skateboardgumby Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 A couple of months ago I saw a beautiful rest-mod 1938 Buick coupe "priced to sell" at $7000! What?! Of course, I sent an inquiry. The seller said the car belonged to his late father and was eager to sell it because he (seller) spends a lot of time out the country on his job. He said if I was interested, he'd like to move quickly on sealing the deal. The car was listed as being in Wisconsin right outside of Milwaukee. I contacted a car-appraiser in Milwaukee about going to take a look at the car and give me his opinion. The appraiser emailed me back saying the car was actually in Washington State. So I contacted a car appraiser in Washington State who also happened to be president of the BCA there. He looked at the ad and pics of the car, saying he knew just about every Buick for sale in the area and that car was not one of them. After more research, I discovered the original ad for the car, which placed the car in Pennsylvania. So, please be careful. I contacted the the REAL seller notifying him that his car ad had been hijacked and that his car was being marketed for $7000. Of course, I guess sellers have no recourse in such instances. As always Garrett Meadows Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Harwood Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 Very common scam--they're just fishing for a deposit to hold the car. Here's an article I wrote last fall about the more common scams used in the old car hobby: Old Car Scams.pdf 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brass is Best Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 See it all the time. If it seems to good to be true... But everybody dreams of finding the deal of the century I guess. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_S_in_Penna Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 Garrett, I'm glad you didn't get cheated! What you describe has all the markings of a fraud: (1) The seller is unavailable for some reason. Maybe he's handicapped; he might work overseas, or be in the army. Sometimes he even works on an offshore oil platform, where he says he has no phone. (2) The price is really good and you need to send money QUICKLY! Don't take time to think rationally! (3) Maybe the car is already crated for shipping from a Google warehouse (there's no such thing). Sorry, all the seller wants is your money, and you must buy sight-unseen. Every scam that fails is another victory for the old-car hobby. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_S_in_Penna Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 Matt, your article is good. I hope it has saved some people from scams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stooge Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 Something I've found that comes in handy with questionable ads for cars, is if you are able to use Chrome as the web browser on a computer or on your phone, if you right click or on your phone, hold down over a picture as to have the option drop down appear, you can select a "Search Google for this image". I've found a handful of too good to be true ads that were using someone else's pictures to 'sell' a car that wasn't theirs. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil morse Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 20 hours ago, Matt Harwood said: Very common scam--they're just fishing for a deposit to hold the car. Here's an article I wrote last fall about the more common scams used in the old car hobby: Old Car Scams.pdf Great article, Matt. I think it should be posted at the top of this forum as part of the "sticky" about scams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregon Desert model 45 Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 Here are some of cars that have been used for craigslist scam ads. Every day there are more cars added to the scam, but the favorite one appears to be the red 49 merc. The last photo is what happened when the scammer was trying to place multiple ads and got the text for the woodie mixed up with the photo of the GT350. The actual GT350 convert was for sale on another website at around $129k. Every one of these scams use a "too good to be true" price for a restored car, location not identified, e-mail only response, and the ad content and format often copied from a commercial listing. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Akstraw Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 Ran into a similar scam on an enclosed trailer on Craigslist recently. The old adage that "if it's too good to be true, it probably isn't" applies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NC1968Riviera Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 I had a 1969 Chevrolet Caprice for sale recently that someone had created fraudulent Craigslist listings for. They copied my pictures and copied part of my description. They were asking 1/3 of the asking price trying to lure in potential buyers. It really pisses me off to see this. I makes you wish you could reach through the computer and choke someone. My two cents worth... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Phillips Posted March 15, 2018 Share Posted March 15, 2018 I answered that ad for the '36 Cadillac two days ago--said it was in Oklahoma City for $7500 and looks fabulous and I have to go there tomorrow, so I asked if I could see it and get the address. I got a reply that said the seller was in Colorado, never told me where the car was, and started in about wanting my name, address and phone # so it could be sold through an Ebay "safe harbor" site or something like that. I quickly realized that it was a scam, and now I see the car pictured above--the gray '36 sedan. Pete Phillips Leonard, Texas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregon Desert model 45 Posted March 15, 2018 Share Posted March 15, 2018 a few more car pics used for scams, plus a few examples of ads to beware of. The 57 Chev ad is suspicious first because of the price for a restored convertible is below low end, a photo that looks like it came from a dealer's website, plus it has the signature one of the scammers has been using, which is a word has been copied from the ad, in this case "windows" and pasted this into the title in a manner that does not make sense. The added twist is a phone number has been included. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Harwood Posted March 15, 2018 Share Posted March 15, 2018 (edited) Holy crap, that very '57 Chevy is sitting in my showroom right now! That's my photo, taken of my car, in my studio. They even left my license plate visible on the back of the car. I've been thinking about putting a watermark on our photos, maybe that would cut down on this kind of nonsense. Note that it does not have power windows nor a cassette player... On the other hand, if you're dumb enough to fall for this kind of trick, perhaps you're a hard learner who needs to get burned before you understand that the stove is hot. Edited March 15, 2018 by Matt Harwood (see edit history) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregon Desert model 45 Posted March 15, 2018 Share Posted March 15, 2018 Matt your 57 Chevy has become the new favorite of the scammers. 7 ads using your car have been placed, only a few have been flagged. to locate these, do a google search for: "1957 Chevrolet Bel Air" site:craigslist.org I found ads in spokane, pueblo, las vegas, boston, jackson, newhaven, and detroit. there may be more by the day's end. here are some of the new ones with the same signature extra word added to title line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Harwood Posted April 16, 2018 Share Posted April 16, 2018 Just as a follow-up to all this, someone just tried to take a deposit on that '57 Chevy of mine up there. The only reason I found out is because the guy sending the deposit lost the phone number of the guy he was talking to and called me instead after finding the car online. When I claimed I didn't know what he was talking about, he got very angry and said he was about to send $1000 to hold the car and what the hell was I doing doubling the price on him (he agreed to pay the scammer $35,000, my asking price is $79,900). Oh, and he wanted to know where I was and where the car was because the car he was buying was in Missouri but I'm in Ohio. When I told him the car was sitting in my lobby not 30 feet away from my desk and then I sent him a photo of it sitting in my lobby, he was pretty unhappy. So if you're contacted by a guy named Ken Williams with an Indian accent, it's totally bogus. Unfortunately, he's armed with a full array of my photos and videos and even a redacted copy of the title on this car because he posed as a buyer a few weeks ago. There's a Ken Williams Auto Sales online somewhere that seems to be a legitimate business, and for some reason this guy is pretending to be them, but he isn't (have you ever met a guy named Ken Williams who sounds Indian?). Anyway, the fellow who called didn't get hurt, but he was about to and would have if he hadn't lost the scammer's contact info and called me instead. Remember that if a deal seems too good to be true (a frame-off restored Bel Air convertible for $35,000) it probably is. Don't let your excitement get the better of you. Be careful out there! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Stoneberg Posted April 16, 2018 Share Posted April 16, 2018 Your pictures are so good, you should watermark them to stop this stuff. Unobtrusive, it keeps folks from stealing your property. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JACK M Posted April 17, 2018 Share Posted April 17, 2018 20 hours ago, Bill Stoneberg said: Your pictures are so good, you should watermark them to stop this stuff. Unobtrusive, it keeps folks from stealing your property. I see more and more of that. No way I would ever be able to figure out how, but I don't sell much online. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawrence Helfand Posted April 17, 2018 Share Posted April 17, 2018 Another Scam that may be even more common is the Want ads scam. I have twice on this website received replies from scammers claiming to have what I needed but when I asked for and received a photo it was a familiar image that had been copied off the web.. This happens a lot in the vintage motorcycle parts want ads but it can happen to you on this website too! I always ask for a specific picture for seller to supply which they cannot do and that's that busted! With cars My first question is where and when I can see it and that I will pick up ( even if you don't really intend too) and pay cash if all is good. If you cant see it and pay in person its time to walk away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
26-25Buick Posted April 18, 2018 Share Posted April 18, 2018 I came across a similar scam on the Australian eBay site last week. The seller had multiple cars of all different eras listed all in the $7-8k range, which was well under their market value. I used the report a suspected scammer button on one on the listings and by that night all the sellers listings had been taken off and haven't reappeared. So do your friends in the hobby a favour and report the scams to the people who can do something about it & don't sit there feeling how lucky you were to dodge the bullet. It could be you next time. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lahti35 Posted April 19, 2018 Share Posted April 19, 2018 On 4/17/2018 at 12:57 PM, Lawrence Helfand said: Another Scam that may be even more common is the Want ads scam. I have twice on this website received replies from scammers claiming to have what I needed but when I asked for and received a photo it was a familiar image that had been copied off the web.. This happens a lot in the vintage motorcycle parts want ads but it can happen to you on this website too! I always ask for a specific picture for seller to supply which they cannot do and that's that busted! With cars My first question is where and when I can see it and that I will pick up ( even if you don't really intend too) and pay cash if all is good. If you cant see it and pay in person its time to walk away. I had one of these guys two weeks ago... replied to my ad for parts with pictures of a totally different make of car than what I was after. I played the greenhorn and strung him along for a bit before agreeing to pay his $1000 asking price with $5000 from a deceased widow, all he had to do was send the extra $4000 back to me... can't imagine why he disappeared, lol! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Harwood Posted April 19, 2018 Share Posted April 19, 2018 Someone just started this up again, this time out of LA. Same '57 Chevy. Asking a whole bunch of questions but obviously a guy who doesn't know anything at all about old cars. All the wrong questions. Two or three phone conversations later, he asks me to send him photos of the VIN a copy of the title so he can get financed. I sent him the VIN and title from my '41 Buick. Let's see if he notices. That Chevy up there, unless it's from me, is bogus. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmhowe Posted April 19, 2018 Share Posted April 19, 2018 Hi Matt, I like the idea of forwarding a photo of VIN and title of wrong car. Maybe even better would be to forward a VIN from one wrong car and a title from another wrong car. That should increase the chance of raised eyebrows if he tries to get a new title. Boy, I hate these scammers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
60FlatTop Posted April 23, 2018 Share Posted April 23, 2018 These people are professionals. They prey on greedy amateurs and people who like to show how smart they are. When it happens drop the whole thing and stay away. I was probably 13 or 14 when my Grandfather told me "Don't flirt with a rattle snake." I'm not your Grandfather but you would do well to remember that. When I was having coffee at Tim Horton's with my friend, the Nigerian Prince, I told him the same thing. I had to change it the King cobra. He didn't get rattle snake. I'm pretty sharp. No one is going to get anything over on me except myself. Bernie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kgreen Posted April 26, 2018 Share Posted April 26, 2018 I like your idea of watermarking the photos in the advertisments Matt! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodneybeauchamp Posted April 26, 2018 Share Posted April 26, 2018 Matt. Great info here, had seen many of the seller scams before but unaware of the buyer ones. My biggest concern was buying my ‘38 Buick Series 40 enclosed coupe a few months back when my partner wanted to show a work colleague some of the photos . She got a real shock when the car came up on someone else’s website (possibly overseas). This really shook her and must admit it worried me a little, although no money had yet changed hands or had been asked for. ( in fact I offered a deposit but was told it was not needed) However she was really concerned as I was still going to go interstate and spend on accomodation for a Buick that may not exist! After a few phone calls to some Buick owners interstate, a suggestion was made to get the owner to send some photos of some obscure part on the Buick. I felt a bit guilty bull#$@$ing to the owner why I needed the photo, but a happy life is a happy ....... ????? You can imagine my relief when I received several photos of the driving lamps from all different angles, one with it partially dismantled ..... the seller really did have the Buick. It was great advice from the other owners. But I still had to send her back a message and pics once the deal was done! ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregon Desert model 45 Posted April 27, 2018 Share Posted April 27, 2018 The Scammer is at it again. here is are some more photos from his most recent craigslist postings. Scam ads have been offering these cars for about 1/2 of the actual prices of these cars as found on classiccars.com, Hemmings, and Topclassicsale.com. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Harwood Posted May 4, 2018 Share Posted May 4, 2018 Well, the good news is that the '57 Chevy convertible is SOLD. Good luck, scammers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_S_in_Penna Posted May 4, 2018 Share Posted May 4, 2018 On 4/26/2018 at 8:19 PM, Oregon Desert model 45 said: The Scammer is at it again. here is are some more photos from his most recent craigslist postings. Scam ads have been offering these cars for about 1/2 of the actual prices of these cars as found on classiccars.com, Hemmings, and Topclassicsale.com. From our previous discussion on the forum, I believe that http://topclassiccarsforsale.com/ is itself a Russian scam. If the Craig's List advertiser is taking ads from there, it must be a scammer stealing from a scammer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victorialynn2 Posted May 26, 2018 Share Posted May 26, 2018 My 55 Chevy photos were used on a scam site. I sued for copyright infringement and settled out of court. It was a financial risk my intellectual copyright attorney was willing to take for me, to jerk the guy around. He was from Russia. I wish we could put a stop to this balogna, but a watermark with your contact info would make the photos unusable for a scam like that. This happens in real estate also. They use for sale photos to get rental deposits with ads on CL. Watermarks help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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