In my search for my first Ferrari, I came across this... 2003 Ferrari 360 Spider Convertible F1 - Classified Ad For the fun of it, I emailed the "seller"... This was the response.. "Hello, PICS ATTACHED ! VIN : ZFFYT53A030134427 Due to the high volume of internet scams, i will send the car to your home address COD ( CASH ON DELIVERY ) so in this way this will be a safe transaction for both of us. As you probably noticed, the price is rather low, the reason I selling the car at this price is because i have to pay 18000 usd for registration here in Portugal. The car is here in my garage in Portugal. I can drive the car here, the insurance is still available until next month. When insurance expire, i can't drive it, so i have to register the car here. I can't spend 18000 usd for registration so i have to sell it. Now, I can't come to USA to sell the car because I'll spend money and lose more time, my only chance to sell this car is to find a buyer in the U.S. or another country. I can send the car to your home, transport will take approximately 10 working days, after you receive the car you will have another two days to inspect it. When the inspection period ends, the transport company will contact you and if there are any issues with the car. If all is good, I'm sure it will be, you will be able to transfer your name in the title to your local DMV. I give you the chance to receive the car at your home address BEFORE i receive my money for it. PLEASE SEND ME YOUR PHONE NUMBER AND WE WILL TALK ALL DETAILS. Thanks Does anyone know this car ? It took a few emails to get the VIN from him.
I'm sure there will be some type of deposit or fee that he wants. Or he'll give you a phone number which bills (think 1-900 numbers). Isn't the VIN a US VIN?
This has scam written all over it... also, found one of the pics here: 2003 Ferrari 360 - Exterior Pictures - CarGurus
I has similar situation on a 512TR last year. The email wording was very close to yours. I asked him to call me and he did, he asked for good faith deposit enough to cover the transport fees of $5,000 and wanted me to paypal it or wire was just fine. I told him, send me a copy of the title so I can have my mother who works at DMV verify it. He said he will email it and that was the end. Never heard from him again.
Do they really catch some people stupid enough to fall in these traps? How can someone believe a story like this? It's been running for years now.
Scam, scam, scam. 100% sure of it. They are everywhere. eBay and Craigslist. That might actually be someone's legit ad with real pics that this guy highjacked unbeknownst to the real seller. It happened to me when selling my 355 on eBay. I would speak with him just to give him a piece of my mind. But not worth the aggravation.
Steve, that's why I posted this here. I was hoping the cars owner would see the VIN . The ad is in Long Island...
Claude, Not by direct personal experience, but I can attest it works…we did share the “live” history of such a fraud on a french Ferraristi forum. About two years ago, one member among those active on that forum sold a really pristine 512TR, by using an add site on the net (not the said forum site); the car sold well an fast, without any problem. A few months later, one or two adds, very well written, convincing, very professional and very well thought – no contradiction whatsoever - appeared for another TR, sold at about 2/3 of the market price (which rang a bell among those in the know), and with pictures which were the exact ones that our friend took of his car and used to sold it, so a pristine car. Some of us reacted quickly, signaling the add as a fraud; one of the add site is very well from everybody, and they did indeed react quickly. But not quick enough… To cut a long story short, some naïve dreamer, probably thinking that he was poised to make the best deal of his life, has contacted the “seller”, wasn’t rationale enough to think “a pristine TR at 2/3 market price is too good to be true”, had a deposit of about 20.000 euros wired to cover the sale, made a 450 miles trip by car to take delivery of the car, to the address given, which was the address of the real – first - seller’s family, only to find some astonished members of the family who told him that the car was not there anymore, as it has been sold six months before…the 20.000 euros were lost for good (well, not lost for everybody). The fraud was again tried with the same text and pictures some months later… As we say in french "a pigeon wakes up each and every morning" ("un pigeon se lève chaque matin", "pigeon" being someone ready to make the bad deal, meaning "one is enough, the trick is to catch that one") Rgds
I contacted him also. He wants you to put money in escrow. A company I never heard of. I asked him for recent service papers which will have vin on it, so I can call service company to verify. I also asked him to give me address of car so someone could come and see car. Never responded back to me. Total scam!!!!
Ah! Didn't notice it's a Long Island listing. Guaranteed it's a highjacked eBay auction. I see there is a 212 number listed which is Manhattan. Has anyone called? Very tempted.
I gotta tell you that when I was looking for my 575M last year, I came across an Ad on eBay that was almost identically worded to that, verbatim. When I tried to contact the seller and say that I wanted someone I know locally to check out the car first, the response was that he was traveling in Europe and no one else has access to the car, but at the same time the auction was ending before his return. So its definitely a scam.
Last year my cousin was minutes away from sending a "deposit" on a Airstream trailer he saw on CL. Typical,story, in the military, couldn't keep it, but the Army would ship it to my cousin from MD to CA (yea right). He bought it hook line and sinker, just happened to call me because he know I bought a lot of stuff over he internet. I told him, no,no,no. He was hesitant, did some more diligence on his own and realized he was going to be hosed. Called and thanked me. My cousin is a high powered attorney in Socal, , has an MBA-they get to more folks than I think we realize.
I can't make this up, a former Service Manager that I had employed feel for a scam like this. It was for an old '68 Camaro or something. HE SENT THE MONEY. $8000. WTF? Sight unseen, deal very awesome. He was shocked that someone could rip him off. I ended up firing him a few months later. He was an idiot. 1. I would never tell people I fell for a scam like that and 2. I would never fall for a scam like that!
