All those dead children

About a week ago we started to look for a used car that could serve as the loaner car we so badly need in our lives right now.

We have been scouring Craigslist and since I am in the midst of a lot of travel, sometimes we scour the ads in the other cities craigslist, the city I would soon be visiting. Not real clear on what we would do if I happened to find an acceptable car in, say, Dallas, but since that has not happened, no one seems too focused on the possibility.

A week or so ago I spotted a car for sale in Phoenix, my location right now. So I emailed the advertiser and I got back a sweet note, from a soldier no less, who was off for another tour in Afghanistan and he had this great car, but he would not be able to drive it, so it made sense to sell it, rather than garage it for two years.

That made sense to me too. A little later in his heartfelt letter he wrote, the car is now in a garage in South Dakota, but I will pay to have it delivered if you purchase it.

Then he explained that he would use the car sales feature on Ebay to guarantee delivery. That was all fine by me, although years of internet scams have taught me nothing if not, do not pay for something you do not have and approve of in your hands.

I emailed back and said we should talk. I have not heard back from the sweet soldier.

Another car caught my attention, this time a local car, and we were excited. Good solid car, low miles and we would be able to drive over and see it for ourselves. I emailed the owner, who emailed back that the reason the price was so low was because he lovely son had purchased the car and then he was hit by a drunk driver and died. Now the car is nothing but troubled memories. As a father, my heart went out to these fine people. As a car purchaser I spotted the chance to take advantage of a situation that would get the car out of the way of the grieving parents, and into my driveway.

At the bottom of the grieving mothers email was a note that said, basically, if I wanted to purchase the car, she would be willing to do it through the Ebay car sale program.

I emailed back and said I would love to see the car and I could make myself available at any time. I never heard back.

This sequence, interesting car found, emailed delivered, email returned, email asking to view the car, and no email in return, has happened about 10 times now. The last 7 or so have included a version of the same story, son/daughter loved car, died in a terrible fashion, parents grieving and car reminds them of the terrible tragedy. It is an amazing story.

Anyway, not sure what the scam is actually, since I almost always feign interest in the purchase, never give out personal information and never hear back. Strange, and we have yet to actually find a single real car for sale.