jusplainwacky

http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-cou...25k?source=rss

That would suck.

1snake

Obviously the victim didn't do his homework.

tuxnharley

Maybe wonder about the price being "too good to be true"?

Maybe run the VIN before making the purchase?

Sounds like at least he may have a chance of getting his money back from what the LEOs recovered............

Frankie the Fink

I doubt the hapless buyer will ever see a dime of his money back.
The good news is that the car's real owner got it back...

jusplainwacky

I think the first thing I would ask is..."Do you have the pink slip"?
But if you read the article, sounds like this guy was quite the thief...so wouldn't surprise me if he even had the pink slip. Can you imagine losing 25K?

GTOguy

Just read the story. Scammer is a total dirtbag and needs to go swimming with a cracked GMC 305 V6 block chained to his ankles. No cure for a parasite.

C2Racer

Same thing happened to me on Ebay with a motorcycle I bought. I found a name etched in the skirt of a piston and followed up with a marque specialist and he knew the guy......very long story short I got my money back from Ebay and the bike had been reported stolen but the Atlanta police didn't enter it into the national data base(can't remember the name now) to keep the cities record of stolen things down. Bad people everywhere and you can't always depend on even the supposed good guys. The original owner got his bike back and never thanked me either. Not a good experience and wasn't a great deal to begin with.

Steve

ptjsk

AZZ Hat criminals!

But seriously, if it seems to good to be true......

I wonder if they found a red hardtop to a '62 Corvette!!!

Frankie the Fink

It wasn't too long ago (2 years ?) where some forum member was all pumped about buying a project '65 for $8,700 here in Florida. Total scam. The fella had wired the money forward and found out 1/2 way on his ride down here he go ripped off.

That same 'deal' had appeared on a bunch of websites all over the place with the car supposedly in several different states. You have to avoid Corvette fever and have your head on straight when you are tossing around 10s of 1000s of bucks for classic cars. A fool and his money are soon parted....

Mr D.

1) Craigslist
2) 1964 Corvette
3)$25k

Which one of the above clues did the buyer miss.

grumpy10956

how do you run the vin ???

tuxnharley

1. Tell your insurance agent you are considering buying it and ask him to have it run for you.
2. Google it, see what comes up.
3. Ask your local PD to run it for you.
4. LAST RESORT - go to the DMV ask them to check it.

jusplainwacky

I had 2 jet-skis and 2 trailers...and on my way home from work I would see this tandem trailer sitting at this gas station. After a couple of month, I decided to pop-in and ask them if they wanted to sell it.

The owner of the station said, "Take it...it's yours"! He said someone dropped it off and it's been sitting there ever since. He said, I think it's new, but looks like it's been hit. So, I took the vin number to the DMV and they said it was "clear"...so I picked it up and with a bent axle, and not tracking 100%, I hauled it home.

The DMV said they could issue me a pink slip but if it is ever reported stolen, missing or whatever, I'd have to relinquish it. I straighten out the axle...moved my jet skis onto it and I have it to this day....been 15 years now. Go figure.

I was told that it was probably new...and company was probably hauling it to a dealer and ran into something....and that it would have cost more to haul it back and repair it than it was worth. Who knows

C2Racer

Here is where I check VIN's:

https://www.nicb.org/theft_and_fraud...n=30837S115163

Police may be better?

Steve

Frankie the Fink

Police are definitely better -- that site's data is based on 'cooperating' insurance companies' information....its prob spotty. It'll help if you get a 'hit' and find out a car is misrepresented but if you get nothing there's still a doubt

vettebuyer6369

Moving this story to the top in case people are having trouble finding the active one. The other 2 were closed.

jusplainwacky

What were the other 2 and why were they closed?

vettebuyer6369

Because we dont need 3 active threads on the same subject. We routinely close duplicate threads here. Sometimes when a story like this gets in the news, members just start threads and dont realize others are starting them as well.

jusplainwacky

Ahhh......got it!

Thanks for explaining it to me.

pltmgr

I read somewhere that Craigslist posts 80 million ads a month and only employs 28 people. Let the buyers beware. Having said that I have bought a ton of stuff, vehicles included, on Craigslist and never had any problems.