Lightning and Identity Theft?

[TTT]

Something interesting has come up this week, and I must choose my words carefully...

We went ahead and listed our truck here on the forum as available for sale as we have decided to go ahead and part with it. We have an offer from a local dealer that has been on hold until the DMV caught up but as I've chatted in some other threads and PMs with some members here have inquired about buying it privately, so I posted in the for sale section to see if there was a local buyer waiting for a similar truck, and I did get a few replies - one, however, stands out as different from the others...

I'm not going into names because this could all be quite innocent but it does point to a potential problem that we should all be wary of. One exchange was happy to jump above the asking price rather quickly and asked few questions, but the guy did warn me that to set me up as a vendor in his system there could be a daunting amount of paperwork, and that's part of the reason he was willing to make a generous offer, and was willing to negotiate if needed.

Now on the one hand, sure, I like money - and to be honest, I'm not daunted at all by paperwork. I do it all day long and my wife and I spend many hours every year doing refinancing on properties when in pencils out, dotting i's and crossing t's on tax rebate paperwork for solar, for carpool lane passes, for business travel visas, for HOA documents to do landscaping - its always something. At work, I have to help set up vendors in our systems, get them under NDA, monitor their insurance, and lots of paperwork - no big deal - so I said as much.

I also said, however - that we were careful about what we signed and I was fortunate that my company provides essentially free legal services as part of my benefits where I have lawyers on call if needed to help look things over so everything should go smoothly and there should be no delays - and that my wife specialized in banking security so we would be able to avoid any misunderstandings with requests for personal information and credit information that didn't follow correct and standard practices.

After chatting back and forth for a few days the conversation suddenly ended. Maybe I'm just a jerk, or the value of the truck plummeted or interest rates changed, or whatever. Maybe there is no problem at all and it is/was all totally legit - but maybe - and the reason I'm writing this cautionary tale is - there are Nigerian Princes out there offering to buy trucks. All they need is your banking information.

If anyone is looking to sell a vehicle or do any business with anyone - face to face, online, in a parking lot or even at a Carmax - don't let the dollar signs shut yor brain or your radar down. In the end maybe I'll actually hear back from this guy and we'll doa a great deal and, who knows... but everyone, please be careful. Most of us are not in the business of flipping truck and despite being god at whatever we do for our day jobs it can be really easy to make a stupid mistake when you're in unfamiliar territory. Don't be sending your address and banking or Social security informaiton to potential buyers, don't be doing stupid stuff at local test drives, don't think you are going to drive away from a local sale with a bag of $120k in cash so you can hide it from uncle sam because there will be cars following you out of that parking lot.

Be safe, keep your antenna up and your radar on.

(If you happen to be the person I chatted with, please note I have tried my best to be fair and objective here.)

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[TTT]

I will post here if things do work out.

 

[Sc954rr]

Sounds fishy to me honestly with all the scams out there, probably better to pass over that person.

 

[metroshot]

Yah, usually when someone wants to pay more than is reasonable, my ears prick up!

 

[BennyTheBeaver]

I would also look at when they joined the forum, if it's within a short amount of time of you announcing your sale....instant Red Flag!

 

[TTT]

I've had encouraging ongoing correspondence with this member. No single case was the point of my original post, but I'll update here as things progress.

Even if I report back though and say it went great, you don't know me either though!

 

[Gimme_my_MME]

I've had encouraging ongoing correspondence with this member. No single case was the point of my original post, but I'll update here as things progress.

Even if I report back though and say it went great, you don't know me either though!

Honestly this is great information and a cautionary tale even if you had made the whole thing up. Don't let the dollar signs cloud your judgement

 

[MickeyAO]

While everything worked out great for Tom and I, his advice still rings true.

This is Tom's truck at its new home.

 

[T i h o r]

While everything worked out great for Tom and I, his advice still rings true.

This is Tom's truck at its new home.

Does this mean you're not a Nigerian Prince? It's hard to tell by your display pic

All jokes aside, I'm glad this worked out well for everyone involved!

 

[ChrisCon]

Glad this worked out .. @TTT now that we know everything is ok can you give us a non nda ruining hint on what you might be working on at Disney currently ? ( saw your profession in your signature ). I’m not a Nigerian Prince either .

 

[MickeyAO]

Does this mean you're not a Nigerian Prince? It's hard to tell by your display pic

All jokes aside, I'm glad this worked out well for everyone involved!

I was actually going to start off with something along the lines of the Nigerian Prince responds, but it has been a long hard day so I decided to keep it low-key.

You can find a picture of my personal Lightning in the same spot where I say it will not be allowed inside the building because I know what we do to EVs in there

 

[TTT]

Sorry for the Yellow Alert on that one - its obviously easier to buy and sell vehicles to and from a dealer than privately so we both had to take care to not have a bad day. If these guys end up needing to buy another truck from someone here the next seller can know that the check clears.

Thanks guys.

While you guys have cool jobs, mine doesn't usually suck either. I get to work most of the time on new attraction designs for most of the parks worldwide, although I have not gone to Hong Kong for an installation yet. I have to phrase things carefully, but if you find my LinkedIn you'll see that while I have a broad background, I tend to specialize these days in projection and visual systems - which might equate to things like Soaring, Flight of Passage, 2D and 3D stuff. A google search might show that Disney has been both indulgent and supportive in my curiosity and suggestions and helped me file a number of patents in these fields for things we may or may not have developed and used in the parks.

I appreciate that you guys were able to put up with off hours communications as we came down to the wire too. Up until just before we did the final exchange I was working in Tokyo for a few weeks where Disney happens to be working with the parks there on a big expansion at Tokyo Disney Sea. For anyone eager to shake off the covid blues, Japan is reopening and the Disney parks there are really beautifully maintained and have some unique elements you won't find at any of the other parks around the world. Its great work, with fantastic people. Who could ask for more?

And all of that fits within what I'm allowed to say in a public forum. If you guys are in town - let's grab a lunch, Maybe I can say more and you can tell me how the truck is holding up.

Tom

 

[ALAN BORER]

Something interesting has come up this week, and I must choose my words carefully...

We went ahead and listed our truck here on the forum as available for sale as we have decided to go ahead and part with it. We have an offer from a local dealer that has been on hold until the DMV caught up but as I've chatted in some other threads and PMs with some members here have inquired about buying it privately, so I posted in the for sale section to see if there was a local buyer waiting for a similar truck, and I did get a few replies - one, however, stands out as different from the others...

I'm not going into names because this could all be quite innocent but it does point to a potential problem that we should all be wary of. One exchange was happy to jump above the asking price rather quickly and asked few questions, but the guy did warn me that to set me up as a vendor in his system there could be a daunting amount of paperwork, and that's part of the reason he was willing to make a generous offer, and was willing to negotiate if needed.

Now on the one hand, sure, I like money - and to be honest, I'm not daunted at all by paperwork. I do it all day long and my wife and I spend many hours every year doing refinancing on properties when in pencils out, dotting i's and crossing t's on tax rebate paperwork for solar, for carpool lane passes, for business travel visas, for HOA documents to do landscaping - its always something. At work, I have to help set up vendors in our systems, get them under NDA, monitor their insurance, and lots of paperwork - no big deal - so I said as much.

I also said, however - that we were careful about what we signed and I was fortunate that my company provides essentially free legal services as part of my benefits where I have lawyers on call if needed to help look things over so everything should go smoothly and there should be no delays - and that my wife specialized in banking security so we would be able to avoid any misunderstandings with requests for personal information and credit information that didn't follow correct and standard practices.

After chatting back and forth for a few days the conversation suddenly ended. Maybe I'm just a jerk, or the value of the truck plummeted or interest rates changed, or whatever. Maybe there is no problem at all and it is/was all totally legit - but maybe - and the reason I'm writing this cautionary tale is - there are Nigerian Princes out there offering to buy trucks. All they need is your banking information.

If anyone is looking to sell a vehicle or do any business with anyone - face to face, online, in a parking lot or even at a Carmax - don't let the dollar signs shut yor brain or your radar down. In the end maybe I'll actually hear back from this guy and we'll doa a great deal and, who knows... but everyone, please be careful. Most of us are not in the business of flipping truck and despite being god at whatever we do for our day jobs it can be really easy to make a stupid mistake when you're in unfamiliar territory. Don't be sending your address and banking or Social security informaiton to potential buyers, don't be doing stupid stuff at local test drives, don't think you are going to drive away from a local sale with a bag of $120k in cash so you can hide it from uncle sam because there will be cars following you out of that parking lot.

Be safe, keep your antenna up and your radar on.

(If you happen to be the person I chatted with, please note I have tried my best to be fair and objective here.)

Thanks

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