Two Medford residents selling vehicles over the Internet have lost thousands of dollars to a scam apparently based in Nigeria, Medford police said.

Police said local people selling cars online lost money when prospective buyers sent them counterfeit checks for well over the vehicles’ asked price, then demanded the overpayment be returned immediately. The victims, who were not identified, wired money to the buyers before discovering the checks were fake.

In one local case, a person selling a $50,000 vehicle received a cashier’s check for $90,000 from a buyer in Nigeria who initially contacted the seller via e-mail, Lt. Mike Moran said. The buyer said the extra money was to pay for shipping, taxes and other fees, then any funds not needed to cover such expenses should be returned to the buyer.

The buyer immediately began pressuring the seller to send the money back as soon as possible, without waiting for a bank to verify the availability of funds, Moran said.

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The second case here was similar, with a seller getting an overpayment, then being pressured to return the extra money quickly, he said.

The vehicles purchased with the forged checks weren’t shipped out of the country, police said.

The checks weren’t easily identified as counterfeits. Verifying funds internationally can take seven days or longer, Moran said.

The wait is worth it, though, for anybody conducting international business online, he said.

"Waiting may save you thousands of dollars," Moran said. "Once your money leaves this country, it’s very unlikely that you will ever see it again."

The scheme has hit victims around the country, garnering attention from investigators in cities, state attorneys general’s offices and even the Secret Service.

The targets of the scam usually are selling big-ticket items such as cars, motorcycles or livestock. However, the scammers sometimes target people selling less expensive items and seek the return of relatively small amounts of cash, Moran said.

"In doing that, they may not get much money, but they do get routing numbers and other banking information off the check" the victim sends to them, he said.

Medford police also have received reports of another international Internet scam trying to get banking and other personal information from Medford residents. The perpetrators send e-mails telling the recipients they have won a lottery in the Netherlands and need to submit personal information, including a bank account number so the winnings can be deposited, Moran said.

Reach reporter Anita Burke at 776-4459, or e-mail aburke@mailtribune.com