Car Buying Scam

Part of our car-buying research was done on cars.com. One of the listings was by a guy named Pete for a fully loaded 2011 suburban for about $22K - way below blue book. No address or contact info, but I was able to email Pete from the website. So I requested some information. Here's part of 'Pete's' response:

My 2011 Chevrolet Suburban is still for sale. The asking price is $22,344 ... It is located in Canada, as I recently moved here with my job. ... I had a buyer offering $25,000 and I've lost about 2 weeks waiting for him to pay just to find out in the end that his loan wasn't approved. I've lowered the price because I'm in desperate  need of cash, so if you don't need a loan you can have it. I don't want to offend you, but the car is priced for a fast sale so please if you intend to apply for a loan or financing do not  reply to this message!

I want to use Amazon Payments for closing this deal. If you are not aware of how they work you should know that they will allow you to test drive and inspect the car before me receiving  any money.  You will have a 7 days inspection period to decide whether you want to keep it or not before they release the funds to me.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Steve

Yes, Pete is now Steve and he wants to sell me a car from Canada using some payment method I've never heard of (I've since looked into it and there is no such 7-day provision with Amazon Payments) and he doesn't want to work with me if I need a loan. Hmm ... his English wasn't terrible, but there were some oddities I wouldn't expect from an English speaker.

I told 'Steve' I thought this was a scam and asked him to make me feel better. His response, in part:

The car is now located in Prince George, Canada, sealed and ready for delivery, in case it gets sold I will take care of shipping. You will receive the car in max 5-7 days and you will have the chance to inspect it for 7 days. In the inspection period you can test the car or go with it at your local mechanic for inspection, but do not put more than 200 miles on it. The car will be delivered directly to your requested address as soon as I will have the payment confirmation from Amazon Payments. Also you will have to put your decision there and whether it will be an " Yes. i keep the car" or " No, i want to return the car", Amazon Payments will either advance the funds to me or give you a refund and have the car shipped back to me at my expense.

If you're interested to purchase just email me with your full name, full shipping address include zip code and your phone number, so I can notify Amazon Payments that you are selected as my buyer and they will contact you to explain the entire procedure. I will call you as soon as I receive your full info so we can talk before starting the transaction.

Hopefully, I made myself understood and we will be closing the deal. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

The grammar is getting progressively worse and now Steve is taking care of shipping. At this point, I did a little research and found a nice little article that tells a familiar story. I ask Steve what his nationality is. He tells me half german, half american and asks why. His words, "and what this has to do with the car?"

No english or german speaker would formulate the sentence like that. I responded:

Wovon sind Sie in Deutschland? Erzaehlen Sir mir ein bisschen von Ihrer Geschichte - welche Halb ist Deutsch und wie kommen Sie dazu, dass Sie in Amerika und danach Kanada leben?

I ask because I don't believe you are who you say you are. I believe you're trying to scam me. And if I'm right, I highly recommend you rethink your life. If you steal from someone, you may be able to rationalize that through some perverted philosophy and feel good about yourself for awhile, but ultimately it catches up with you. You can't do evil and be happy in the long run. If I'm right, you need to change what you're doing for your own sake.

I haven't heard from Pete/Steve since I sent that email, but I hope he/she will take to heart my call to repentance. :)

Another New Car

One of my first posts on this blog was about car troubles. About a month later, one of those cars was put to rest. This post should be the last time I report on car troubles for a few years.

Last summer, a code was tripped in our van indicating a problem with the transmission. If you care, it was P0740. After a little research, I determined it could have been because of the extra torque required of the transmission in the mountains (we were in Colorado) and no big deal or it could signal a BIG problem. A mechanic was convinced it was a big problem and our transmission was on the way out.

Fast forward to last week. We had delayed traveling to visit Emily's sister because I was concerned about the transmission, but Emily decided to make the trip while I was on a business trip. She felt like everything would be ok and wanted to see her sister. I was a little concerned about the car, but I knew she'd figure things out if something went wrong.

We left town the same day, but I was home a day before they were. On their way home, about 1.5 hours from home, the van broke down. She had it towed to a nearby facility; they confirmed the transmission had problems; and we ultimately decided not to rebuild it at a cost near the value of the vehicle. Silly Odyssey transmissions. That was the second time it had gone out - thankfully the first time, it was under an extended warranty due to a class action lawsuit against Honda. Of course, the second transmission was just as prone to problems as the first.

I borrowed a van from some friends to pick up my family and luggage and met them at the shop. After becoming convinced the van's transmission would need a complete rebuild, we decided to junk it. The owner of the shop worked with a wholesale dealer who checked out the car and offered us what I thought was a pretty fair price. And the next day, Emily and I went shopping.

Emily has always wanted a suburban, so we looked at a few along with a couple other models, but decided the suburban was what she really wanted and we found a really good deal on a 2010.

We hadn't planned to buy a new car for a couple more years and didn't have enough money in that savings account yet. Thankfully, the little equity we had from the sale of our house, which I was planning to put toward our mortgage, I had hung onto in case we needed it. I was planning to pay it in January, but that slipped for some reason, so the timing of the breakdown was pretty good.

Another nice blessing: Emily drove about 5-6 hours each way to see her sister. She could have broken down on the first leg while I was out of town. But she broke down on the way home when I was available to come get her. She could have broken down 4 hours away instead of 1.5. But it worked out really well.

And another: We have some really good friends! The family that lent us their van were at the park when I called. They all talked and even the young kids voted to give up the park so I could go get my family. The mother's response when I asked for help was immediate. Borrowing a van is a pretty big deal and this family didn't even hesitate.

Shopping for a car with four kids is tough. Some other friends of ours agreed to take three of them for almost the entire day on Saturday. In an attempt to show our appreciation, we invited them to dinner. It was later than we thought it would be, the place was packed, our dinner took a while to get there, and we ended up with too little food (which made us fell like schmucks), but in spite of all those annoyances, our friends were really gracious about it all.

And finally: the shop where the van ended up was run by a very nice gentleman who came to pick up my family in his suburban (which planted the seed in my wife's mind) as one of his men drove to tow the van. They couldn't all fit in the tow truck and he refused to let my family stay on the side of the freeway. So when I got there, they were hanging out in the shop's waiting room. That was nice.

I feel like a lot of blessings attended this little challenge and I'm really grateful for those blessings, especially in the form of good, honest, kind people who were willing to help us in a difficult time. Even the salesmen who helped us with the suburban were helpful and seemed honest. We were exhausted last weekend, but I'm grateful to have two good cars and so many good friends.

Einstein on Miracles

I found a great quote hanging on a wall at my kids' school.

There are two ways to live your life.

One is as though nothing is a miracle.

The other is as though everything is a miracle.

-Albert Einstein

Einstein has some really good quotes. I was going to post more, but I think I like this one all by itself.

I taught a lesson in church several months ago that has really stuck with me. In it, I defined a 'miracle' as something that fills us with wonder and awe. Even though we may come to understand some of the mechanisms of natural phenomena, that doesn't have to destroy the wonder we feel when we step back and look at something wonderful. Einstein was a better physicist than I am, so when I read that quote, it really resonated with me. A man who had a phenomenal mind and a well developed mental model of many of nature's workings seems to be telling us to preserve that sense of wonder and awe we feel when we observe or experience something worthy of such feelings.

I used a couple examples in that lesson I gave to illustrate the point. One was my broken ankle, which I had resting on a table in a cast as I sat at the front of the room. I understand how electromagnetic waves propagate and interact with various media. I understand how X-rays are generated and how they leave an image of their intensity on certain types of film. I understand how those rays interact with the tissues in our bodies and how the bones shadow those waves and attenuate the signals passing through them leaving a clear image on the film at the other side. I understand all that and I can even write the equations we use to model electromagnetic wave propagation ... but it still fills me with awe that a machine can take a picture of my bones allowing a doctor to diagnose and treat me.

With all of that understanding combined with an understanding of digital communication theory, I understand how computers, smart phones, and other devices communicate with each other. But it still fills me with awe when I step back and think about punching in a request for information in a search engine and being able to pull up data from computers all over the world from a little handheld device in the comfort of my living room.

I know how light propagates and refracts through our atmosphere, but a sunset can take my breath away.

I know how water waves propagate, but a beautiful lake or the waves on the beach fill me with joy and peace.

I wonder how God reacts to some of His own creations. Surely He understands them better than I do. When He creates something wonderful, perhaps He steps back and says, "I like that. That's good." and maybe that's one of the things that gives Him joy.