Monday, April 12, 2010

A day after I saw the ad for the Haulmark trailer (prior post) in the L.A. Craigslist I got an e-mail from a friend who saw the same one in the Houston, TX Craigslist. I began to think this is a scam. Then the next day I got the following e-mail:

"Hello, I'm the owner of Haulmark Enclosed Car Trailer Elite II on which you've recently shown interest. The trailer is in perfect working condition with a clean title. The price is 3,200 $ , shipping and handling are included in the price. Why is the price so low ? Because I am in a divorce dispute with my husband.The Trailer was bought for him and I no longer need it. I am located in Augusta, ME now and it will be shipped from here. Shipping will be done via Cargo Auto Shippers and it will take no more than 3-5 days (depending on your exact location).The transaction will be made through eBay Solutions for our own protection. If you like what you see,email me back with your exact location so I can calculate shipping costs and to discuss shipping and payment details and also other things regarding my trailer. If you are interested please email me back for the next step.

Sincerely,

Alpina McBride"

First of all, this trailer, used and without A/C, winch, generator, & workbench is worth between $6 and $8,000, so this LOW price is too good to be true. Then to imply that the $3,200 price includes shipping and handling is an even bigger red flag. I recently shipped my mother's car from Ann Arbor, Michigan to Spokane, WA. The cost was $1,000, and that was the low bid by 1/2. I can only imagine what the cost from Augusta, Maine to Ontario, CA would be....probably closer to $2,000, or higher. There is no way this "lady" would settle for a net profit of $1,200 (or less) on this trailer, unless she just wanted to stick it to her "ex". The third red flag is she wants to use something called "eBay Solutions" to complete the transaction. I have been using Ebay for 6 years with over 500 transactions, and I have never heard of eBay Solutions. The fourth red flag is I can find no information on an outfit called "Cargo Auto Shippers". Finally, in my initial e-mail to her I asked several specific questions, and in her reply she answered none of them.

Am I just being paranoid?

If any of you reading this post has heard of eBay Solutions, or Cargo Auto Shippers let me know.

2 comments:

  1. I am in the San Diego area and I seen the same ad. I was about to purchase this and thought I do some searching on a Alpina McBride. I also searched scams with money orders and gave a step by step process of the way it goes down. I will hold off on this.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am completely convinced that this is a scam, too. Thanks for your comment!

    ReplyDelete

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