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