$3500 FD Possible scam? Please give your $0.02 ASAP before the deal goes though
 

This sounds way too good to be true! Could this be some type of scam?

One of my good friends has been looking at getting an FD and came across a 93 wingless red fd with leather for only $3500 and its supposedly in great shape from the pics with no mechanical or vacuum problems as stated by the seller. Not only does that sound too good to be true but since the guy is out of state he says that he will ship the car to my friend at his expense and if he decides not to buy it he will also pay for shipping it back. The way my friend explained it to me is the guy will ship the car after my friend deposits the money in an escrow account. I think all this sounds way too good to be true but my friend says he has all the terms in writing.

Ive seen similar ads for supras but all the sellers were out of the country so i figured they were a definite scams. Could this $3500 FD be some kind of a scam? If so how could the seller get away (or attempt to get away) with the scam and screw my friend?
Please give your $0.02 ASAP as my friend plans on going though with this in the next day or so.
Thanks in advance for your input

sorry bro, but this sounds like a definate scam. Craigslist has a link on the, "cars & trucks" page warning you about scams like this.

http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams

scam

don't....always buy a vehicle (especially an FD) where you can physically look at it and touch it, drive it if possible.

i'm a mean buyer but i always get what i want in the end.

in order to get the best possible deal, you need to be a dick.

plus, there are always deals, legitimate ones. you just need to have enough patients to realize it when it comes along.

definite scam

Scam
 

DO NOT "BITE"!!!!!!!!!!!!
A few years back I was buying quite a few things and I learned about many many ways that people will screw you.
This Escrow thing almost got me fished, while I was trying to buy a laptop.
Here's how it goes:
You think there is no way this can go wrong because:
1) Escrow has your money and won't pay unless you get back to them and say "go right ahead";
2) He is willing to give you the car and take it back at no expense.

Well, point 1 is what is going to get you.
You see, these motherfuckers put up a fake escrow site. They tell you they want to use (I'm making up a name): safepayescrow.com.
You go to the site, everything looks good, they'll have even the various badges of BBB or xy verified and so on. But the site is fake. You pay through the site (or to whatever account the site will tell you) and that money will go directly in their pockets. You'll be screwed and you'll have no chance to do anything about it.

Like I said, they almost got me, but I was diligent enough to follow the links of the "badges" like BBB and somehow (can't remember how right now) I found out that even the links weren't pointing at the right sites and what not. So I started to demand to them to use "Escrow.com", but they kept making up excuses.
I even followed up with ebay and BBB on this matter as the only reason why I was so careful was that I was almost taken before with somebody who had taken someone else's identity on ebay and I managed to find out right before I sent the money.

Use your brain, that's all you'll ever really need.
Why would you sell such a car for 3500? You really think that -no matter where it is, no matter what your condition is- somebody wouldn't pick it up for 10?
Ask them to send you pictures of the serial number; ask them to take a picture from a specific angle; ask them to give you the address where the car's at and tell them that your "business partner" is going to be swinging by next week for a business trip and you want him to see the car. They'll start telling you all sorts of bullshit excuses and you can keep fucking around with them this way.
I purposely sent one message to somebody on ebay who was trying to sell an exotic car (I can't remember, but Ferrari, Lambo or the likes) for less than 10K. I said I wanted to see the car. They said it was in Greece. I said what a coincidence! I am coming over on a business trip, I'll come and see it; they said they had already "packed it up" and it couldn't be seen; I said to them I'd just give them the money right in front of the open container and I would take it from there... I just messed them up for a while and then sent them a message telling them that I knew all along and that they were scum.
I naturally didn't use my personal email to do all this.
Sorry for the long post, I hope this can help.
Giovanni

If it sounds too good you should know
And he'll deliver it huh? Not to say I don't believe him but are you willing to loose 3500 for something you haven't seen, driven, or checked out?

Keyword is "Escrow"

let me guess, ebay escrow or something.. yeah right....

ok if you ever get an email back from them, they will always say they are out of state at the moment or the car is out of state and that if you buy they will ship or bla bla bla... always they dont change..

tell them you will fly out to pick up the car in person! yeah that will end that conversation rather quickly

The same isht in usa like here in europe, hehe. I can only tell from statistics that here in europe nigerians make these scum, living in uk. ( but this is no bashing at uk or races, ok? ).

See if you can call the guy. If he won't talk on the phone or sounds like he is from Nigeria then you know what to do.

Either way, I would still pass on it.

dont buy it its a scam, i was cheated out of a grand like that would not want that to happen to another fellow. Its probably the same asswhole too.if your gonna buy a car like that you've gotta see that shit in person it doesnt matter if your in another city you've gotta check that shit out.

gosh some poor guy cant sell his fd because no one will trust him, and local guys are probably scared of rotary so they ignore his for sale ad lol..

If its some random nobody, yeah i wouldnt trust it. If it was someone on the forums or some sort of known car, then id trust it.

I saw a fd for sale like that on the autotrader

big scam!!! thank god you did'nt jump the gun

That is where my buddy found this FD he has been looking into getting.

A guy I know just lost $5500.00 on a scam just like this when he tried to buy an Audi A4. Sounds exactly like the scam your buddy is going to fall for.

bout 3 months ago i got scammed out of $3200.00 on the same shit... but I was selling the car. either way. tell him not to and if he doesnt listen to you kick him in the nuts till he says that he wont. LOL!

seriously though i wouldnt even touch that car. if you buddy really wants it tell him to fly his ass out there and see the car for him self.. drive it. take a video and send it to you so you know its real.. something like that. just dont drop your $$ on a car you dont know exists..

my $0.02

i really dont know why i didnt do this maan im an ass , but hey you live and you learn ......got too gugu-gaga happy about my dream car so yeah like he said if you really want a 7 or any high class sports car like this you have to know if its really there ask for phone numbers videos hell arrange a meeting to see the damn thing. sucks to lose your hard earned cash like this on something

just tell him you are going to pay when you pick the car up. He will not email you back again!

Like it has already been stated... SCAM
I found several adds like this in the autotrader where they stated that the car was local to me within 20 mins of a drive. Of course there usual response was they were away on busines and the car was at the local shippers because someone backed out of the sale. I F$%^$d with them for several days back and forth in emails then reported them to the SCAM dept at autotrader. If you notice they always use AOL for some reason. Funny thing is, all the response you get from them is always the same, word for word. I sent autotrader copies of the emails I recieved from different sellers just so they can see the identical repsonses.

L8R

My cousin almost got ripped off by an almost identical scam on a G35. She saw it on Autotrader.com and the person on the other end gave her some sob story about how she was recently divorced and wanted to sell the car for $3,500 including shipping (or something cheap like that) because she wanted the car gone ASAP since it reminded her of her ex-husband. My brother and I kept telling her it was a scam and she kept ignoring us because we didnt know what the seller was going through. My brother found the exact same pictures the scammer sent her on ebay. The pictures belonged to a car dealer in another state who was the real seller.

Theres too many scammers out there these days and way too many dumb people out there who will believe anything and everything the scam artist tells them in hopes of getting this great deal on their dream car.

Scam!

it's really easy to figure out if you are being scammed or not

if you think you might be and want to ask about it... ITS A SCAM!

That sure sounds bad to me, the old saying goes.... well you know.

I saw a scam similar to this on autotrader a few months back. It was for an FD that was really close to my house, I emailed him about it and got this response:
Hello there,

Thank you for your interest in my 1994 Mazda RX-7. It is located in Charlotte, NC. The price I want to obtain for the car is $4,100
The car is like new, completely working, perfect running condition,with no hidden damages or accidents,it has always been garage kept, low miles, non-smoker no flood or storms. It is a US model with US specs and passed the US test emissions.


Lookig forward to hear from you!

Donald Matthews

Interestingly enough I got this email back within 5 minutes of sending my email to him(auto reply), and I didn't asked any of the questions he gave answers to. He listed his personal email account so none of the communication was going on through autotrader. Then I sent him another asking him why he listed the car as being in Pittsburgh when it was in NC. He said this back:
Hi,

I'm the first and the only owner. I'm very sorry but in the ad was a mistake.
I attached you also all the pictures that I have with it.

Please just let me know ASAP if you want to proceed with the purchase.


All my best

He sent me a crap-load of pictures with it. Then I did a search all across America on autotrader and found out it was listed in about 42 different cities across the country. Mistake eh? You don't mistakenly pay for 42 different ads. Definitely was a scam. Tell your friend to talk to him in person. DO a search and see if the car is listed elsewhere. If he insists on shipping tell him you'll pick the car up in person, or at least fly there to look at it. Be careful with your money, 99% chance of scam on this one.

It blows my mind that people still fall for this stuff :(. I just dont get how you get someone to believe you will sell them a car for $3500.00 that normally sells between $11-15k, ship it to them($400-1000.00) and the deal be legit. I just dont understand??

its a definite scam.alot of the aforementioned posts sound like what this guy was tryin to do to me on screwing me out of my cash for an FD that probably didnt even exist. it was on autotrader advertising to be in san antonio, TX. thats a 4hr drive from here so right off i was enthusiastic.

the response i got was that the car was in georgia. he wanted half of of 12k for him to ship the car, if i liked it i send him the other half or the car back at his expense. heh, right.

i kept messing with him as well coming up with all kinds of solutions to put me there in person of evaluating the FD and paying him on the spot. its quite funny how many excuses scammers can come up with no matter how viable and effective your ideas are!

People fall for all kinds of dumb scams. I keep hearing about people falling for these types of scams and also falling for the Lottery ticket scam where they stop you on the street, give you a sad story of how they cant claim the big dollar prize and then sell you the ticket for super cheap. You'd figure people would be smarter by now but it seems everyone is getting dumber as time goes by. Anyone see Idiocracy? :icon_no2:

You'd have a better chance of actually getting the car if you put the $3500 in the mail and sent it to me.

I got my R1 FD for $6600 in Iowa on craigslist. Guy gave me his number, talked to him got the vin(confirmed it was in the right state carfax was good). Got tons of pics(at least 20 pics) as per my request(also heard it run on the phone). Wrote up a contract sent half of the payment then the other half when it was on the truck to MD. I setup the shipping company and he signed the tittle and had a bill of sale and gave it to me. Also had him take pics right before it was shipped just incase there was shipping damage. I still talk to him via email. You do get lucky sometimes but be carefull since most FD's go for $6-20+k running and about $2-7 non running, running bad, high mileage, or bad body, ect.

Please show me the $6-7k fds that are running :) I will even send you a little finders fee.

Believe me, there are good deals out there. But it doesnt take much common sense to decipher between what is a good deal and what is an obvious scam. At least for most people it does not.

Scam +10

Ran into one of these jokers on autotrader when I was searching for my FD. I think it was for 6500. He would write "the only way I'll do the deal is through ebay. Send me your full name and address and ebay will send you an invoice". Wrong, ebay will never send an invoice for an item, the seller will. Even if they did you have to complete an auction. As soon as I asked when he was going to list the car on ebay ALL communication stopped.

there's a million of these scam variations out there. I even read about a few where people had fake titles sent to them.h

Yeah, Escrow = Ass + Screw

Don't send anything, its a scam big time!:icon_tdow