Last week my mother was looking into buying an E39, car seemed to be in great shape, from a guy in TN. I asked her for all the information she had. I did a cached google search of the VIN and found the the car had been advertised at a dealership about 3 weeks prior to my mother finding the car from a private seller saying he was the original owner.

I called the sales manager at the MB dealer it was at (although no longer advertised) he assured me that the car had been sold about a week earlier, with much higher milage than it was being advertised for. I told my mom to play along, see what she could get out of the guy, but UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES send him money. turns out he would only accept western union, even sent her a phony ebay buyer protection thing.

She didnt send money, instead contacted the FBI.

these guys are:

1. Stealing ads of recently sold or currently for sale cars
2. Running a car fax to make sure the new registration hasnt shown up yet
3. Putting the stolen ad on craigslist, sometimes dropping mileage or number of owners (not below the amount on the carfax) to make more money.
4. Offering you ebay buyer protection and offering to take care of the shipping

so, just a reminder, DONT SEND MONEY TO ANYONE. Rule of thumb is, if you arent willing to lose the money forever, dont send money western union. luckily my mom has an awesome son

A lot of people are losing money. Don't be one of them!

https://5series.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=87557

 

Craig,

Thank you for the tips. I also came across a couple of "fishy" sale posts when I was looking for a M5. One guy even claims that he is a military officer on duty in Iraq

 

that is common. after doing a ton of research because of my moms situation, these scammers are using the cover of being in the military. there was someone that bought a car from someone in the "air force" and never got it. it was a scam.

This seems to be getting bigger right now, dont know if it is the economy. since we cant do IP traces and run around beating these people up, just be cautious.

 

You can trace their IP's via their emails, but the good ones somehow disable that. I dealt with one guy whom I did trace but he was in the middle of spain. When I was checkin out cars a few months ago I found an x5 that was being sold by some guy who says he was serving in the air force in england. He said he'll ship it via airforce cargo and if I didnt like it I could send it back no charge. I knew along so I just played with the idiot. I sadly could not trace him.