SCAM ALERT!
Posted by admin | Filed under reviews
‘98 BMW M3 Convertible - $4000!
Sounds to good to be true…right? Well, that’s because it is. I know, a girl can dream can’t she.
So, it all started when I was on craigslist today. When I’m really bored, I’ll go through car listings, and dream about the drift car I wish I had. Right, so I came upon a post that had this car listed in Atlanta, GA for $4000. Andy laughed and said, “Either that’s a scam, or there is seriously something wrong with it”. Being the bargain shopper I am, I didn’t just want to assume a scam, so I emailed the person. Nothing to loose, right?
She emailed me back very quickly with this reply in Engrish,
“Hello,
First of all I want to thank you for your interest for my car. I sell at this price($4,000) because i just finished the divorce with my husband. When the divorce has finished i own this car. Now as a women i don’t need. This car is in excellent working conditions, no scratches, flaws or any kind of damage, slightly used in 100% working and looking conditions and comes with a clear title. Has 75,000 miles VIN# : WBSBK033XWEC39135
From the beginning you have to know that for the payment I request only secure pay, I prefer the payment to be done using eBay services. We will use a safe payment method because I am affiliated at eBay and I have a purchase protection account for $20.000. The final price that I want for this car is $4,000 including shipping and handling. If you are interested in buying it please provide me your full name and address so I can initiate the deal through eBay.
I will wait your answer(if you are interested to buy) very soon
Regards.
PS:Here are some pictures:
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e292/mycar2000/98%20bmw/1.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e292/mycar2000/98%20bmw/2.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e292/mycar2000/98%20bmw/3.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e292/mycar2000/98%20bmw/4.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e292/mycar2000/98%20bmw/5.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e292/mycar2000/98%20bmw/6.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e292/mycar2000/98%20bmw/7.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e292/mycar2000/98%20bmw/9.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e292/mycar2000/98%20bmw/10.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e292/mycar2000/98%20bmw/11.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e292/mycar2000/98%20bmw/12.jpg”
Now, first of all, the Engrish really gave it away, but still I wasn’t convinced that it could be a scam. I thought that maybe she ment to say Paypal, and not Ebay, because Ebay sure as hell doesn’t offer any $20,000 coverage (that I know of). And second of all, how do you do business off Ebay, without listing an item? So naturally I went looking on Ebay to see if she stole someone’s Ebay listing pics, and posted it on her photobucket. I didn’t find anything. Then I looked closer to the pictures.
If you go here, http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e292/mycar2000 , you’ll actually will find her whole account with numerous photos of different cars. Well, no one has that many cars. And if they do, they would all be taken at the same house, not 5 or so different houses. So that obviously threw up a big flag.
Then I went back to craigslist, to see if I can find the listing for the car. I noticed before that she mentioned shipping and handling charges. I thought that was weird, since it was listed locally as Atlanta. So, not to my surprise, the listing all of a sudden disappeared of craigslist. Red flag number 2!
Then I remembered that she put the Vin # for the car, in the email. So if I find two cars with the same Vin #, then I’ll definitely know it’s fake. Or if I find the actual listing that these pictures were stolen from..
and I did…red flag number 3!
http://www.carad.com/status/ShowroomViewVehicle.cfm?listing=9715613
Mission complete! 
Avoid scams by doing the following:
1) Check the information from the original listing to the email.
2) Check to find the source from where the pictures are listed online, that the person sent you.
3) Ask for the Vin #, and if sent, do a search.
Hope this helps others from being scammed! Oh, and a common courtesy would be to email the owner of the original listing to let him know that someone is using his information to scam people. I did, and I’ll let you know what he says.