Internet Car Sale Scams

[jbmid]

I recently saw a Porsche for sale at a very reasonable price. Pic's looked great and obvioulsy taken in the US. Interestingly, there is no rear view picture, so the license cannot be seen. Car supposed to be titled in FL BUT the car was shipped to Europe and is there. Seller wants to sell as it is US spec and duties are too high to keep it there. Seller will ship here for price of car plus about $3k for shipping and insurance. Of course he wants to be paid first which only a fool would do.

He is supposed to be a private seller, but he sounds more like a business, below. Here is part of the sellers response:
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I prefer as payment money order by www.westernunion.com.

This car is in excellent mechanical and physical condition. It drives
wonderfully.It has been fully detailed so the interior is clean and fresh. The leather IS VERY CLEAN AND FREE OF RIPS OR TEARS.

However, we do our best to bring this car to excellent condition by performing all needed maintenance and professionally cleaning the car inside and out.

Fedex service will be delivery the car and you will receive it just in 2 weeks.I used it many times and i have some contract agreements with they.I prefer to use them service because i benefy of free insurance for package and they provide return policy 30 days for my transaction also for free.They will delivery the car to the nearest port to you.

INSURANCE

The car will be insured at the delivery service for the amount of $xxxxxx.xx US.If somethig happens on the road , you will receive the insurance from the delivery service.

RETURN POLICY

As soon as the car arrives, you will test the it and if it does not matches 100% to your expectations, you will return it in max.30 days sience the arrival date.In this case I will send you the full amount back and you will send me the car back and i will support the costs.
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Question: Has anyone heard of scams like this? Where can I find information on it? And if it is for real, how would we do the transaction to protect both parties? I thought that for a fee, a dealer could be the intermediary. Are their escrow services that could handle the transaction?

Any and all tips appreciated.

Thanks,

Jerry

[sexualbanana]

Speaking of car scam, anyone hear anything about the guy who bough the old M3 from a guy in Florida?

[rc2002]

As if you would even want to return it if it would cost you $3000!

International buying is pretty hairy... If he's willing to do escrow and escrow applies then you should do it. Escrow is where the guy ships it to a third party and you give a check for the guy to the third party. If everything checks out then he gets the money and you get the car right?

I don't know what other services there are out there, but if you know someone in Europe who can actually do the deal for you, it would be even better.

[ryder_23]

Originally posted by sexualbanana
Speaking of car scam, anyone hear anything about the guy who bough the old M3 from a guy in Florida?

yep
anyone know was the outcome was?

jbmid do you have the sellers name?

[DeSi]

theres alotta problems with importing cars from the states. Most of them have been in accidents and the claims havn't been reported to insurance agencies so its hard to tell if it has been tampered with.

[jbmid]

His name is: lwbohannan
Seller ID: Alan-or-Louis

[cocoabrova]

Do more research on the seller and this type of transaction. Ask around on the Porsche boards to se if anyone else has had any personal experiences with this guy. Personally, I would NEVER buy a car off the net, especially ones of that magnitude. But if you must buy this car, make sure to cover all the angles first before you giveaway $3000.

[jbmid]

Good thought on the Porsche boards. The money at risk is $13,000. She insisted on $ up front and to send the money to her husband, so I declined. I'm not about to get into that deal. I knew it would end here but thought I would see where it went. It was a learning experience.

[rc2002]

If you're really that interested then get them to send you pictures. Then fly over there and make sure it gets on the boat/plane/shipping means before you give them the check.

[Weapon_R]

Much of their feedback is based on selling items under $10, and now they are selling an extremely low priced porsche. I'd be very, very careful. In fact, you could fly down there, pick up the car, and arrange for proper shipping or drive it back and have peace of mind.

[DeSi]

Originally posted by richardchan2002
If you're really that interested then get them to send you pictures. Then fly over there and make sure it gets on the boat/plane/shipping means before you give them the check.

thats the only smart way of handling a transaction like this. When my friend baught his rx-7 from the states he flew down to cali (i think) and had teh car inspected by dealership before putting it on a train back to calgary.

The one thing you must check for is airbags, thats a sure sign of a collision. If the airbags are still fully functional, more then likely the car will be a good buy. In other words less chance of an accident.

[jbmid]

I agree. I did check with a person who had sold an item to the seller of the Porsche and she confirmed that she shipped to Europe. The seller gave me her husbands address but insisted that we do it her way with payment wired first. I thought about going there too, but that's just more $$$ and a pain in the ass, so I say 'No Way, good luck'. So far, no response.