I've been looking for a 996 cab for a while now but have not come across the right deal. I bid on an ebay car, which I didn't win, and got an email response from the alleged owner today. See below

Hi there,

I noticed that you've recently placed a bid on my 2000 Porsche 911 listed on ebay.
Just wanting to know if you are still interested in purchasing it from me as I am willing to sell it for US $17,999 (willing to negotiate).
I am aware that the amount I'm asking is a lot under the market value but we are in a quite strange situation and have to sell it a.s.a.p. due to some recent financial problems.
Shipping/delivery is included in that price as I almost closed the deal with the higher bidder but he was unable to take the loan from the bank and I've already prepared shipping for him as he was out of state.
So, I was left with an unsold item and with a lot of money already paid to the shipping company.
The transaction will be handled through eBay, of course...

I responded showing an interest and said I would like to fly over and look at the car and make a face to face transaction. Then got a response about how he was in Germany and could not meet with me and went on to assure me that the ebay transaction was secure and there should be no worries. He even provided a link to some ebay site in the email. I deleted quickly and cut off all communication.

The car was a black 2000 cab with a hard top and 49k miles in St. Augustine, Fl.

BE AWARE!

 

Have you notified eBay of this situation? I'm sure they would be interested.

 

I came across ALOT of those type of scams on Ebay and CL when I was in the market to buy a Porsche. Although I was too smart to fall for those scams, I'm sure some unlucky shmuck thought otherwise and thought that he found an unbelievable deal. As long as there are ignorant people who are easily duped, there will always be scammers and con-artists ready to take advantage of them... sad really. I always tell myself whenever I come across a deal thats too good to be true, its more likely a scam. Be safe out there!

 

As much as I love technology... sometimes the good old fashion dealership run is the best why to buy a car. Not to say there are legitimate online deals, but this stuff just makes me nervous...

 

I did send them an email explaining the situation. I got an email this morning that the car has reposted.

Good news. You've got another chance to win item Porsche : 911


Hi Shelby,
Your watched item has been relisted. Don't let it slip away this time.

Porsche : 911
Current price: $200.00
Buy It Now price: $23,900.00
End time: Oct-07-09 19:25:16 PDT
Go to My eBay | View all watched items

The guy may be legit but it sure seems fishy that he wouldn't meet with me and accept cash.

 

If the seller refuses to meet and accept cash, you can bet its a scam. I mean, come on... what honest seller who wants to sell his car wont meet and take cash? You should at least be able to inspect the car yourself in person, and not buy the car sight unseen, right? Who does that? Nobody should ever buy a high priced item... especially a big ticket item like a high performance car like a Porsche... from someone who wants to remain anonymous.

 

i know a shmuck who i deal with every now and then that told me a similar story and he was believing it, and asked me if he should try it, although he knew it was too good to be true. the guy likes to bs alot so i was giving him the why not try it answer because he kept insisting it was a good deal and he didn't want to miss out on it. i wasn't sure if he was serious or was just trying to test if i'm the idiot and would tell him to go for it. in any case, anything suspicious deserves the doubt these days, and for someone to even consider it being legit just deserves to be scammed.

 

BEWARE OF ANY LOW FEEDBACK SELLERS with semi-expensive to expensive parts!

I just got scammed buying a 3-spoke steering wheel. Scammers have figured out that $500-$1500+ car parts are a perfect scam on ebay. Since he was a low feedback seller, I communicated with him several times via email to "check" his story. "Car was crashed, pulled parts before insurance took it away, blah, blah, blah..." The story did sound legit enough for me to bid and win the auction. Then one last email from the seller after payment that he was shipping the next day...10 days later NOTHING, no responses, contact info listed on Ebay was disconnected phone, etc.

Fortunately, Ebay/PayPal refunded the full amount including shipping. Be Aware and make sure the item is PayPal protected if you are willing to take the risk of a low feedback seller. Also, make sure you understand the refund process and create a chain of communications for the ebay/PayPal investigation.

 

Not just low feedback sellers are known to pull off scams. Even high feedback sellers are also prone to be involved (knowingly and unknowingly) in scams. I once bided on an iPhone. When I wrote to the seller about the condition of his/her iPhone, he/she wrote back telling me that they dont have an iPhone for sale and that their ebay acct might have gotten compromised and told me NOT to bid on the item. As it turns out, their Ebay acct was hacked by someone "posing" as the Ebay acct holder with the high positive feedback. These hackers figure that taking over someone's Ebay acct with the high positive feedback will send less red flags and would seem more legit than someone with a low positive feedback.

Another give away that an Ebay listing is a scam is when you come across a listing that tells you NOT to contact the seller through Ebay and instead send emails to a different email address. Thats how I learned that the iPhone that I was bidding on was a scam. Instead of contacting the "seller" through the email address that he stated that I contact him through, I emailed the acct holder through Ebay's "CONTACT SELLER" link.

To be safe (for big ticket items), I try to find a local seller (5-25 miles from my location). I would then contact the seller through emails asking if he would be willing to meet in person AT ANY PUBLIC LOCATION OF THEIR CHOOSING so that I may inspect the item at which time I would be paying in CA$H which benefits the seller in 2 ways... 1) He could save on Ebay fees by cancelling the auction and end up only paying the Ebay listing fees... and 2) He wouldnt have to pay PayPal fees since he wont be receiving the funds through PayPal but rather in cold hard cash.

Any seller that makes excuses not to meet up should send red flags. I once contacted a seller selling a Porsche from Chicago (I'm from NY) asking him to meet. The seller then told me that they (and the car) were located in Chicago and that they would be happy to meet me if I flew out there and gave them a week's noticed before I arrived. They even offered to pick me up from the airport! I then told them that I have an uncle who is a police officer in the Chicago Police Dept. (which was a lie) and that my uncle would be the one to inspect the Porsche for me since he has a Porsche of his own and knows what to look out for. This seller then told me that unfortunately they would not be able to meet since the car was "locked up in some sort of storage facility" and that they were "out of town" and wouldnt be able to meet up. I emailed them back asking when would they be back in town so that my uncle (the cop) could inspect the Porsche. They then stated that the car was no longer for sale and that it had just been sold. On a whim, I emailed the seller through a different email acct that I have been using and acted like a different interested buyer... and what do you know... the Porsche was still for sale!

 

I saw the ebay listing last week and wrote the guy about seeing the car over the weekend. Never got a response. Now I know why!

 

When you buy through Ebay Motors you are covered by USD$50k in fraud insurance if a deal goes bad, so on a used 996 you should be fine. It's also fine that the guy's in Germany (that happens), just ask him to deliver the car to the nearest US dealer for a dealer inspection, and thereafter you can ask the US dealer to run point. I've bought several cars on Ebay (all hundreds of miles away) and have never regretted it. Porsche dealers are happy to run an exhaustive inspection on the car and tell you if it's a lemon or a Uboat before you bid at all. Good luck in your search!

 

Yea, the old "in Germany" trick is not a new one. That one is definitely a scam.

 

i went through a similar thing, basically if someone is that desperate to sell and willing to sell way under market value then any car dealer would buy it from them in a heartbeat, all he would have to do is walk into a dealership

run away !