Cheap Salvage Exotics ??? Is this a scam?

[Wrecked944]

I keep seeing a website called www.autosource.ws on the yahoo auctions selling salvage exotics for prices way too good to be true...has anyone dealt with them? I feel like a sucker just for asking the question...but they seem to be listed on a lot of "internet vehicle sales" directories, so I figured I'd ask...

[carnut169]

Janus- what is it they say... If something seems to good to be true, it probably is...

It seems perfectly normal for vehicles that are part of insurance claims to be sold for 1/2 to 1/3 the book value- they might be wrecked, flooded, branded, etc. Dealers and other retail customers will not let you buy the cars for less than they are worth because they will pay more! If you heard about an 86 911 for $5000 would you buy it? Me too! So I offer $5100, you offer $5200 and so on until a fair market value is reached. No one will just give away cars. My .02.

[Wrecked944]

Actually, I got my 911 for a rediculously low price because it was trashed...I definitely paid way below market value - even considering the car's condition...but I have always assumed it was a "once in a lifetime" stroke of luck...like my 911 was *destined* to find my driveway so I could fix her up and make her shine...so I am perhaps a bit more gullible than most because it has actually happened in my life...but while I am open to the *idea* of buying salvage again, I won't buy again from a seller without references. I got away with it once and got a gem...but I'm not expecting lightning to strike twice...so I figured I'd ask to see if anyone had actually had personal experience with these AutoSource guys...like I said, I feel embarrased to even ask...but then again, there is that shiny yellow 911 in my driveway...

[boyo]

I'd be surprised if they even had a car for sale. Some important things to note:

1. Their "example pictures" link from the main page doesn't work

2. I finally found some example cars, 3 of 4 were damaged in fresh water floods. I know 2 people whose cars were in fresh water floods, and neither were totalled out by the insurance co.

3. There is no contact phone number

4. The mail address is a PO box

5. The website ends in ".ws" which is the Internet country code for Samoa


Or maybe I'm just overly biased? Still, it's only $10 - if it's not a lot to lose pay by money order and see what happens eh?


My wife once paid $70 for one of those "repossessed real estate" directories. I think we got a book, and we actually never even looked at it much because all the properties were out of state.

Still, a couple years later we got a check for $70 back from a legal firm who had just settled a class action suit with the company. Aparently it was a scam deal, they made their money off the book and didn't actually deal in real estate.

So who knows, you may get your $10 back eventually anyway...

-Boyo

[widebody911]

I find the offshore-domain thing a bit sketchy.

I did find a phone #

918.632.6970

MAIL

POB 472311, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 74147-2311

EMAIL

Mail@AutoSource-online.com

Whois shows the registrant of autosource.ws as A WHITE; autosource-online.com is
Autosource (AUTOSOURCE-ONLINE-DOM)
POB 472311
Tulsa, OK 74147
US

Domain Name: AUTOSOURCE-ONLINE.COM

Administrative Contact, Billing Contact:
WHITE, A (AW8508) redmidyear@AOL.COM
Autosource
POB 472311
Tulsa, OK 74147-2311
918-632-6970 (FAX) 520-441-5342


I don't think I'd go near them with a 10-foot pole.

[Jim T]

How you can always tell a SCAM when you are looking at something like that:

1. They will have a fancy web page, documents, presentation, etc. etc. etc.

2. They will always tell you how great they are, and go through some long explanation of their process, service, etc. to try to get you comfortable.

BUT, they key to all of them:

At some point, you will be asked to send money, and it will ALWAYS be before you have received anything of value.

When you see that in the end, the money is out of your pocket and you have not received anything (other than a promise of something), its probably a scam.

[john70t]

If you want to find out more on their company, go to www.allwhois.com and find out where they are registered from. Could be a fake address and the mail is intercepted though.

[Wrecked944]

Man, you guys are good. All I was able to do was stick their name into Google and get some web page hits. You guys found their address, phone, etc. And since no-one on this board has dealt with them personally, they'll have to get by without my $10. Boo hoo. Too bad for AutoSource. Clearly, I went to the right BBS with my question.

Thanks !!

[nostatic]

Originally posted by boyo


5. The website ends in ".ws" which is the Internet country code for Samoa

This isn't really an issue. During the dot.com boom, most of the obvious .com addresses were snapped up. In order to expand the marketplace and offer some opportunities for companies to differentiate themselves, the suffixes of other countries were offered by most of the major domain registrants.

.ws is supposed to stand for "website", and companies that were shut out of their nameofchoice.com sometimes went for nameofchoice.ws. With the new "official" top level domains of .biz, .info, etc, there are a new set of acceptable suffixes. But the fact that someone is using a .ws address (or one from another country) doesn't mean they are necessarily flakey. For instance, one of my domain names is nostatic.fm (.fm is federated states of Micronesia). nostatic.com, .net, and .org were taken, and I wanted an audio-related name with some meaning to me ("no static at all....fm....").

But then again if you consider me a flake, then perhaps the above reasoning falls short


btw, you can find non-broken links at http://autosource-online.com/