Canadian CraigsList Scam

Ok, so here's the skinny...

My niece put a down payment on a car she found on a site very much CL, but in Canada. The seller then says, well, we'll conduct the transaction through eBay Motors. They'll hold the money until you receive the car, etc.

All is well - sort of.

The 'invoice' doesn't fit eBay's template, it's close but not quite. She sends the money via wire transfer to someone at a Washington Mutual bank - so yes, now it becomes international. She's reported to the local cops, they sent her to the RCMPs.

The 'holding company' that was supposedly part of eBay is "safe-ebay.com"

She has no car and is out a fair chunk of money.

What's the next step?

edit:
should also mention, I'm a bit of a geek and have already some cursory whois searches 'n whatnot, but can't trace e-mail IPs as the seller uses GMail.

The really bad news is she has lost the money. You may be able to trace the money trail to the Washington Mutual Bank, but unless the RCMP get actively involved, it's sorry, there isn't much hope of seeing the money again.

I'd really like to be able to say something better, but unfortunately, there is no nice way of telling you.

Someone else in here may know more about the banking system there, I'm not in the USA or Canada,

Hi MrJl

I'm so sorry that your niece was scammed. As John stated, she has probably lost her money. However, I would contact Washington Mutual and have see if she can have the transfer reversed out of the account
Scammers often flash accounts....put money in then have it reversed and it may be worth a try for her.

I will post at eater for the fake site to be killed. The name used to register is probably that of the victim who's credit card was used.

Registrant:
Connie Rawls
2660 South Columbia Road, 2660
Grand Forks, US 58201
IT

Domain name: SAFE-EBAY.COM


Administrative Contact:
Rawls, Connie [email protected]
2660 South Columbia Road, 2660
Grand Forks, US 58201
IT
+39.17012654807
Technical Contact:
Rawls, Connie [email protected]
2660 South Columbia Road, 2660
Grand Forks, US 58201
IT
+39.17012654807


Registration Service Provider:
Aruba S.p.A. - Servizio Aruba.it, [email protected]
+39.05750505
+39.575515790 (fax)
http://www.aruba.it
Supporto tecnico - Technical support - Asistencia tecnica :

http://assistenza.aruba.it


Registrar of Record: TUCOWS, INC.
Record last updated on 24-Apr-2008.
Record expires on 25-Apr-2009.
Record created on 25-Apr-2008.

Registrar Domain Name Help Center:
http://domainhelp.tucows.com

Domain servers in listed order:
DNS2.TECHNORAIL.COM
DNS.TECHNORAIL.COM

Thanks for the info.

Will definitely pass the info along.

I kinda figured the cash was gone and nothing could be done. But, nice to know there's even a slim chance that it could be returned. We'll see where it goes from here.

And the site is now dead.