Is this a scam or is this legit?

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Soldato
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Australia
I was looking at cars and i came across one i liked, (not the bmw i had in another thread) so i emailed the owner and asked about it and i got this as i reply.

Hello there,

Thank you for your interest in my car.I have use to live in Noosaville QLD but my wife was recently promoted so we had to move in Ireland.We brought the car with us, wanting to register it here, but I couldn't because it is a AU vehicle and to get it registered here it will need serious engine modifications in order to comply with the EU emission standards. So that is why I prefer to sell it quick now and get rid of it while I still can, because here i can't get any money for it,and I prefer to make some money while I still can. Also I haven't paid yet the duties for bringing it here and if I sell it back to AU there will be no more duties to be paid.So,i hope that you have understand why such a low price for it.The car is in perfect condition,like new,completely working, no scratches, no dents, never been abused,always well taken care of,low Kms,the car was properly serviced and stored, has a clear title and it can be registred into your name at any time, all the additional documents needed for registration ( servicing history, original invoice, inssurance, registration, manual) keys and accesories are available and you will receive them along with the car.The shipping costs and the insurance taxes of the package will be down to me and you will pay the fees for transferring the money (about 4% of the total amount).If you are really interested to buy the car (the total price is AUD 8000 ,this price includes shipping and insurance for shipping).This is a large purchase and I would like to use a third party for this transaction as I want a smooth and safe transaction. We will use Escrow.com, I have completed a lot of successful deals using them. I have a purchase protection account of $10,000 with them. If this is your first time using Escrow here are their terms: if you will not receive the car exactly as advertised or you won't receive it in 4 days since you made the deposit,Escrow will refund you from my Escrow account.
If you agree with these terms, please send me your full name, home and
shipping address so I can register the transaction with Escrow asap.

Thank you and have a nice day!
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Then i replyed back to with this.................

Thanks for your quick reply.
Would it be possible to get some pictures of the car before we do any transaction?
I might have to wait a few weeks to see if i can get the money for it.
Ive had some problems with people using escrow componys before so im a bit weary of them but ive heard escrow.com is the safest, but can you please tell me how they work?
I might be arange to have someone look at the car in ireland if that is at all possible? would you allow that? I will have to find out from the person if they can check it for me though.
Thanks,

And he replyed with this

Hello
First thank you for your reply.I have attached some pictures in this e-mail.The car is allready at the shipping company ready to be shipped.I am requesting a $3000 refundable deposit prior shipping and the balance to be paid after delivery and inspection. If you are not 100% content with the car,you will ship it back on my expense to get your deposit back. I am sure this will not happen, because it is a state of the art vehicle and you will have no reason not to be content with it.Please send me your full name, home and shipping address so I can register the transaction with Escrow asap.

Thank you and have a nice day!
Click to expand...


Now does this seem legit to you or does it look like a scam?
Escrow.com is supposed to be ok to use i think but ive never used it before but i know about the risks of some escrows.
What do you think? Would it be safe? :confused:
 
[TW]Fox said:
If this scam was any more blatant it would have 'This is a scam' as the title.

Come on, use a bit of common sense :p
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I thought so :)
I didnt think scammers would use escrow.com though :confused:
 
Ebay recommend Escrow. Maybe he's attempting a scam, but AFAIK know escrow aren't particularly scammable.
 
Zefan said:
Ebay recommend Escrow. Maybe he's attempting a scam, but AFAIK know escrow aren't particularly scammable.
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Thats what confusses me :confused:
Ive ask for him to post pictures of the documentation and the keys :D
Now lets see what he does
 
Ok so you don't believe us. Well here are a list of reasons why it's blatantly a scam:

a) Poor English from seller.
b) So he went to the huge amount of hassle and trouble of exporting a car to Ireland only to find after it arrived that he couldn't register it and would have to send it back? Yea, right.
c) What is the car anyway? You've continually told us how much you hate Australian cars so it's obviously a BMW or some other European car. Sooo how many European cars do not meet EU Emissions regulations without serious engine modifications then?
d) It has 'low km'. Why can't he tell you exactly what low km is?

Do you REALLY need any more reasons why this is blatantly a scam?
 
Still doesn't explain how he's going to get around Escrow's sercure transaction methods.
 
Any pictures you ask for should be accompanied in the same shot by a copy of his local paper that day I recommend.

Sounds like a scam just from the english and I just skimmed whatever crap he is spewing.
Ive never used escrow except as an option on my ebay sales before, tell him to setup an ebay sale and see what he says, then ask ebay via email or telephone.

How is he suggesting the deposit be paid
 
[TW]Fox said:
Ok so you don't believe us. Well here are a list of reasons why it's blatantly a scam:

a) Poor English from seller.
b) So he went to the huge amount of hassle and trouble of exporting a car to Ireland only to find after it arrived that he couldn't register it and would have to send it back? Yea, right.
c) What is the car anyway? You've continually told us how much you hate Australian cars so it's obviously a BMW or some other European car. Sooo how many European cars do not meet EU Emissions regulations without serious engine modifications then?
d) It has 'low km'. Why can't he tell you exactly what low km is?

Do you REALLY need any more reasons why this is blatantly a scam?
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Its a scoob not a bmw.
Its done 126000kms
I do believe you it just as zefan said about why he would use escrow.com
 
geiger said:
How is he suggesting the deposit be paid
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Those are the only 2 emails hes sent me so far, ill see what he says if he replys back to the last email i sent him asking to post the documention amongst other stuff.
 
Thats like when someone says why would I lie, doesnt mean they arent you just dont know why yet :p

Subaru are sold here so that doesnt make sense, they are imported from Japan also which is most likely where this car originally would have come from anyway ?

Ask an import company to handle the sale for you like they would if it were an auction sale
 
Probably becuase he plans only on nicking the deposit, and you won't ever get as far as paying the balance via Escrow.

If its a Scoob we know it's BS as every day people import various STi Impreza's without emissions problems.
 
I just went serching through other car sites to see if i can find the photos for the scoob i enquired about and sure enough i found them on a car which is being sold for $25k :o
Still dont know why a scammer would use escrow.com though :confused:
 
You can scam escrow, although I don't know how, because there has been a lot of it in the past. And the reason a scammer would use it is because people think it can't be scammed, and therefore must be legit.

Edit: a quick Google for "escrow + scam" turned up this, plus plenty of similar things.

As for the scoob, the only reason it would fail an emissions test is if it had been decatted - which is easy to fix.


M
 
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these scams are quite common. i think there was one on these boards about a month ago involving a BMW, and australia aswell.
 
Zuma said:
these scams are quite common. i think there was one on these boards about a month ago involving a BMW, and australia aswell.
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That was me asking about it :)
.You have a good memory :D
 
Was someone from ireland selling a BMW M3 with orange paint on the inside, the photos had been taken in the US and several people including myself had seen the car months before on other US based forums.
 
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