It kind of reminds me of this story (long but funny) of a guy who said that his name was James T. Kirk (from Star Trek)....he strung the schemer along, claimed to kill someone so he had to go to Nigeria to meet up with his new schemer friend, etc...http://www.priveye.com/nig9.htm

RVD.

I think to some extent you have to judge the circumstances and use your personal judge of character. You may not always be right but hopefully you won't get burned.

If the seller is hot...that always seems to work.

I've gone for test drives on cars where the owner basically just said "you look trustworthy. i trust you" and handed me the keys and let me take the car out for a drive. They didn't take anything of mind to hold.

I also know of a case down here in Orange County where a couple was selling their 1/2 million dollar boat/yacht. Guy showed up to look at it with a few friends, brought along his pregnant wife and baby kid and everything looked legit. The guy actually tied up the sellers, made their sign power of attorney forms, tied them to the anchor, and threw the anchor overboard to kill them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylar_Deleon

Anyway, be good out there.

RVD.

RVD.

if you like that, you might enjoy http://www.holladaddy.com/.