How to Report Shipping Car Email Scam
In 2008, victims of online fraud lost more than $264 million according to the Internet Crime Complaint Center. Email scams involving car shipping and similar check-related scams were among the top seven complaints. Scammers send an email offering to buy a car advertised online. They claim to be in another state or country and say they will pay for shipping. They send a check for more than the purchase price, asking the seller to cash it and wire the additional amount to a "shipper" who turns out to be an accomplice. The check turns out to be forged and the seller is liable for the full amount. There are several ways to report this scam if you run into it.
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Instructions
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Notify the website where the ad appears. Most classified ad websites such as Craigslist offer a way to flag online scam ads so they can be removed to prevent others from being victimized.
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Contact the scammer's email account provider to report the car shipping scam. Check the provider's website for the correct address to report fraud. Forward copies of all the fraudulent emails you received. The provider most likely will shut down the account which will interrupt communication with others who may be corresponding with the scammer and falling into his trap.
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Call the bank on which the fraudulent check is drawn. They may want you to send a copy of the check and details of how you received it.
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Report the scam to any local consumer advocates who are affiliated with television news programs or newspapers. Many of these reporters will do stories on email fraud to alert readers or viewers. You may save others from falling for the car shipping scam and losing thousands of dollars.
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Report the car shipping email scam to the Internet Crime Complaint Center. This government agency is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Justice Assistance and the National White Collar Crime Center. It deals exclusively with online crime and accepts complaints through its website.
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Tips & Warnings
You may wish to contact your local police department to see if they will make a report. They may not be willing to do so unless you have lost money. Otherwise, if you recognize the scam before you cash the check, there will be no crime. The police probably won't be able to help you much even if you did lose money because most email scammers are based in other countries which makes them nearly impossible to catch.
You can get into legal trouble if you try to cash a check sent to you by a car shipping email scammer. Matthew Shinnick, a San Francisco resident, got a forged check in response to a Craigslist ad in 2006. He took it to his bank, asked if it was good and tried to cash it when told it was drawn on a real account that contained enough funds to cover it. The bank called the police because the check was bogus even though the account was not. Shimmer was arrested, although the district attorney eventually dropped the charges against him.
