Is This A Scam?
I have my house listed online and I have been eamiling this guy back and forth. He wanted pictures of the home and so on and so on…and the lowest price and then I got this ermail from him
HelloThanks for getting back to me,i will pay you 53k for it and i will be having our Estate Agent to come to your location for a inspect the Mobile Home and moreover i will have to make a down payment to you so as to make you reserve the home for me for not getting it sold to other interested buyer’s till the inspection and the final sale will be done as it would take time to get all of that done
I will make a down payment of $2000 and also i will include the inspection fees which will cost for $2500 and mind you i want the payment made out to you by check and also as soon as the funds of $4500 have been cleared into your account i will like you to have the home ready to be inspected and also you will make the remaining funds of $2500 payable to Estate Agent to cover for the inspection fees a
Filed under: home inspection
Sounds kind of fishy. If you decide to do it, insist on cashiers checks that you can verify. Don’t pay anything until you know there’s real money in your account.
Who would buy anything much less a mobile home without seeing it first? $2500 for inspection fees? Does that seem reasonable to you? Nothing about this, including the grammar and sentence structure of the email, rings true.
Are you selling it trough Craigslist? Cause that place is full of these scams!!
Dude, its a scam no doubt about it!!! It is the same thing I get whenever I put something up for sale on Craigslist!!! They always ask for you to give a portion of the money to an agent/broker/etc… If you go trough it, all that its going to happen is that you get screwed out of the $2,500!!!
So really, there is no need to go to an attorney or to do further research… its a scam!!!
SCAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The other posts are correct. They will “give” you money and then have you return money to them.
First, it doesn’t cost 2,500 to have the inspection done. And the buyer ALWAYS pays the inspector themselves.
WALK AWAY. And use a licensed professional.
It might be legit. Tell him to deliver the check to you in person.
But you should never expect the person to ask for half of his deposit back if he backs out of the deal.
I would say it depends on which website your home is listed on. I have received multiple emails similar in regards to my home and have found nothing but scams out of it that I do not even reply anymore.
The ONLY way to accept mony in this situation is by wire transfer. If they will not do a wire transfer, it is a scam.
Once your bank notifies you that you have a wire transfer, then you know the money is for real.
Scam. Somebody with $53K cash would be able to use capitalization and punctuation. Tell him you would prefer him to pay the “Estate Agent” himself and see what happens.
Scam. I get ones like this for a rental. “Please accept the check, and then send funds to such and such…”
If the guy has not seen the property and has not even talked to you on the telephone this is a scam.
If you fall for it do not assume that “cashed” and “cleared” are the same thing with the bank. It takes about 3 weeks to clear an over seas check.
It makes no sense for him not to pay his agent directly, or in the least thru a title company.
Insist that he wire the funds to your account (faster then a check and only costs 10-15). I bet you never hear from him again.
You are likely talking to either a Nigerian or even an online prisoner.
You need to have an attorney and/or real estate agent handle this.
This sounds like a come on for something else, nobody makes an offer on a house that they have not personally been to, unless they are up to something. People getting ready to file for bankruptcy will often do this because nobody will rent to them. Then they get into the house and file for bankruptcy, and you have to go through bankruptcy court to get them out.
It sounds like the scam that renters use. They send you a check, (or in my case a WalMart money order), that you deposit, then say sorry I can’t go ahead with the deal, just send me back half the deposit for your trouble. In your case, the real estate agent, gets the “inspection fee”.
Their check, or money order is fake, and takes a couple of weeks for your bank to find out, meanwhile your money is gone.
Call the police to check it out.
Sounds like a scam to me. My mother is in the real estate business so asked her, and she said that this sounds fishy.
No its going to be one of those cheque clearing scams, be realistic who buys a home and expects the vendor to sort out inspections. Who offers on a home without stepping foot in it.
I should also point out that by selling your own home some people are going to make the assumption you are desperate for cash and may be more vulnerable than you would normally be, so your off guard.
Copy and paste the first inital email and it will poabably pop up on some site warning people about this scam.