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My first post- how I avoided a scamster


peeam

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I joined the forum recently and thought that I should tell you about a recent experience with my attempt at buying a classic car.

 

I have been looking for a post war Chevrolet (1945 or later). I found one located in PA, attractively priced on Oodle, an online marketplace. The seller responded by sending plenty of photos of the car with the story that it belonged to his father who had recently passed away and the car has a clear title, no mechanical issues and everything is in great condition. The red flag was that he worked for a major media company and frequently was outside the country and needed to sell the car quickly. I asked about where the car was located and he responded that it is with a shipping company that will hold the money in an escrow and I can evaluate the car for 7 days or return it. Interestingly, he gave me the website link for this company which on a bit of search revealed many red flags. The website claimed that it was a UK head quartered company with offices in Portland, OR and Denmark. There was BBB logo which, off course, did not link to BBB. Another red flag was that there was no telephone number for any of the offices. BBB search revealed that there were multiple names by which this company had traded and there were 2 fraud reports of disappearing with clients deposit and not responding to BBB. So, I asked the seller to provide the physical location of the car so that I can get it professionally inspected. In the mean time a web search revealed the same car being sold on ebay by a seller with a 100% positive feedback score, who had listed the same VIN and posted the same photographs with car location in FL. I reached out to the ebay seller and asked where the car was and if he has the title. He confirmed that he had the car and the title. Just to drag it out one more time, I wrote to the the original seller that he should get the shipping company to allow inspection of the car and I need the address of where they have stored the car. He has since then not responded probably realizing that the game was over.

 

If it is of any interest, this seller claimed that he worked for Discovery channel and the shipping company was called Derek Transport Ltd (derektransdotcom).

 

Regards

 

PeeAm

 

 

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I don’t know if you know it or not but the BBB is just bunch of companies that have bad reputations. Years ago someone started selling the idea of something called the BBB to companies that rip off their customers. The idea was that your rip off company pays a yearly fee to the BBB and they in turn side with your company on any dispute. This is no such government burrow as the BBB not federal, state, or local it is a clever scam organization set up to protect other scammers.  Anyone can call themselves a burrow or agency or whatever they want.

I hire outside contractors to do a lot of work for the company I am employed at and one of the first things I do is check to see if they are a member of the BBB. If they are a member that’s a definite red flag telling me not to let them step foot in any of our buildings.

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About a year ago, my brother sold his 1929 Studebaker FE President touring on eBay to a guy in Finland.  His complete eBay posting, with his contact name still listed, is now part of a UK web site listing for used and collector cars.   They are using the same complete description and photos posted from the original eBay ad.  The Finland buyer still has the car that was sold on eBay and this UK ad must be part of some kind of a scam.   I wonder how many old eBay ads are still floating out there as part of an internet scam.  I would not buy anything off of an ad on the internet that I could not inspect in person.  

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Should say "most serious collectors" either are on forums or employ someone who is. OTOH there are the "bright shiny" nouveau riche who just want a status symbol. Smart ones hire an expert to do the ground work. Others partake of the free beverages for high rollers at some auctions and these are the ones floor men (and women) target. Watching the antics on TV (generally record and fast-forward until something interesting appears) I have thought that would be grounds for assault in some states.

 

Think you are being smart. First decide what you want then research everything possible. The fanatical forums with online service and parts manuals is a real plus to this century. I used to buy and study service manuals before I'd buy a car. Today most of mine are on a tablet.

 

ps I find googleing (was at DefCon when Google was first proposed) phone numbers of people/companies to be very interesting reading.

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