ok i was just looking arouud at WRX's online and i found this WRX STi 2004 with 10,800 miles on it for 10k!!so i talked to the owner and this is the email he send me....


Hello again,

The car is located in Edison,New Jersey. I recently moved with my family and now we are in Birmingham,United Kingdom. Since I lost my job and I didn't found one here yet,I have to sell this car as soon as possible and due to the fact that this car is an US model the price to register it here is very high,also the shipping to this place, so I've decided to sell it in US at a price that will find a buyer in a few days .

I have the car locked up in my garage in US.As I've said the car is in perfect mechanical and esthetical condition.I know that 10000 is a big amount so,to get this started I need a deposit of 5000 usd for the car.As soon as the deposit checks out I will take a plane to US and take care of things.

I think that the most important thing when we make a deal over the internet,is to have both of us 100% protection in case of fraud or anything else.That's the reason why I used a big,reputable and trustable company,Square Trade,in all my deals until now.

I am a Square Trade member and I want to make the deal thru them.They will act like a THIRD PARTY and we will be both 100% protected.The money will be HELD by them into their escrow account and I will give you a few days to test the car and to see that nothing is wrong with it.I made few deals on eBay and Yahoo in this way and it worked very well.

Here are the steps of the deal :

1.The Seller will open the transaction --> 2.The buyer has to make the payment to Square Trade Financial Department and they will deposit the money into their escrow account --> 3.The Seller will receive the confirmation that the payment is done --> 4.The seller will ship the item to the buyer and he has 5 days to test check it -->5.The buyer will contact Square Trade to tell them if he is satisfied or not --> 6.Square Trade will release the money to the seller(in case the buyer is satisfied) and to the buyer(in case that he is not satisfied).

In case you have any question about how this service work,please ask me and I will be more than happy to give you all the details.So,please wrote this email twice and let me know.I hope you agree with me,because I think that it is the best way to protect both(seller and buyer).

If so,please provide me your full name and shipping address so i can contact Square Trade and start the transaction.

Just email me back and let me know







So do you guys think this guy is for real?

Sounds fishy, but I don't know how it could be a scam if you're using an escrow service? :confused:

I'd let some other sucker be a victim of the fraud. If it sounds too good to be true....you know what it is.

This thing is a fraud!

Definitely!!

I saw the same thing here in regards to a 350Z. He was selling it for 9000AUD when the rrp is 60K. Same bullshit about Square Trade etc. Square Trade is the biggest load of crap in the first place. But back to the point, the seller made the same statements about registering the vehicle in his new country would cost heaps etc etc.

My friend went through the same thing when buying a laptop, same square trade will protect your money bullshit. He went for it and lost his 2K.

Who the hell asks for a 5K deposit for a 10K transaction? That is not sound business practice. At most you would expect a deposit to cover your flight and other travel costs. 5K deposit means he will get the money and you'll never heard from him again.

I'd report this to the FBI...or whoever takes care of internet fraud where you're from.

BTW, is that the letter he sent to you verbatim? Because anyone you have a business relationship with who can't write in correct spelling and grammar is dodgy as hell.

You should be really worried when someone gets so much into this "fraud" and "protection" and so forth in the e-mail. It's like he's telling you that he's gonna scam you!

Just ask him a few technical questions about the STI. I bet he knows nothing about it because he doesn't own the car.

Sounds fishy, but I don't know how it could be a scam if you're using an escrow service? :confused:

escrow scams are common now Jason, they're one of the easiest to pull off because so many people think escrow is totally secure.

Total freaking scam. Checkout this link to ebay about the scam.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start=1&q=http://answercenter.ebay.com/thread.jsp%3Fforum%3D10%26thread%3D100046291&e=9707

Scams like that are common in Auto Trader ads now also.

just reading that you can tell it's a scam. how many people dy you know would need to fly bacy to the U.S. to "take care of things" when they are using a third party to conduct buisness? the third party buisness will handle all prospects of a sale like that.

definitely a scam. i almost got scammed the exact same way. except it was on yahoo auto and he said the car was in budapest. it was a silver sti for 7k. the easiest way to figure out if it is a scam is to ask to meet them somewhere. just be like " oh you are in london? well my family is going on a trip there next week , would you like to meet and talk about it" chances are that he either wont respond, he will make up some reason for not meeting you, or he will try to reassure you that this is "a safe and secure transaction"