Classic cars as phish bait?

[ben_979]

I've been looking for a project car, and I've discovered some 'interesting' ads, some of them are Mustangs. It looks like they are good cars, but the price seems a little to good to be true (not by much though). I contacted one (using an alias email I have set up) and got an odd(ish) reply. I then found several other ads (3 or 4) all over the country (Canada) for similar cars (one 66 hardtop, one 69 Mach1, etc) that have the same seller info. More interesting, the area code is from the north east US, yet the one email I got in reply claims they are on the other side of the continent. I'm going to pursue this a little to see what happens. I'm fully expecting "put $1K on your credit card and I'll hold it for you" type of scam. Has anyone noticed anything like this before?

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[JDraper]

Yep..common scam out there. It's definitely buyer beware and if possible physically check out the car or have someone you know in the area at least eyeball the car before putting down one cent.

[SJs 66coupe]

to me it's a damned if you do and damned if you don't sort of thing. I prefer to sell things locally to avoid shipping, etc.

But these days if I go to meet with someone I don't know I always take a pistol with me and have gotten to where I prefer something like E-bay to never have to meet someone in person. I've never had a problem when meeting up with people via Craigs list, etc but I've heard enough stories to be very careful.

I have been ripped off before on E-bay along with many others.

There are so many scams out there now I can't even keep track of them all anymore.

The general rules I try to follow though are never buy a car without seeing it in person first and if something sounds "off" or "fishy" then just walk away.

[ben_979]

I agree totally, and I'm not about to send a dime to anyone that I can't seem to trust. They aren't going to be able to scam me, so the most they will get from me is a throw-away email address.

[andrewmp6]

Some people are hurting for money but a 50k car for 10k or less is a scam.

[69FB]

Or hiding more rust than you ever want to contend with.

[ben_979]

I made a request to the seller to get the VIN number. I thought that this is where the conversation would end, but to my surprise, they provided me with one. Now, the question is what do I do with it? :-) Is there a Mustang Registry or a publicly searchable database I can look it up in?

[andrewmp6]

http://www.mustangdecoder.com/ will tell you what it is as far as who owns it no.Only Registry i know of is for Shelby's but your local dmv can run the vin for a price.

[gwb16]

Originally Posted by ben_979

More interesting, the area code is from the north east US, yet the one email I got in reply claims they are on the other side of the continent.

Just to throw this out here for you...it is "possible" that the number is a cell phone and if that's the case he could have an area code that doesn't jive with his actual mailing address (location). We have a very heavy military presence in southeastern VA and I've noticed on Craigslist, as an example, that there are a lot of items for sale with phone numbers with area codes from other states. Have even dealt with a few of them. With success.

I agree with you though, err on the side of caution and as someone has already suggested SEE IT IN PERSON!!!

Good luck in your search. Can be aggravating, but the "hunt" is half of the fun!

It's a lot easier to get over a $100 mistake than a $10000 mistake!

[ben_979]

Thanks for that link andrew. At least now I know that the VIN matches the type of car that was in the ad! And that's a good point about cell numbers too, I hadn't considered that.

It still smells fishy to me, though. Proceeding with skepticism and caution.