Advice on car buying?

B

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Looking for advice. Has anyone ever come across a car advertised at a price that's about 40-50% below book price? Because I have and I don't know whether it's worth looking at. This car in the condition he claims it to be normally sells for around £10,000: he wants 6k for it. He says it's accident free, UK registered, V5 present, 'as new' condition etc. I asked for the VIN num and reg num in an email and he ignored the request.
Is it true that if it's too good to be true it usually is? It's a 25 mile trip for me to look and I'm not really out to buy, just 'if a nice one comes along' kinda thing. Anyone have any stories in this regard, positive or negative? Would would you do?
Thanks for any comments.
 
Well, for starters, 25 miles is nothing - go see it ! Maybe he thinks you're after the numbers to match up with one you've stolen/welded together - don't judge too early, go see !
 
I'll let the scammer spell it out for you himself. This is an email I got after I told him I would like to come and see the car. We had already exchanged a few emails in which he told me how the car was in excellent condition, uk registered, accident-free etc. etc:

Ok. Please let me explain the procedure. I'm in
Berlin, Germany, I'm already moved from London, I have
a house in London, too, my wife is a german person. So
I will not live anymore in London, I will sell the
car. So for me to be sure, I will not spend my money
and my time for nothing traveling to London, and
having no buyer. I would like to use this service, not
for entire amount of money, because there are some
taxes. For 2000GBP for example. You will create a
transaction over the www.mobile-zahlungen.com and make
a deposit of 2000GBP. As soon they will confirm me
that you have transfered 2000GBP to them, I will take
the first fly to London and come to meet with you. If
you will like the car, you will pay me the rest of
money and take it. If not you will take your money
back from the mobile-zahlungen.com and look for
another car. You have nothing to lose.

PS: I have full service history.

Thanks
Patrick

The website is of an Escrow type service, which I have big doubts about. I did some surfing and found evidence of something similar being discussed on on a French Forum. Look here and read the email that someone has posted up - this time he's in London and the car's in France (if you translate the French they talk of 'swindles'):

http://www.forum-auto.com/sqlforum/section15/sujet304126.htm

Once I realised what was going on I confirmed the scam by asking if he would use Escrow.com instead of the service he recommended and he made some pretty weak excuses not to.

All in all it's obviously a scam: it would be very foolish of anyone to pay a large sum towards a car they hadn't seen, and wasn't entirely sure even existed.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Wow! Great info and one to watch out for! Thanks for letting us all know... Did you inform ebay?
 
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