My brother-in-law is car shopping and came across an ad for $30k for an '08 911 GT2. He checked bluebook and it says about $140k for "fair" condition, so he asked me about it. I told him that it was an obvious scam so just ignore it. He's got the "But what if it's real?" attitude and insists on looking into it a little deeper.

When he calls them to ask for the VIN and to set up a time to see the car, what are they going to say? How does the scam work?

 

IB4 waterfront property..

 

Yes, it's a scam. Thanks, but I got that part. The question is... how does the scam work?

 

They will be away on vacation, or on a business trip. They will give you a VIN from a legitimate GT2. The car will sound amazing, he will want the car. They will tell you to wire the money and that they will send you the car. The best one that I saw was one where they said that they would use a company called Mobeybookers, or something like that. What the company does is act as a middle man. You send them the money, they hold it until you have the car, then forward the money to the seller. I almost got caught on it since the company really does exist. I even got emails from the company saying that it was legit. All that I had to do was wire the money to an account and I would have had the car. I called the company to verify what was happening, and they told me that my transaction number was false. It was a damn good scam, and I almost got had.

I would not buy any car online without flying out to pick it up and pay cash when I had the car in my possession.

 

Thanks Luder, I'll send him what you just said to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid.

 

Yeah be careful, there are lots of fake money orders as well. Make sure to call the bank to verify and transactions between money. I also agree with the post above, go do it face to face.

 

^ I just wouldn't wire anyone any money at least until I saw the car in person. Until you can physically see and touch the car you have no way a KNOWING whether the car exists or not. And if a seller isn't willing to talk to you on the phone, or wait a day or two for you to get to the car they are not a seller that you should be terribly interested in buying from anyway. Especially when the car is listed at less than half the car's value. I could see 10-15% less if the person just has to sell the car fast due to moving, deploying, or other circumstances, but if the car was legit it would sell within an hour at $70k, so you know that something is way wrong here.

 

Scam bro why even go as far to start a thread about it? Just see those type of ads an brush them off.

 

maybe they forgot a "1" in front of the $30K.

 

It could be as simple as a couple of thugs getting you to show up w/ $30K cash, then robbing you at gunpoint. Who cares about their methods, just stay away if it sounds too good to be true.