Ostrichsak
Well-Known Member
While I personally wouldn't do that I'm always amazed by how many people out there are willing to do exactly that and it's legitimate. So this willingness to send a check ahead of any sort of guarantee for the buyer doesn't automatically mean it's a scam but it certainly creates some red flags that should have you more receptive to everything.
Nervous is a good thing to be whenever you're talking about larger sums of money. This nervousness is a sign of intelligence and, if you do your due diligence, doesn't have to mean it's for sure a scam or you should simple walk away w/o fully examining the whole picture. What are you potential threat vectors and how can you actually be defrauded?
This is maybe the most important aspect that I keep posing and nobody can give me a way that you can be conned: If you are keeping the car and title until funds have cleared your account (maybe throw in an extra week or two beyond that if it makes you feel more comfortable so you can sleep at night) then how can you be defrauded? Other than giving your personal info (full name, address, etc.) there's really no risk assumed by the seller in this scenario. It's when someone "overpays" and wants a partial refund or wants to have their shipper pick up the car the next day and you keep the title until the funds clear or various other common scams people try to play do you see this ending in tears.
I can tell you from experience that that first step I listed in my initial post will rule out most scams. If the account doesn't have funds in it to make the check good (or if the bank tells you flat out that that cashier's check wasn't created by them based on the issuing brand and check number) then you don't even deposit it into your account. You're out nothing other than the 2-mintes it took to make a phone call and ask someone to do something they do all day long.
Once you verify the funds are there you take it to the next step. This is the first place you open yourself to potentially being out anything because if the funds were in the account when you called but by the time the check is processed a few days later those funds may not be there. As an example, say your check was $10 and when you called they said there was enough funds in the account to cover the check. You got ahead and deposit that check and a day or two later the guy buys a $2 candy bar. Maybe he only had $11 in the account when the bank rep said it would clear so now it's only $9 when the bank hits the account. The check will be rejected due to insufficient funds at that time and returned to you. You can play this same again again until it clears but likely you will get the buyer involved again before just blindly dropping it into your account again. Your bank will likely hit you with an insufficient funds fee which you will now be out which is why this is the first place you can be out something. I would certainly make the buyer make good on the check as well as your fee since that's their fault, not yours.
Other than that, you are literally not exposed to fraud at this point. It's not until you give you the car and/or title that you are now actually out something. I would do every bit of due diligence I can prior to that point though and make sure you have cleared funds in your account plus whatever period of time makes you comfortable that it's a legitimate deal.
Not only was I in the banking/financial industry for a number of years but I've bought/sold millions of dollars worth of vehicles over the last couple of decades. I'm on seven used Tesla Model S's alone. I've also bought and sold quite a bit more than that in real estate as well. Some of the best "deals" I've got have included some sort of unique circumstances. Sure, you can knee-jerk assume it's a scam and walk away without investing any time at all into researching if it's actually a scam or not but you're going to leave lots of money on the table. As you already stated, you'd be walking away from $11k which is no small sum, regardless of your current relative financial position. Sure, you lower your exposure to fraud walking away from everything but, if you do it right and know the system inside and out including all of the potential threat vectors, you can also know if you're being scammed or not.
These deals are all about trust. Regardless of how you process it there is some degree of trust that must be entered into on both sides of the table. It sounds like the buyer is willing to give you FAR more trust then they're asking of you. While I personally wouldn't leave myself exposed to fraud like that buyer is, it doesn't automatically mean it's a scam. They're just more willing to trust that they're comfortable with you as a seller that you will come through with your end of the bargain once that time comes.
If it is indeed a scam you'll likely know pretty early on in those steps I posted initially which will almost completely eliminate your exposure to fraud on this one. The choice is yours if you're comfortable with that degree of risk or not. After all, all of these types of transactions come with some degree of risk... it's just a question of if you're aware of it or if you care about it or not. Either way, if you decide to pursue this further, I would certainly make attempts to get to know the buyer better. Even though he's the one assuming most all of the risk the way you've detailed it, I would still want to know EVERYTHING about the person behind the check before I moved forward at all.
