A scam or am I being paraniod........?

[MadDad]

I am planning on replacing my wheels in the next couple of months (as long as I manage to secure another contract some time soon) and have a list of potential replacements, 2.8 Z3, S2000, possibly a Boxer or even a Chim. I have been keeping my eye on the classifieds to get an idea of what I can get for my hard earned cash and have noticed a number of 'too good to be real' adverts. They all seem to follow the same MO, low mileage cars for their year, 3-4k below market price, usually being sold by a woman, photos look like they have been taken on a dealers forecourt and quite often only contactable via eMail. Here are a few examples, its obvious that these are some sort of scam but what I want to know is how does the scam work????

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/776810.htm

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/778240.htm

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/778309.htm

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/778315.htm

http://search.autotrader.co.uk/es-uk/www/cars/PORS...

And there are loads more examples on Autotrader.................

[ph1l5]

Deffo on all the PH ads all the locations seem to be in the same format.

[MadDad]

ph1l5 said:

Deffo on all the PH ads all the locations seem to be in the same format.

Something fishy me thinks! The autotrader ones are all the same as well.................

[SVT Rick]

Well not all forecourt sales but maybe part time traders.

One point though quite a few people have the photo done away from home and contact by email / phone to avoid canvassers and dodgey looking types who may be looking to lift the vehicle or attampt drive off theft which is a growing problem.

Just a thought.

Some reasonable prices though.

[Puggit]

The mobile numbers are all related too - time to report it to PH. (I almost wrote Ted )

[MadDad]

Yup, I have fired Garlick a mail.................

[Robatr0n]

I would say that they are almost certainly scams.

[Distant]

Me too, whats the betting you're asked to pay money up front via western union??

[MadDad]

TVR Moneypit said:

The 'woman' will have recently moved back over to continental Europe, taking her car with her. She will find it impossable to drive a RHD car over there, so is selling it cheap, just to get rid.

However, if you pay her shipping company the money, she will send you the car, she really, really promises, scouts honour.

So, you wire her the cash, and wait for the car.

I suspect that you will be in for a hell of a long wait.

Makes sense, I could not figure out for the life of me what the scam was!! Would anyone in their right mind seriously enter into such a ridiculous transaction though???

[touching cloth]

MadDad said:

Would anyone in their right mind seriously enter into such a ridiculous transaction though???

It beggers belief but I think the answer has to be yes, because the ads keep coming with the same MO, if they got zero hit rate then surely it would have died a death by now.

Edited by touching cloth on Friday 7th November 08:36

[touching cloth]

Oh and if you are looking for a Boxster, I stumbled upon this last night which I thought was a pretty good price, appears to be a legit dealer sale locally and not huge miles.

http://search.autotrader.co.uk/es-uk/www/cars/PORS...

Seats look past best but can be sorted if everything else stacks up.

[AngryS3Owner]

Going back to your choices, no idea on the adds! As much as I like them I'm not sure after watching ZHeads frustration driving around europe I could ever not bring this up when someone is suggesting an s2000, hard work, no torque and noisy springs to mind.

Ask zhead when he's sober if you want to be put off as he's said he's never getting into another one again

[MadDad]

AngryS3Owner said:

Going back to your choices, no idea on the adds! As much as I like them I'm not sure after watching ZHeads frustration driving around europe I could ever not bring this up when someone is suggesting an s2000, hard work, no torque and noisy springs to mind.

Ask zhead when he's sober if you want to be put off as he's said he's never getting into another one again

I have heard the same thing from a couple of people, great track car but hard to live with on a day to day basis if you enjoy an enthusiastic drive - still fancy one though!

I must come along to a TVS night out and meet some of the mythical characters who live on the forum!

touching cloth said:

Oh and if you are looking for a Boxster, I stumbled upon this last night which I thought was a pretty good price, appears to be a legit dealer sale locally and not huge miles.

http://search.autotrader.co.uk/es-uk/www/cars/PORS...

Seats look past best but can be sorted if everything else stacks up.

Thank you very much for pointing this one out, looks excellent! I am off to Cornwall in the wee hours otherwise would look at it this weekend, probably pop down early next week. Cheers!