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SCAM: Fiat 500 Craigslist – Laura Biss is fake

Fiat 500 that is not for sale!

Fiat 500 that is NOT for sale!

If you are trolling Craigslist looking for a cheap Microcar, don’t fall for this scammer trying to “sell” a Fiat 500 for $3000.

The ad has been placed in local Craigslist postings all over the country and most every one of them has been “flagged” for removal because it is SCAM.

I contacted the “seller” who lists their email as BISS.LAURA@Yahoo.com
(update: that email account has now been disabled)

I got a reply with a link to some more photos on PhotoBucket.com and the offer that the car would be placed on eBay on a “private” auction “Just for Me!”, where I could “safely” buy the car because eBay offers 5 days “protection” against fraud. Problem is, that eBay does not offer that and the eBay link that “Laura Biss” sent me was a scam site posing as eBay. The text of the scam email follows…

Hi,
The car is still for sale.It is in perfect shape.It has no scratches,dents and it was never involved in an accident or something like that.The VIN is 1942070.It has 53,646 miles.Here are some more pics http://s387.photobucket.com/albums/oo318/laura_becks_photos/. I have a clear title and it is on my name.I am forced by a bank loan to sell it so I need the money and I must do that.Dont worry,the loan does not involve the car.
My final price is 3000.I already have tons of emails so I hope you understand that I need to sort them out.I will take in consideration only those buyers who are really interested in buying the car, to be sure that I don’t waste my time with endless discussions. This way, I shall be assured of the serious intentions.
Thank you.
P.S.If you are decided to buy it,i can make a private auction just for you on eBay so you can purchase it there.That way you will receive assistance for the purchase,paperwork,title transfer and an extended warranty.They also are guaranteeing purchases up to 50.000 so we will both be protected.

The car is already at a shipping company in Woodland Hills, CA. I took the car to them to be able to ship it to a potential buyer whilst I’m out of town.My brother in law works there,and he promised me that it will cost me nothing to ship it in the Continental US. I also have the car listed on eBay and that lets me use their secured system. I’m very busy with my job and I’m sorry I can’t meet you in person. According to eBay you have 5 days from the time you receive the car to inspect it and decide if you want to keep it or not.
So please let me know if you are interested so i can give you the directions to the ebay site so you can check the auction.
Laura
The next email looks as though it was sent through eBay, but in fact, it is not.
The email “appears” to be sent From eBay, except the Reply address is:
ebaymotors@payment-for-item.com
which is definitely not ebay.com or ebaymotors.com
if you are gullible enough to click on the link in the email, you will find a very realistic eBay looking page for this item, but it will not be at eBay.com or eBaymotors.com
it will be at:
transaction-motors.com
another fake eBay page.
if you try to actually go to the “home” page of either www.payment-for-item.com or www.transaction-motors.com you will be redirected to the main page of eBay, so it looks “real” but its not. Don’t fall for it.
UPDATE: Both Domains have now been disabled thanks to the efforts of everyone following this!
Additional Info: This scammer also uses LAURA_MUMU@YAHOO.COM  as an email address as well.

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This entry was posted on Friday, November 28th, 2008 at 9:03 am and is filed under Fiat 500, scam. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “SCAM: Fiat 500 Craigslist – Laura Biss is fake”

  1. marvin Delong Says:
    April 10th, 2009 at 6:08 pm

    Always love your posts. Really appreciate your sharing this information.

  2. nlpnt Says:
    May 11th, 2009 at 5:20 pm

    This article and its’ follow-ups go into some detail on how this Craigslist scam works;

    http://www.cockeyed.com/citizen/accord/accord.shtml

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