Kijiji car buying scam

I received the following email from someone called 'Olga Powell' after placing my truck for sale on Kajiji. I was immediately suspicious and googled her name but nothing specific came up.

"I am happy with the condition. I'll pay the amount directly to you through PayPal.am from canada but I'm working Mining Outskirt of phoenix with my Company euro max resources at the moment,So i wont be able to come and do things personally, however I will make sure that all costs will be fully covered by me and I will arrange for pick up and document changes too.
I have an agent that handles this all the time.I will also add the 3.9% paypal surcharge to the total amount I am paying you.Kindly send me a paypal payment invoice or create an account at http://www.paypal.com if you don't have one.I will make a concrete pick up arrangement with my transport agent who will be coming over for pick up once you receive full payment into your PayPal account.My shipping agent will handle everything perfectly & make all the papers and document papers changes whenever they come for the pick up."

Followed by this

"Due to my present location, my choices are limited and not often available by the phone. I am an honorable woman and you will receive your money cash in hand before this is picked up. However, it's easy and free to open a paypal account. Just go to there website http://www.paypal.com and sign up a personal account there. Paypal is the world leading payment master that protects both buyer/seller interest. You are on a secured transaction with paypal. Above all, it's like instant cash. As soon as you open an account, get back to me with the name and email that you linked with your paypal account and I will have your money sent asap. And due to the nature of my job and having being a paypal customer for the past 18 months with no charge back,I feel more comfortable sending my funds via paypal due to there various security measures at ensuring safe and secured transaction between both buyer/seller. But, if you feel otherwise, I totally understand"

To which I replied that I believed it was a scam and there would be no sale, surprisingly that was the last I heard from Olga lol

Welcome to Scamwarners sarasilver84.

An internet connection but no phone ? - must be Ikeja, in Lagos, Nigeria then.

I considered calling the place this woman said she works and warning them that she is using their company name in scams. I can't believe people actually fall for this....

For a lot of people, selling their car is their first experience of using an ad site, so it's well worth a 'maggot' tapping on his i-phone in a bar sending out the same message to 200 sellers, and it only takes one 'maggot' to brag about his success among his drunken pals to set them all doing the same.

If one 'maggot' sends out 1,000 messages a week and gets two successes he could easily be earning the equivalent of a local executive. It's not going to stop as there'll always be enough victims to make it worth the while of some to do it. The scammer doesn't even have to know how to speak English and just needs the templates to use from his buddies.

The scammer will always want to use e-mail as soon as possible simply because their location and identity will be exposed by their phone number and accent.

Hi All,

Looks like Olga has been busy... I posted a car for sale on Kijiji on Friday and 10 minutes later I received an SMS from (520) 363-8198 which I traced back as a land line to Hayden AZ, USA. She asked to email back to olgapowell29 at outlook.com. I did and received the thread below...

Thread 1:

olga powell ([email protected])

18/10/2013

To: My Name....

hello am olga powell,how i wish i could come and inspect it but currently i'm working away from the country. I'm a marine engineer who's on a ship right now .so i'll be buying it without seeing it,

Also I'll be paying via PayPal and i'm more than happy to pay the PayPal transfer charges too, i'll arrange the pick-up of it with a Private Courier Service as soon as you get your payment, and they will also help me sign the bill of sale so it goes onto my name.so tell me its condition.

I replied:

Hi Olga,

Its in real good shape, almost new. My gf's dad can no longer drive so we have to sell. Look at the photos to get a good idea. When are you back in Canada. I already have someone coming tomorrow to have a look. Let me know your itinerary.

Thanks,

Thread 2:

good,so what is your last price,and send me your full name,paypal email address with your phone number so i can make the payment

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: My Email Address
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: 2008 Nissan Versa
Date: Fri, 18 Oct 2013 23:51:05 -0600


Hi Olga,

Thanks for replying to the ad. I'm sure you are busy in your career. When are you back in Canada so you can have a look. It will be sold soon I'm sure because of the low mileage on the vehicle. My dad is almost 93 and can no longer drive so that is why we are selling the car. Otherwise I would keep it but have a new car and a truck.

Who would I contact in Calgary to let them take care of the process of transferring the registration. I of course would need ll their credentials, such as drivers license, photo ID, etc, before I hand over anything as we are aware of the fraud that happens over Kijiji.

Thanks,

From here on in the jig was up.... I did a search on the name and it immediately came up under PayPal Scam Forum. This is where I had to investigate.

The IP address is obviously from Microsoft and untraceable. However, the phone number is a land line from Hayden AZ, USA. Which is quite remarkable as the scammers usually hijack cell phones. I even have a picture from Google maps of the actual phone location.

Olga is not only off shore, but appears to be quite talented and works near Phoenix only 10 days earlier on a rig... and 2 weeks earlier she was a marine engineer.... LOL

I called the number and got to an answering service and asked for her to call back to my cell number... I don`t expect a call.

I am an IT security contractor and know a lot of tricks to catch people but this one will be hard as I know that many of the methods they use provide nothing but false leads, so is a waste of time.

Anyways, watch out for Olga because she attempted to purchase a vehicle on Sept. 19th as well and found the exact same message posted on PayPals Scam Forum.

Update!

Looks like Olga is into mining as well.... Busy person. No wonder she can`t come and look at the vehicles. On top of that, she mentioned nothing about all the paperwork required to get a car from Canada to the U.S. and inspections, etc...

Welcome to Scamwarners ScamKiller99,

The scammer does not want your vehicle. He wants to steal your money. He is probably in West Africa or Malaysia.

The scammer wanted to send you a fake Paypal payment. He has a fake Paypal address from a free email provider. The payment would look real. Its a screen shot of a fake payment. He then will instruct you to pay a mover, shipper/freight or agent. The fake Paypal email from the scammer would say that your Paypal funds will be released when you send the scammer (mover,agent or shipper) money via Western Union or Money Gram. In reality Paypal would never hold your funds.

Log into Paypal directly without any links to check for monies received or call Paypal directly from the number on their site.

If you are selling electronics, Cell phones or computers then the scammer is trying to steal your "item". Your fake funds will be released when you send the scammer a scan copy of a receipt showing you mailed your item.

This same scam works with fake check and money orders. You and your bank will think they are real. After you cash the fake check. Days or weeks later your bank will inform you of the fraud. Your bank will have you repay the monies. Possibly close your account for fraud and report you to Law Enforcement.

The best thing to do is to sell in person face to face in a public place or with someone with you.

Thanks Byron,

I know the routine. Seen this before and have had to warn family and friends on these types of scxams. We just sold the car face to face in Calgary for cash.

Cheers,

Olga, despite the Slavic name (and there are plenty of Slavic scammers), is in Africa, by the way she writes. It is not possible to call a ship at sea on a land line, but it is possible in the USA to convert a land line number to an Internet phone number, while the other 99 numbers in the block are still land lines, and place the telephone anywhere in the world.

I got the exact same email from OLGA POWELL MARINE ENGINEER. My gut feeling was that this was a scam. Called someone then googled her. VOILA. I cam across this site with others who had the same scam attempt. I have not heard back from Olga after I said that she could find a vehicle when back on land and in the country. So...as kijiji says, don't answer emails with Paypal account requirements. Always deal in person!
Thanks to all who post here!
Truthandtruth