WIll this work? Online car selling

Hello

Im currently selling my car and have been contacted by a scammer (its very obvious) who wants to purchase and use an agent to pick it up.

Basically the car im selling, the day before he contacted me blew an oil ring or head gasket and the car is now worth half the value, but i hadnt updated the for sale add online yet.

With the usual no haggling etc i want to give this a shot.

He said he would do direct deposit or paypal. Would I be able to open a new account with a new bank. He sends the money to it, I withdraw it asap and then close the bank account a minute after i withdraw it?

I will NOT even give him a time or place to pick up the car until the funds have been cleared and cash is in my hands. Also he said that "when the fund clears in your account, then sign the paperwork and pickup"

Will this work?
Are there ways they get around this?
Am I allowed to open an account then close it so soon after taking money out?
Can they still take money back from me after i close the account?

The scammer intends to send you a fake paypal email or to flash your account.
He will include the fees for the shipper and ask you to withdraw money and send it to the shipper through Western Union.
As there is no money, if you were to pay the shipper (which is also the scammer), you are out of pocket.

He may also offer you a check which is a fake. You bank it and then withdraw money on the back of it, the bank finds it's fake, you are out of pocket and on your way to your local police station to explain why you are handling fraudulent checks.

In short, you'd be a fool to go any further with this.

He has said he will do a direct deposit (asked for acc# and bsb), not a cheque, but i probably shouldnt trust this.

Also I've heard of others getting scammed so they go to claim back the money back approved by paypal but the scammer has emptied out the paypal account as well as the linked bank account. Can I not just pull out the money from the new paypal to the bank account then take it out of that account and close it so when he goes to withdraw it back he cant like im sure his done to others?

Also I'm willing to stall this for as long as needed to make sure every payment fully clears. If it doesnt then Ive gladly wasted his time and hopefully stopped him from scamming others

To put it bluntly, this is a terrible idea.

If the scammer is offering to transfer money, it won't be his money, period. He is in this to collect cash, not spend it. If he deals in bank-to-bank transfer, he will do one of two things.
a) flash your account (as mentioned above)
b) transfer stolen money to your account from a phished bank account, credit card, or another scam.

So what happens if he actually transfers money, and you successfully withdraw it and close the account (ignoring the fact that it is obviously ethically wrong).

-First of all, in your attempt to commit one crime (stealing from the scammers) you have just stolen money from an innocent party.
-Second, you have just set yourself up for some serious trouble. Days, weeks, or even months later, the real owner of the money will recognize the theft and report it to the police. It will actually be quite easy to trace that money to your account (and yes, the bank can go after you to retrieve the money, and any fees they charge for the bad deposit, etc.) But that will be the least of your problems, because you will also have been arrested, and will be facing money laundering, theft, and/or fraud charges. The fact that you opened a brand new bank account and immediately withdrew the money and closed it will be evidence that you knew something was wrong and/or you intended to commit a crime. That will eliminate any possibility that you were an innocent victim, and the authorities WILL go after you.

Hi bigdaddy3,

Also I'm willing to stall this for as long as needed to make sure every payment fully clears. If it doesnt then Ive gladly wasted his time and hopefully stopped him from scamming others

if you ever receive payments from the scammer, report immediately to law enforcement once you have received the payment (do not touch them), and carry copies of your mails with the scammer. Proceed with caution, as you should make clear that you are an innocent party and never attempted to keep the money for yourself.

As Dotti said, emptying and closing the account is not a good idea, this kind of crime in USA is handled by SS (obviously not the infamous German SS, and their abbreviation is not SS, even if they have these initials - I have deliberately omitted writing it explicitly to avoid educating recovery scammers).