Selling my car - here's one of the responses I got - not Nigerian, but...
 

Is this a new twist to the Nigerian scam thing or has this stuff been around a while?

"Dear Porsche- Owner,

My name is Matthias, I am from Germany and I’m very interested in buying your accident free 911. A friend of mine ( his name is Martin) lives near to you and he is able to come to you in a fast way. I can pay 10000.-$ and I would be happy if you could accept my offer. Please don’t be angry if it is not enough, otherwise I am looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Best regards

Matthias"


I'd expect him to send me a check for more than $10K asking me to send him a check for the difference.

Actually older 911's are commanding ridiculous prices in Germany - so there are a number of Germans buying these abroad, tarting them up, and then reselling them.

For example I have seen nice 3.2 liter Carrera's sell for 40 to 50 thousand Euros in Germany recently.

When I lived in Switzerland, German would often leave their business cards under my windscreen wiper expressing an interest in my car.

So these guys may be trawling the US market now for cars. It wouldn't surprise me.

If someone shows up with $10,000 is cash OR a U.S. check and that's your selling price...walk him down to your bank and verify the check or that the cash isn't countfeit and if all is well, release the car. If other than that? I'd run.

better yet, have them meet you at the bank.

Read recently that even if it's a cashiers check and can be quickly verified or checked by your bank, it can still be bogus. Until the actual money transfer takes place (they said it still takes about a 7-10 business days) you can still be burned. That new law about 1 day check cash transfer is smoke and mirrors. All it does it put a hold on the cash, doesn't actually transfer it to your account.

I'm not a financial expert, so please don't go off on this, it's possible I read it wrong. I'd check with your bank about it before I released the car.

Best Regards, Don

Very true, Don

I sold a motorcycle a few years back, and it took almost a full week for the cashiers check to clear through Wells Fargo. (sold the bike to a friend, so i knew the check was good)

I believe the "float" period for domestic banks has been eliminated (bank that's being drawn doesn't need the paper check anymore to send money) but for international checks, one needs to be more careful.

Not everyone outside the US is a scammer, after all.

Wire transfer.

A friend had a paycheck bounce once. After that, he would go to the teller, and cash the check. Then he would get in his car, and go through the drive-up teller, and deposit the cash into his account. No way for the cash to bounce.

Oh yeah- After that, he started looking for a new job. One where the paychecks wouldn't bounce.

This only works if he check was cashed at the issuing bank and then the cash deposited in the guys account (assuming they are different banks). If cashed at the guys bank, the original check can still bounce and be charged against the guys account.

Where did this information come from? If I can get $20000 for my SC, your darn right I will ship it.......

ze germanz are just takin' yer Porsches while your dollar is weak.. zey pay you with ze proverbials peanutz :D

That's only fair enough. The original buyer of my 84 Carrera took advatage of the phenominal mid-80s exchange rate to buy the car factory-direct. He got a free German vacation and saved tons. I still have the sales paperwork.

lol.
:D

You would have to check the German car-mags like 'Motorklassik'. The prices for nice 911's are very high in Germany.

I sold my 87 Carrera a couple of years ago in Switzerland for 40K Swiss Francs. The buyer, a German, sold it two weeks later in Germany for 40K Euro. Go figure.

My '70 911T went back to Germany... guy had a rep here that does nothing but track down 911s and ship them off. The rep flew to Phoenix from LA with cash and drove it back to California where it was to be shipped. Matthias sounds familiar... wonder if it is the same guy.