John A F

Hi, new member here. I am in the market to buy my first corvette, and have found what seems to be a very good deal on a 1969 coupe 350/350 4speed asking $9800. From the the pictures and description the car appears to be in very good condition. However the car is in Nevada and I live in New York. Here is a copy of the email the seller sent me to complete the deal.

Hello again,

The car is located in Reno, NV sealed and ready for the shipping.

Shipping will be done via DAS and it will take no more then 2-3 days top

(depending on your exact location).

I have a contract with Yahoo Finance so this deal must go through them.

I'm very busy with my job and I'm left out of the town so I can't meet

in person with you so this is the reason why I chose to sell my car over

the internet. According to Yahoo Finance you have 5 days from the time

you receive the car to inspect it and decide if you want to keep it or

not.

Here is how it will work:

1.First of all I will need the following details from you:

- Full Name

- Full Shipping Address

- Working Phone#

2. After I will receive the details from you, I will forward them to

Yahoo Finance .

3. After they will process your info, they will send us both invoices.

The invoice will send you the details on how to make a refundable

payment.

4. You will send the payment to Yahoo Finance . They will hold in trust

the funds and advise me to ship to your address.

5. Yahoo Finance will contact me and I will ship the car to you. After

you receive the car you will have 5 days to test, verify and do whatever

you need to the car. If you will buy, then I will receive the payment

details from Yahoo Finance so that I can pick up the money.

6. If you will decide that you will not buy the car, =2 0 Yahoo Finance

will refund the money and I will have the shipping company come pick up

my car. If you wish to make the transaction, please send me the

necessary info so that we can proceed.

I look forward to hear from you.

Thank you,

I have never purchased a car through the internet before. Is this how it is done? Googling "Yahoo finance" does not bring up any info on an escrow service through Yahoo. What other questions I should ask the seller. I would appreciate any info you members could provide. If I posted this in the wrong forum, please accept my apologies.

Thankyou

John A F

Silent One

Run as fast and as far away from this "deal" as you can.

Dave J

Email the seller back and tell him you just found out your brother in law will be in Reno this week for business. "Bruno" would be more than glad to inspect the car, you just need the address.

You probably will never here another word from the seller.........

magelin

scam

vetteaddict1

Run forest run!!!!

longbros

I have both bought and sold Corvettes over the internet and all these guys are right!!! Scam, run away from this one and don't look back.

Drbluevert

I thought by now everyone would have seen the bold warnings that free shipping is a scam!

The scam is a 3 part scam. They are looking for legit names and addresses. A sucker is given another suckers name & address and that is your "Escrow person." When you send them your moneygram (to sucker #2) you have to email them and tell them the tracking numbers. Then they can call UPS and with the tracking # they change the delivery point. In the end, all you have is some other poor sucker's information and he/she had never received your check! There is no system in place to stop a moneygram (.)
Hundreds of service men and women where taken over this type of scam two years ago when Craig's List started to become well known. I have been volunteering time with others, working with a JAG office in Fort Dix and a Texas Ranger division where all of us are continuously working to bring the scammers to justice.

jimo

dont buy a car unless you have inspected it or someone you trust has.

joewill

never, ever buy a car sight unseen and without checking out the title.. even a trip across country for a few hundred bucks is worth the peace of mind... factor the cost into your final negotiated price.. ask all your questions up front and if any answers sound fishy.. then tell the seller so and walk away.

legit sellers will be anxious to work with you regarding details and pics... especially if they expect to get top dollar....

John A F

Thank you all for your responses. I think the clincher that it was a scam was after I plodded through Yahoo I found a statement that Yahoo does not offer a escrow service. I guess a Primo 1969 Corvette for $9800 proves the adage that if something is too good to be true, it probably is. The car was listed on Auto Trader Classics.com with the sellers address in New York, which is where I thought the car was located. I told the seller that, and that I couldn't buy a car without checking it out first, and that I was no longer going to go through with the deal. I haven't heard anything back. A quick check back at Auto Trader Classics shows the car is no longer listed.

Again thank you for your input. You guys are the best.

Ihada69

hang around here for a bit, eventually a doable deal from a longtime well known memeber will pop up, just be ready to hit the road asap, I'd been here reading for sale ads for 2 years before I hit my jack pot.

Drbluevert

these ads never ever provide any phone numbers! The ads are run on opposite sides of the country from where the ad is placed - example: see the ad in Philadelphia's Craig's List but the car is in Nevada.

Anybody can walk up to any car and see the VIN and use it in a scam ad giving the hype of some clean Carfax Report.

I have seen the BS about how this car was was ready to be shipped, but the buyer backed out. You can save the shipping cost because the guy who backed out already paid for shipping and it's sitting on a trailer at the transporters.

Divorce sales, In the service, Being deployed, I'm in UK, son, mother, sister, sombody's dieing or needs transplant, IRS and spitefull break-ups are some of the reasons selling or you can't see the car, BUT you have this unbeatable Guarantee!

senorv47

SCAM

AllC34Me

I have bought two cars through the internet. The advice above is very sound. See the car before you close the deal. This one smells bad to me, so be very careful here. If you cannot see the car find someone in the area that can do it for you. Lots of forum members have offered to do this in the past, take your time and ask around here first. This one sounds like a scam.
David
77Sleeper

john roth

Learn from the mistakes of others ( yeah me ) and inspect, touch, feel and drive it before you even discuss money.

CoolShark

My daughter lives in Reno and I'm about 2 hrs away. Want me to check it out? I'm sure he will be constantly unavailable it you tell him that someone will be there to crawl under it.

wro87

The Deals are out there but watch well. My son and I flew to new mexico last month when he was home on leave from Iraq to pick up the car that he bought through ebay. After many emails and phone calls went with the deal. The guy was straightup on the phone met us at the the airport (New Mexico) took us to his house and after and hour of checking the car out said " hay guys you don't like it I will take you back to the airport so you will have time to catch a flight back to St. Louis". Well long story short drove it home ( 92' ZR1 black/red 50k miles) man all the way back home to Illinios on Rt.66. What a ride

There are ways to buy and this is not the first time we have had excellent results.

Good LUCK wro87

rajsid

This thread should have been titled 'Buying a Corvette from a scammer'

There are legitimate places that sells cars on the internet, but this is certainly not one of those places.

msandym

I live in NY , and I bought off Internet . Everything looked good , supposedly had "third party" check it out . I flew out , car was not so good , little things , but if it was in NY , I wouldn't have bought it . But I flew out there !! So i bought it , tach didn't work , interior lights didn't work , they didn't say anything , I found out driving back to NY . Within 200 miles , engine dropped a valve . Long story but I got it home , and fixed everything . I was to impatient , you will find something close enough to look at , thats the best thing . Some people have used forum members closer to car to check them out , at least do that if you really want the car .

John A F

Thanks for the offer, but I am not going to get involved with this car. I'll limit my search to the NY, CT, NJ area. There is going to be a car show in Danbury, CT. this weekend. Maybe there will be a nice Corvette there with my name in it. An auto body shop up the road has a C4 roadster for sale, I'll check that one out too.