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Advertisement uncovers scam

Jim and Nancy Bullis thought the price listed on the 2004 Honda Accord in the classified section sounded like a good deal … that is, until an email from the “seller” put up a number of red flags.

Nancy said her husband called the number with the 816 area code, but was only able to leave a message. A couple of days ago, the couple came home to a message from a man regarding the car.

The caller said he was in the hospital – and, it was his daughter who had the car up for sale and they should either email or call her for more information.

Up until this point, the two had no reason to suspect the ad was anything but an individual using a common means to sell a car. They have a son who lives in Kansas City, so it would not be impossible for them to make arrangements to look at the vehicle – one of the reasons why they decided to make the call in the beginning.

The couple emailed the address provided. There was a reply within 15 minutes – but, the two immediately realized it was anything but what they had originally thought.

The “daughter” – who said her name was Christina Jackson – wrote that she was a member of the Air Force and stationed at a base near Cavalier, North Dakota. Nancy said the email stated the sender was needing to sell the car due to military assignment.

The email added all they would purchase the vehicle through an Amazon payment program to handle the details. In addition, the couple would have the option to test the vehicle for five days. All of this made the couple very suspicious.

Nancy said grammar inconsistency in the email was, for her, the main indicator this offer was not what it appeared to be.

And, during this time Nancy said she did an online search using keywords from information sent to the couple.

The search turned up similar instances of stories – and, as they suspected, scams.

The classified was placed through the online system. For the Bullises, it didn’t raise a concern since it was another Missouri area code.

Company policy once called for customers to have local numbers when placing a classified advertisement. However, it is not uncommon for those living in the area to have numbers with other area codes in this era of cellular communication.

The newspaper also has a set of checks and balances in place for classifieds. Still, customers are asked to use caution if there is an unknown area code.

The couple wanted to tell their story to make sure others don’t fall victim to scams and do their homework before purchasing an item seeming to be too good to be true.

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