection and then Peter followed me to the Bank of America in Folsom with my sister where I gave him a $500 deposit and signed the title. He agreed to wait for the remaining $13,500 until my home closed escrow in a month (said "after his wife heard about what I was going through she told him he had to sell it to me"…He said he’s an engineer and his wife is a nurse and they have three kids). On Thursday, May 14th, I messaged him to let him know that my home would be closing June 9th and that I would have the money to him around that time but I would be in touch. Sunday May 31st I messaged asking if he would meet me at a credit union at the end of the week so that I could give him $6,500 cash and then he could get the rest (the remaining $7000) from the credit union, all same day – he said "I will only take cash. We are waiting you almost 1 months. If you are not same amount just let me know, I’m sell my car another customer. I hope you understand me. Thank you." I told him I would figure out the cash and we arranged to meet Thursday 6/4/20 at 5:30pm at the Starbucks at 8450 Elk Grove Blvd. He said he wouldn’t be able to be there until after 5:30pm. My mother and I arrived at 5:30pm (he was there early at 5:10 with his "ride" several blocks over). He gave me the key and remote (Fob) which he said didn’t work but needed a new battery, along with the title, and then I gave him $13,500 in cash, split into 4 different envelopes. He did not want to count it. The next day, 6/5, I went to a Toyota dealership around 11:00am to figure out the key problem. When the dealership employee ran the Vin (which is missing from the dash) after some red flags and printed out the CarFax, it said that this car has 212,810 miles on it on 1/20/2020, not the 57,500+ it reads now. I took my car to my mechanic right after I left Toyota and he said that the odometer console looked like it was replaced, an after market piece put in to reflect less mileage. I called and filed a police report and am working with Sacramento Small Claims when they open back up (closed due to Covid). I attempted to call Peter at the dealership and left a message, he did not call me back.