Luftd993

That has to be a joke…..... Right?
Brace yourself nile13, a friend sold a RHD 993 to a guy in Munich and guess what, he actually drove it on the road with all the other cars!
I don’t think all being labelled as scammers over here by you will be taken too seriously by most folk.
I have LHD and if I get another it will be the same. That was the design and that’s how I like it. I would not hesitate in importing one from the US.
Prices are high in Europe and they tend to be very well used. That is not news on here.


Serious bit vern1
I think the advice that 911Dave gives in #14 is spot on. I have opened accounts for this purpose. My bank in the UK makes a charge for international money transfers. I have been asked by sellers to make sure I cover the all the charges (my bank and theirs).
You need to get as much personal info as possible. Home phone # landline and not cell/mobile, home address and even work phone #. If it is not forthcoming just forget it. Not worth loosing sleep over.

nile13

I am well aware of LHD cars in UK and RHD cars in Europe. There are a few. Very few. So the very fact that a UK person wants a LHD car raises a giant red flag for me. Immediately. Thus my statement "think about it".

If you do not see that, perhaps you have not tried to sell anything over Craigslist or Autotrader lately. I have a dozen damn letters from UK (not singling out UK, it just seems to be where most claimants tend to "reside") trying to sell a $150 stereo receiver. And, as you said, anything would start with personal information, conversations, etc. Lack of these just make the damn flag that much larger

PS. the last email, 2 minutes ago, copied verbatim: "HI I LIKE BAY YOUR RECEIVER HAVE 100.00 IF YOU AGRAY YOU CAN COLLING ME AT 857-891-2206 MENY EMAIL TO PIMENTEL_4@MSN.COM" would someone please call them and sell them a bridge? Or should I email back for rennlisters' amusement?

nile13

911Dave, all we know is "but he's in London". Why speculate? If OP wants to try, more power to him. Caveat, etc.

911Dave

Agreed That's all I'm saying. No need to make assumptions, just proceed with caution and all the good advice given in this thread.

nile13

Agreed.

vjd3

I have recently been contacted by two random people regarding my car. One, from Germany, seems legit so far, no discussion of money transfer, just questions about the service history and asking for more pictures, underside, etc., and if the original toolkit and compressor were with the car. Not the random question you might expect from the typical scammer. The man knows Porsches, to some extent at least.

The other came at it in a way that didn't raise any red flags initially, he asked if the pictures of the car were recent and how many owners it had had.

His next email, however, made it glaringly obvious:

"Thanks for getting back to me. I will offer you $33,000 for it and i will like to inform you that i will be having our local transporters to come to your location for a test drive process on the car and moreover I will have to make a down payment to you so as to make you reserve the car for me for not getting it sold to other interested buyer's till the test drive and the sale will be done as it would take time to get all of that done

I will make a down payment of $2000 and also I will include the test drive fees which will cost for $2500 and mind you I want the payment made out to you by check and also as soon as the funds of $4500 have been cleared into your account I will like you to have the car ready for the test drive process and also you will make the remaining funds of $2500 payable to the transporters to cover for the inspection/test drive fees and all other expenses during inspection

I will be looking forward for proceedings to you and also get back to me with the full names, mailing address and phone number the check can be made payable to you

I will be looking forward to hear from you

Regards, Braden"

d ward

Hi, believe it or not, but not everyone in the uk is a scammer.
You will also find there are a lot of left hand drive cars over here, for reasons already mentioned.
There are companies here who only buy and sell left hand drive cars and most car buying magazines have a whole section for cars with the steering wheel on the wrong side.
Most of the Porsche magazines have run articles on buying cars from the states.

As for buying things unseen, I belive its not just us brits who do that, you americans do much the same.
If I remember correctly, it was an american who bought a rather large bridge from the London area, without seeing it or doing much in the way of research, then had it shipped back to the United States stone by stone, only to realize he had bought the wrong london bridge.

As people have already said find out as much as you can about the buyer,if they are genuine they wont mind, and only exchange money through a well known banks.
Regards

x50type

d ward

touchy this morning - eh!
i don't see anyone saying everyone in uk is a scammer.
do you really believe there is a lot of LH cars in uk? i've been all over uk many times - don't recall seeing one.
and the point about the bridge is?

PS you're not jeremy clakson, are you?

vern1

OP here - i will not make any statements about the UK or scammers in order not to further flame the growing battle here (werent you guys on the same side against the Germans??)...

However, last correspondence I received was that I was to call his phone number and "leave a message on my paypal payment instructions". When I responded by email that it would be wire transfer only, i never heard from him/her again

The lesson I learned was the combo of 1. buying site unseen without ANY questions on the car 2. offering full asking price (i wish) ; and 3. insistence on paypal only = SCAM

Now anyone want to buy a 993 cab??

Thanks again for the comments

2Many Cars

Scammers are everywhere. In any long distance deal if you can't get someone (buyer/seller) on the phone to talk to and get mutual reassurance that you're both legit then forget about it. IMHO if the other party isn't as suspicious of you as you are of them then you need to be very careful.

skl2

A few years ago I listed our Cayenne S on eBay. Within 4 hours someone called me saying they were from out of the country and they wanted to purchase immediately. I of course thought it was a scam...he said he would arrange shipping and everything, blah blah. To be safe, I set up a separate account with our bank, and told him he could call our banker who would provide him with wire transfer instructions. Within 12 hours the money was wired, with confirmation from the banker, and he called to arrange pickup. A shipping company picked up the car and it was exported that week. Never heard from him again, but we got the money. Couldn't believe it.

I would NEVER EVER EVER trust eBay or PayPal...but if you want to do a wire transfer, that could work.

mjsorl

Sold a piece of equipment on ebay at the start of the ecconomic slowdown, the buyer called me off line and negotiated a sum that was a little more than my reserve (not posted) price was fair. Used PP for the $ transfers, he picked the piece of equipment up after PP had confirmed that the money was in their hands. Waited a few days, as it was a weekend, and PP said I would have to wait until they had "confirmation of delivery" from ups or fedex, I thought this kind of strange. Called buyer and he contacted PP, money was finally released after he sent an affidavit stating he had received the machine. What a pain in the butt. Would I do it again.NOPE

Wire transfer only with certified funds, and as soon as I got confirmation I'd move it again.

Mike S.
Windermere, FL
95 Cab 993

nile13

Bingo! The scammers are generally not sophisticated enough (yet) to perpetrate a real con job with actual phone conversations, etc. I'm not looking forward to the near future when they acquire that skill. And I'm 100% certain that they will as a $50-80K car is a big catch.

Vern, hang on, don't worry, the right buyer will come. Often from Rennlist family., Which tends to make both side happier.