Beware! Car Wash Listing is an Internet Scam

[jheezy]

There is a listing in BizBuySell.com for a car wash for sale in Passaic County New Jersey at a price of 995k. The seller is willing to finance 70%. Cash flow is 270k. The ad # is 514642. You call the 800 number for a fictional company called Selective Brokers. It goes to voicemail and then within an hour some thug calls you back from a private number. His pitch is that he is the only broker in the country that represents the buyer rather than the seller. But of course the seller pays the commission. Apparently, he has access to 95% of all 'for sale by owner' listings that you can't access anywhere else. Long story short, he wants a $2500 cash retainer up front before he will give you any info. It's almost worth it to call and let him go through his speech. Anyone with any knowledge of the business will cause him fits. He will just continuously tell you that you know nothing and he knows everything.

Anyway, I offered to meet him in person and suggested he bring a bag to carry his teeth home in. Blah, blah, blah.

I think this is relatively isolated and I think most small business broker sites are very valuable. Bottom line is, these guys are everywhere and they know most prospective car wash buyers have cash.

 

[Whale of a Wash]

A lot of scams out there, Still not sure if the emails i get wanting to split $20 million from some guy with no relatives that died in nigeria are legit. I do remember the days when i was a prospective buyer and had money. Those were the good ole days.

 

[Jeff_L]

Speaking of scams, there's another one out there with a firm called National Marketing. They're based in Illinois and they call you about placing an ad on the back of take home menus for a restaurant near your wash. They say they're in a rush for they have some white space and need to fill it quickly so they can get the menus to the print process, so they offer you the space at half price. Here's the red flag, their email address isn't a company domain, they use @gmail.com or something to that effect. Also, when you call them back their voicemail sounds like a residential.

I believe what they are doing is scamming to get your credit card #, then charging you an annual service fee. They threaten that they have recorded the conversation and that the only way you can get the recording is by subpoena. Also, once they send you a copy of what your ad will look like, the push and push for you to sign. (Yes, I know all this because I was falling for their scam until I saw too many red flags.)

I looked them up and the Illinois Attorney General is taking them to court for false claims. Luckily I didn't get a charge on my card or I'd be contacting the IL AG as well!

 

[pitzerwm]

Thankfully, the crooks are usually dumber than posts. And there are these red flags. Before you agree to anything use Google. You can backtrack a phone number, the IP that comes with emails. People using a gmail address as a business are scams or stupid. Using AOL isn't much better. Look at the website and then go to http://www.dnscoop.com/ use the "Who is" link to find out more info. I love the ones with no contact info at all.

You get burned today, you are lazy.

Another reason that I've created the rating survey, so these people can be documented.

http://www.autocareforum.com/formmail/distr_survey_hook.php

 

[mac]

Next you'll be telling me that the Nigerian banker doesn't really want to send me money.