Help! can I do anything about seeing internet fraud in progress?

[jab105]

I was recently looking for a Toyota Prius for sale. So, I looked up used cars on cars.com

One of the listings was so much ridiculously lower than the other prices that I HAD to write and see if it was available. It was a 2004 Toyota Prius with like 22000 miles for only $7900...

Anyways, the guy writes back, and says that he moved to England and couldnt take the car with him because of customs, sounds pretty legit...has more pics of the car (it is gorgeous!)...and that he wanted to sell it fast and thats why he had such a low price listing...

So, he says that the best way to do the deal is to go through an escrow service, "International Cargo Inc", because Square Trade and suh were not good...thats where alarm bells start going off for me...especially since the email was vague enough that it seemed like it was directed to a number of different people...not just me...


So, I sent a fake address to him and get an email from "International Cargo"...and it looks like a legit website:
http://www.internationalcargo-inc.com
so, again, something doesn't seem right to me, so I go to who is and look it up...turns out the website was created in OCtober by someone in France...

Anyways, I'm not going through with it, cause at this point it is obviously a scam, BUT, I know that a LOT of people are going to fall for this...is there anything I can do? These people are going to lose like $7900!! That's a lot of money...

ANy help would be appreciated!! thanks!

[ScreamingMeemie]

1. FBI.....call them.

:hi:

[jab105]

3. How? And will anything happen fast enough for the guy to get caught?

n/t

[ScreamingMeemie]

5. Here's the link for you to report them. Then all you can do is wait and

see, but at least you can say you attempted to help stop this.

http://www1.ifccfbi.gov/index.asp

[LaurenG]

2. It's a scam

I received an article on this yesterday. www.dontwasteyourmoney.com

USED CAR SCAMS
--------------------------------
Brandon Cain was searching online for a used car...with a 6,000
dollar budget. Brandon, who's about to graduate from college, was expecting
to find a 7 or 8 year old Honda.
But he suddenly started discovering low mileage luxury cars in his
price range...like a 2004 Lexus...and even a late model Mercedes!
What he found unusual, though, was that all these incredible cars
were in England, being sold by people who supposedly transferred there, but
couldn't register the car. Suspicious, he ran some Carfax reports, and found
that the numbers and photos had been taken from other cars. That low mileage
Lexus, for instance, was actually totaled at 11,000 miles in California.

The FBI says this is one of the latest overseas scams: advertising
non-existent cars, accepting a deposit check, then disappearing.

[jab105]

6. Yea, after looking everything up, I realized that...

but it was a very good scam (I mean that as - it seemed very legit)...
just wondering if anything can be done in this particular instance to get the website shut down and the guy caught fast...

[flvegan]

4. You could do a little bit more legwork

though it's not your responsibility. Get the VIN and run a Carfax on it.

I can understand using an escrow service for this type of transaction, but not one that just popped up.

Should it be a fraud, I'd contact the cars.com site admin and notify them of it. Let them look into it.

[jab105]

7. They provided a VIN and its a legit one...I just dont think the car is

for sale...scratch that, I KNOW the car isnt for sale...

Its just frustrating because I'm sure a lot of people will fall for it...

[Pharlo]

8. Been here? Done this?

http://www1.ifccfbi.gov/index.asp

[LisaL]

9. Report it to cars.com too

I imagine they don't want to advertise the cars that don't exist.