Does this lead on a 996 Turbo sound like a scam to you?
 

So, over the weekend, I got on Autotrader.com to see what's out there.

Lo and behold, on Sunday morning I see a listing for a 2003 996 Turbo. Seems like a great deal, one that seemed too good to be true. I run an AutoCheck on it. I run it through a VIN decoder. I look for record of theft, accidents, salvage title, etc. It's listed at a dealer in NJ, Wholesale Outlet Automotive Group. I try to make contact with the dealer via the contact form on Autotrader. Less than 24 hours later, the listing is gone, vehicle unavailable. I hear nothing for a few days. I figured it might have been a mistake, an error, sold, or something.

Today, I get an email from a guy. He apologizes for the delay in response, because he's in Canada. Sounds like he's an individual owner of the car. Supposedly, the story is he's selling the car, because he went with his employer on an eight-year contract in Calgary. Supposedly, his employer is giving him a car, and he doesn't need this 996 TT. The guy presents the car as a having been in no accident, no mechanical problem, no lien, perfect condition, yada-yada-yada. He says he'll pay for shipping and insurance.

At the end of his email, he asks me if I'm interested in buying, and he asks me for my location, which I did not give.

I asked in my reply about the story. Why is the car listed with dealer in NJ? I mention that there's no listing anymore. I ask why the dealer website does not have this car listed in inventory. I ask about why the last registration of the vehicle is in 2014. I ask about service records. AutoCheck shows no service records. (Not sure if it normally does like Carfax seems to show.) I ask about PPI.

It all sounds fishy to me. So, what do you think, Rennlisters? Does this sound like a scam to you?

If it is too good to be true....it is. You can follow thru if you want, but the next email slid deposit $$$ in this account and no one can touch it until you agree to released the money. Then the money $$$ will disappear

Sounds decidedly scam-ish.

Insist on a thorough PPI at some independent shop. If he tries to avoid this by offering an amazing price, then it's almost certainly a scam.

Agreed. It sounds like a scam, but I'm interested to see what he has to say in response. I'm sending no money. I will require PPI by a neutral third party. Only after that's completed will I consider doing a deal. My wife and I are skeptical, but I'm interested to see what he says next.

Ran the Carfax. It shows similar history to the AutoCheck report in terms of the last registration being done in 10/2014. It shows some record of service with the last service in 10/2015: "Electrical system checked" Next entry, 2/27/2016 the car is listed as dealer inventory, vehicle offered for sale. Then, somehow, 2600 miles get put on the car, and the car is listed on 1/20/2018 as dealer inventory, vehicle offered for sale. Nobody bought it in that time between 2016 and 2018. Nobody registered it. No title. Nothing. Bizarre. This guy sounds like he's playing the role of a private seller, but the car is listed as dealer inventory.

Unless / until you, or someone else on here, can put eyes on the car, it sounds like a scam to me!

Dealer may have enjoyed it for 2500 miles...
Scam!

The 996t that I got scammed on came with an e-mailed title, a 4 page carfax report and the scammer had a phone number consistent with the car's vicinity. He's now 2k richer and I've moved on to buy a "real" car.

The seller got back to me with the following plan.

The idea is to handle things through an "escrow shipping company" that will allow me to test the vehicle before finalizing purchase. The company he mentioned was Autobytel, which he described as a shipping company. He states that I'll have up to 5 working days to inspect, test drive, PPI, etc. Autobytel will supposedly take care of."shipping, payment, etc. to complete the deal "safely and smoothly." Car will be shipped in enclosed container. Delivery agent will bring the car with all original documents. They will ship and transfer vehicle on his behalf.

Anyone ever hear of such a thing?

The car: https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%...AC7E5A59B59AE9

Still no answer about service records, car's location, etc.

If any money exchanges hands before you have eyes on the car, expect to lose it.

Sounds really fishy to me.

Autobytel says that it doesn't do escrow, shipping, etc.: https://www.autobytel.com/fraud-awareness/

Also, those are 3 year old pictures.

I might sell my 996 Turbo. I assure you it's alive and well in Texas.

LOL!

Hey man, this IS a scam. I see it all the time. I've bought and sold several vehicles, and I also ran a classic car website where this came up every now and then (www.ontariozcar.com). Do not give this guy any money. Tell him you have cash and want to see it first. Tel him you have a friend in Canada that will come and check it out. You watch you'll get a story like its already packed up or whatever.

Keep hunting. Walk away.

It's probably a scam, but if you think there is a chance it's legit, you can do what it did several years ago in a similar situation. If he gave you a town or city he is located in, look at a map an pick a nearby town. Email him back that you have a brother-in-law, cousin, whomever who happens to live nearby in the nearby town. Ask if he take a look at it. When I sent a similar email, I never heard back from the scammer.

Thanks. I was looking for something like that on autobytel's site, but I had to go out this afternoon before I found that link.

Love it!

Agree.

Thanks. I'll keep that in mind. This vehicle was listed with 19,000 miles, X50, and $25,000. That's the only reason I even tried to make contact with the seller. Basically, I wanted to see if the listing was a mistake, and if that was the actual asking price. I wasn't even looking for a Turbo. I was looking for a Carrera coupe. Wasn't even sure I wanted to stretch to a C4S. Heck, I wasn't even sure I wanted to buy yet. I was just keeping my eyes open. Then, I saw this thing.

Thanks. There's no way I would part with any money without a friend, an inspector, or whoever having a look at it first.

That's a good idea, but he never gave me a location. Never answered the question about where the car is.

I am in Edmonton a couple hours north of Calgary (if this guy really is there). If the car is there, I could find out.

personally I wouldn't waste anymore of your time on this. Ship the car to you to test drive? Never heard of that before. Skip and keep looking.

I vote for scam. This is not how people buy and sell cars.

Dude! C'mon! I know you WANT it to be that awesome true story of how you "stole" a turbo for 25k BUT, you KNOW deep inside its a scam! Buying and selling anything online now (with few exceptions like maybe BAT, EBAY?) is so tricky now. People spoof dealers and forums all the time! I called a few random Japanese car dealers that had 991s listed for grt prices I thought they took on trade ins and they all said its a scam. Phone numbers not matching up, cars and people in different states, shipping companies involved, cashier checks, etc, etc. Basically look locally and go SEE the car in person or be willing to pay for flights if looking nationally. End of story. And, if you find someone that actually agrees to have a PPI done at a shop of your choice it still doesn't mean ****. I bought a G wag from Pennsylvania sight unseen after vetting it thouraly and it was still a rusted POS at the end of the day. I will probably never buy a car sight unseen again. Keep looking!

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...9bafb88685.png
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...12520b052c.png
Found on Seattle CL today, I guarantee you its Bull****. Tip off: plate blurred out, no city listed, low price, lack of details.

This scam is running all through the internets now. It's on TX, FL, AZ craigslist.

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I saw the following Craigslist ad, which seemed too good to be true.

https://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/cto/6815325840.html

t sounds very similar to what the OP described. The seller claims that he has been relocated to Calgary and needs to sell the car for "a new investment". He said that he gave a company (Autobytel?) power of attorney to simplify the sale. If interested, he asked me to submit a bid on Autobytel after which they would ship the car to me and I would have 5 days to inspect it. Clearly this is a scam, but I'm sort of curious to follow up (but not send money, of course). @roburado , any chance the guy you worked with claimed his name was Ronald Allen who works for Suncor?

This is the same thing. There are so many variations of this scam but they all basically say they don't have the car but someone else will handle the transaction. If you can't have someone you trust to take a look at it before spending any money (and that includes a bid), then it's 99.99% a scam.

Take it from someone who has looked very deep into some of these deals, they are a scam. NO ONE will ship a car or sell you a car that you cannot see. I have tried with over a dozen of these "deals" over the years to see the car and I never was able to see it. I was willing to fly out to the "broker" warehouse and look at the car no shipping needed and of course, there was no further contact. Offer to drive or fly out to go see the car so they do not have to ship it and that's where the contact will end!

This was a Rennlisters car at one point
It sold on eBay early January '18
It was listed here in Chicago (CL) then, seller tried to tell me it was stored in New Mexico

He's a doctor abroad, escrow service, the whole scam

its a scam. I had the same thing happen to me when I was selling a Honda Accord. Someone offered me exactly what I was asking. Then they said they needed me to pay to have the car shipped to his buyer. He Fedex me a check to include the extra shipping fee. I didn't pay for shipping yet, but next day his check turned out as bad. This was like 10 years go. These guys are still trying to work it. If it walks, sounds and looks like a duck...

Always a scam....the "I've relocated to Sweden and have to sell the car" scam is an old one that Ebay even warned about. Even when they offer to do it with an escrow company, there will be some transaction that has to be done OUTSIDE of the escrow company. That small transaction is all they're after. SOme fee to send documents or to expedite the shipping, etc. Just quizzed one of these guys a couple weeks ago. The car had been for sale something like 20 times in the past 3 years..every ad using the same pictures, Carfax or one of the others showing the car was last registered in Georgia, but the car is weirdly packed and ready for storage (so can't be seen) in Michigan while the owner is in Sweden...with a price of $25 on a mid mileage creampuff TT coupe. If he is that willing to take a bath on it, why couldn't he sell it himself before he moved back to Sweden. I even had a Swedish buddy write a note to the guy in his "native tongue" asking some questions about Sweden that went unanswered...but there were some very simple, very easy to translate from Google replies. Then I switched back to English and said "look, I'm too bored to keep this up, I'm just trying to figure out your scam, if you are going to charge me some charge outside of the escrow service or if you want to word a contract so loosely that when you ship me a 1976 Fiat instead of a 2001 996 TT I still have to pay for it. He said I was crazy and owed him an apology, lol.

Exactly, just like the boat for sale that is worth 60k and is being sold for 25k. But the seller had to ship out to Iraq so they can't show it ect etc etc. Same type of scam.

I say it is a scam. I had a similar offer for a gtr that was too good to be true. Seller says he is in germany and the car will be shipped in a container... very similar to yours... don't bite and move on.

Here's all you really need to know:

Or offered at 75 percent of value. A serious seller is always going to be availanle to show car.

Interesting. Yeah, I saw the eBay listing.

I e-mailed the seller and he said that it is in Rochester, NY and that he works for Suncor and has been relocated to Canada.

I also noticed that the autobytel link that he sent me is for autobytel-online.online and not autobytel.com. I wonder what the actual owner of the car would think, much like this seller:

https://www.southbendtribune.com/new...a5d1e174b.html

A few years back a similar deal popped up on CL red turbro and the prospective buyer was asking if some RLer could take a look at it. It was in my town so I volunteered. He gave me the address. Sketchy part of town mostly junk yards and small machine shop type business. Drove to location...empty lot. No car! Run...do not walk away. Told the buyer and he squeezed the "seller" for more info and communication went cold. I believe he reported it to CL.

Yeah, the location indicated on the CL map is not the greatest part of Chicago, to say the least, and looks *nothing* like the area depicted in the photos.