Holy Sh*t...

[Kahulia]

So I was bored last night and I was looking at prices on Mini Coopers for my girlfriend on eBay while she was watching the Itialian Job. My mind wandered and I thought to myself, "Hmm, I wonder if anyone is selling Skylines right about now?" So I type in Nissan Skyline the in search bar and come up with a VERY interesting/scamtastic result. A REGISTERED "GARAGE KEPT" 2001 R34 GTR NISSAN SKYLINE (w/ approx. 18,000 miles on it) located in South Carolina for $5900. It's just about this time I say to myself, woops, some one missed a zero, but hell I'm bored, lets send him a condesending email asking if I can have it for $5900. This is what it said...

Hi,
I can only imagine your Ebay sale for the R34 Skyline in South Carolina has a typo and is not in fact at a Buy It Now price of $5900. However, if I am mistaken and this is the correct price PLEASE mail me back as soon as possible as I will most certainly purchase this vehicle and fly out to South Carolina and pick it up.

Hardy har har, I had a laugh, went to sleep and didn't think anything of it. I checked the auction this morning and much to my assumptions, it was deleted. Assuming that the guy just typed in the wrong price/car title/ forgot to mention it was an RC car, I went about my buisness...
However, when I arrived at home tonight and checked my e-mail, this little nugget was sitting in my inbox...

Hello,
Thank you for contacting me about my car.
The price is $5900 with all the shipping taxes included in the price.
The car is always garage kept and rarely used,cars is in showroom condition. The title is clear ,it is not a salvage one. I have legal document by which I can transfer the title to your name. The car is still US registered so you will not have to pay any custom taxes.It is also 100% street legal.
The car are located in London,England and I will ship it from here,I will support all the shipping fees.I am from US and the car is registered in US on my name and address, but now I am currently here because I have some business and right now I suffer some problems.
The delivery will take within 5 to 7 working days (with insurance and 30 days return policy).The service has frequent shared container services.
It will be insured at the delivery service.If something happens on the road , you will receive the insurance from the delivery service.As soon as the car arrives, you will test and if it does not matches 100% to your expectations, you will return it in max. 30 days since the arrival date. In this case I will pay the return shipping and insurance.
ALSO ABOUT PAYMENT AND SHIPPING I WILL USE ONLY EBAY SO WE CAN BOTH BE PROTECTED!
ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS TO EMAIL ME YOUR COMPLETE NAME AND ADDRESS FOR SHIPPING AND AFTER THAT EBAY WILL CONTACT YOU WITH MORE INFO REGARDING SHIPPING AND PAYMENT!
If you agree with my above terms, I'm sure that we can close the deal as soon as possible.I have reserved the item for you until we will have your final answer.
Thank you


Interesting... Very VERY interesting. I assume it's an attempted scam so I've sent him a response that goes a little like this...

Thanks for getting back to me. As this is a deal that seems too good to be true, I will ask you these questions in numeric fashion. To make the answers as clear as possible, please write your response next to the question so I can make sure that I completly understand what you are telling me.

1. Is this in fact, a street legal, R34 Skyline automobile (not an RC car or model)?

2. Is this R34 Skyline DOT approved to be driven on United States roads and highways?

3. If this R34 Skyline is in fact DOT approved, and shipped to this country from England, what vehicle importation fees will apply?

4. When you say "The price is $5900 with all the shipping taxes included in the price." does that mean that the shipping charges to Colorado are covered in the $5900 price?

5. Why are you selling this car for $5900?

In your response please include a telephone number that I can reach you if you are serious about selling this car for the afformentioned price. Please get back to me as soon as possible.


All in all, this post isn't important because it IS a scam, but it if it's not, who wants to go for a ride first?

'burnout:

[Weston]

Yeah, it's definately a scam. I've seen this same MO used several times, and they were all out of London even.

[M@]

Scam. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

[ChewiSi]

I wanna ride on your go-kart of a Skyline!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[computingfuture]

Hi. I am in the UK. Tell him you have a friend that wants to go and check it out. Find out all the info and set up a rendevous. We gunna have us a HAI beatdown UK style.

[dsm king]

SCAM! I got so many of these when I was trying to sell my Eclipse. They are all bullshit.

[Kwando]

i agree it's prob a scam

[Steve_C]

Hi. I am in the UK. Tell him you have a friend that wants to go and check it out. Find out all the info and set up a rendevous. We gunna have us a HAI beatdown UK style.Finally, you come in handy. Have a good old fashion football beatdown like the movie "Green Street Hooligans"

[Slow96GSR]

Maybe it's some guys wife that he cheated on and she got the car in the divorce and she really hates him and wants the car gone fast. But that’s probably not the case. You can hope though can’t you?!!

[rsnic]

yeah when i was looking for my evo i ran into a ton of these off cars.com for anything from a R32 v-dub for 12,000 to evo's for 10k they all say they are in england too.......

[Kahulia]

Hi. I am in the UK. Tell him you have a friend that wants to go and check it out. Find out all the info and set up a rendevous. We gunna have us a HAI beatdown UK style.

Awesome. I'll tell him and see what he thinks about that. Lets hope he agrees, and if he does, don't forget to bring along your baseball bat. Oi!

[HondaPower]

Watch computingfuture buy the car if it is indeed a Skyline LOL.

[hatrack]

the year should have given it away if i remember they have to be at least 15 yrs old before they come here

[computingfuture]

The listings been removed by ebay. There was another thread over here http://www.toowoombacarforum.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?p=41741 (http://www.toowoombacarforum.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?p=41741&sid=6a8d78c75414289a944beb831c1cc211)

[computingfuture]

Nice
>I'm affraid I can't provide you the VIN or engine number because the
>car is already crated with all the papers inside signed by me and
>ready to go at the shipping company.

[Slow96GSR]

I don't know about you all but when I sell a car I keep copies of all the paperwork just incase the buyer looses something or I need it for whatever reason. Then I wouldn't even let the car off my property until it's sold and I have the money. Not to mention if it's going to need to be shipped you would have to know where it's going before the shippers take it. This sounds like a poorly executed scam.

[J.Dub]

Is it real has he responped back yet if so what he say?

[Steve_C]

Is it real has he responped back yet if so what he say?
No this is not real. This is another typical wire transfer scam.

Here's the break down:

Someone lists car for sale for a really good price.

Seller states he is currently in another country (usually the UK or somewhere in Europe).

Seller states car is with him and taxes are too expensive to register in said country so he is willing to sell so cheaply and that said car is still registered in the US.

Seller will suggest a "escrow" company, or better yet, will tell you to send a down payment via Moneygram or Western Union.

Seller will take several approaches on why he's suggestion MG or WU, ie they are a secure company and will not release the funds until you (the buyer) says its okay :rofl:, that without the reference number (aka MTN number, transaction number, etc...) they cannot receive the money :rolleyes: which is wrong because if you can verify the senders info, either places will pay out the money, or they tell you to put it under a name of your choice so they can verify the funds are available, and you can change it to sellers name when you get your car/product "beat: .

Only problem is, the seller will have all your info, name, address, phone number, the amount being sent, city and state plus date it was sent, yada yada yada. So he can a) call into said company and get the name changed to his name. b) make a fake ID to match whatever name you put it under. or c) give the attendent a percentage of whatever the transaction amount is for, if they will pay out the transfer.

Majority of these "sellers" actually pick up the money in Nigeria, Romania, Eastern Europe, but once the money is picked up, your shit out of luck.

After a few months as a customer service rep at Moneygram, then a year and a half in their Complience/Fraud department, I've had more then enough experience with this type of scam.

[Kahulia]

The Scam Action continues...

Here's an e-mail I recieved today from our good friend in London.

It is 100% street legal in US because I am from the states and the car is registered on my name and address and it also DOT approved in the states.
The price is $5900 with all the shipping taxes included in the price and also to CO.
I am selling it because I need the money.
my phone is +(Removed)
Here are some pics.
thank you.

I figure if he actually gives me a phone number, I can at least give this shit bag a hard time. (If the number is actually functional). I then revisited this site to read the post saying that someone lives in England and would be down to giving this guy a beat down "HAI UK Style" so I sent him this...

I have a friend that lives in the UK and would like to come take a look at the car before I send you payment. Please tell me what days and times you're availible, and where he could meet up with you. I will be giving you a call sometime today or tomarrow.

We'll have to wait and see what happens.

Stay tuned!
'burnout:

[hatchbackgirl]

I've had something similar happen to me. I got an e-mail from eBay, and I knew better (after all, I've been a member for 6 years) I entered my info onto the stupid e-mail and a couple days later I couldn't access my account with my password. I had some auctions going, so I did a search to try and find them. Well, those were deleted! Someone listed the tractor, farm equipment, etc; under my name with the items being located in Denver. Well, he was in Europe, and I caught this before anything really bad happened.

JUST BE CAREFUL PEOPLE! You probably already know this, but always enter your password by typing in the url www.ebay.com. Even if it looks 100% legit, it might not be. These scammers are good!

[Kahulia]

Seller will suggest a "escrow" company, or better yet, will tell you to send a down payment via Moneygram or Western Union.

Seller will take several approaches on why he's suggestion MG or WU, ie they are a secure company and will not release the funds until you (the buyer) says its okay :rofl:, that without the reference number (aka MTN number, transaction number, etc...) they cannot receive the money :rolleyes: which is wrong because if you can verify the senders info, either places will pay out the money, or they tell you to put it under a name of your choice so they can verify the funds are available, and you can change it to sellers name when you get your car/product "beat: .

Only problem is, the seller will have all your info, name, address, phone number, the amount being sent, city and state plus date it was sent, yada yada yada. So he can a) call into said company and get the name changed to his name. b) make a fake ID to match whatever name you put it under. or c) give the attendent a percentage of whatever the transaction amount is for, if they will pay out the transfer.



Interesting thing about that is he will only use eBay to transfer funds. (Not sure if thats the same as an "escrow" service) eBay claims that there's at least SOME fraud protection. I wonder what they would do if I got jacked out of 6 grand trying to buy a nice, reliable, japanese car from europe thats registered in the US...

[Kahulia]

Here are some pictures he sent me...

http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8661/skyline12az.th.jpg (http://img362.imageshack.us/my.php?image=skyline12az.jpg)

http://img60.imageshack.us/img60/78/skyline27wa.th.jpg (http://img60.imageshack.us/my.php?image=skyline27wa.jpg)

http://img60.imageshack.us/img60/3577/skyline31ad.th.jpg (http://img60.imageshack.us/my.php?image=skyline31ad.jpg)

http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/208/skyline40tk.th.jpg (http://img362.imageshack.us/my.php?image=skyline40tk.jpg)

One day...

[Steve_C]

I wonder what they would do if I got jacked out of 6 grand trying to buy a nice, reliable, japanese car from europe thats registered in the US...ebay won't do jack shit. They will suggest you contact the FBI or your local law enforcement branch. They will even suggest that you contact Moneygram or Western Union because they will get the money you lost back. :rolleyes:

Again, they will suggest, but people will call expecting that it's owed to them.

[hatchbackgirl]

That's a nice Skyline, too bad it's not really for sale :(