Hi All

I just thought I'd post up about a scam I almost fell for.

I saw a very clean '00 S2000 listed on Auto Trader for $8400. After inquiry, I was told that the owner had brought the car from Florida to Italy, but now didn't want to spend the big $$ to make it certifiable for EU emissions. (I later found out that there's no diff in the emissions sys of a US or EU car)

They wanted me to wire them a deposit to cover shipping, and then pay the balance when I got the car. They told me the shipping would be $2700 by air and it would only take 5 days for me to get the car. (To ship a 2800lb car by air from Italy to the US would more likely cost 10-15k) When the ad had disappeared from Auto Trader, I got really suspicious. I decided to ask them to allow my "friend in Italy" to look at the car... it suddenly became hard to locate.

Apparently, this is a pretty common internet scam.

Be careful out there...

 

Yep, another scam.
FYI, My friend air freighted a Ferrari to Italy for rebuilding and it was about $3000.

 

You can't trust Western Union and the net, very common scam.

 

Wow! It costs nearly that much to fly a 200lb human let alone a 2800lb car. I figured it would be a lot more, but I didn't actually check. There were enough other red flags to scare me off.

Maybe Italy gives a shipping discount for Ferraris?

 

that seems to be common. i saw that same setup on an ebay ad, like twice. all you gotta do is tell them you want to see the car yourself, then they won't email you back, or they will tell you you are somewhere that you can't physically go to, but he will ship it. scammers.

 

A friend of mine just finished a consulting case with an airline freight company and shipping corpses is the most profitable product in their portfolio. They know they can hose you because they are time-sensitive and obviously hold sentimental value.

 

want a good laugh? see if you can find someone to run a carfax on the VIN for you. find out where it was registered, and see if their story clicks. i had asked one of these scammers if they were ever in california - they said no, they were formerly in Oklahoma - but the car was always registered in california.