Sketchy cars on Ebay

[Inniswhe]

I just noticed two 911's on ebay, no.320158631477 and no.300150280151 .

They are both showing the identical underside photos. Either one or both are misrepresenting their cars.

Just thought I would pass it along incase anyone was looking at those cars.

[TerryH]

Good eye. I appears the black targa stole from the white targa. I sent the white targa a note to stir the pot a little.

[jjflash]

You're right...those undercarriage pix are identical. Very strange. I suppose one could "Ask the Seller a Question," but if it is a scam I imagine they would just disappear.

I checked the VIN's of both cars on Autocheck. The white '89 is a very high milage car with 271K + listed in 2005. The ad copy does state that:

"It has a complete engine rebuild with 77k miles."

And there seems to be a free and automatic link to the Autocheck report, so I guess listing it at 77,000 miles is just misleading rather than untruthful.

Autocheck's last entry has the car in California in 2005. Nothing about it being registered in Pennsylvania where it is claimed to be in the eBay listing.

Checking the black '88's VIN on Autocheck has the last listing at 26K in 2001 and nothing noted since then. The history shows it being in Utah until 2003 (at least) and registered in Grimes, IA--where the eBay listing has it--in 2005, so the history seems to check out.

That's all I have on it.

[Inniswhe]

I contacted both sellers, Igot a vague " I 'll look into it" from the seller of the white car (scothm379).
Then I received the note below from the seller of the black Targa(so1952)

"I contacted the other seller - he admits copying my photos to use on his. see his response below.

Steven O'Brien
Finance Director
Link Associates, Inc.
4301 N.E. 14th Street
Des Moines, IA 50313
515-262-8888

LINK ASSOCIATES "Providing people with mental disabilities opportunities to achieve their personal goals."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: eBay Member: scothm379 [mailto:member@ebay.com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 10:00 AM
To: Steve O'Brien
Subject: Re: Question for item #320158631477 - Porsche : 911


eBay sent this message to Steven O"Brien (so1952).
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Response to Question about Porsche : 911

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Dear so1952,

Sorry for the photos. To make a long story short,
I have a 3.2 as you can tell; when I was posting my ad on eBay, I was unable to locate one of my CD which contained most of my 911 photos. I came across yours and borrow three.
I just spoke with eBay (live help online) regarding "retracting" photos and they said "photos can not be withdraw after the bidding start or I would have to cancel the bidding to publish the photos"
What I?ve gone is totally inappropriate. I?ve a couple of eBay sellers currently using my photos to promote their items. Once again I would like to apologize for any inconvenience.


- scothm379 "[/I][/I]




So it looks like the white car is a fraud be wary.

[jjflash]

Originally Posted by Inniswhe

So it looks like the white car is a fraud be wary.

White car definitely has some red flags!

[ossiblue]

White car seller also apparently used a photo the the 88"s engine--note the black around the engine opening.

Sketchy, to say the least. I read somewhere that one should always be even more cautious on Ebay when it is a "Private Auction" as this one is. Not too clear why, except ID's of bidders are secret and they cannot be contacted by observers of auctions, such as this as, to possible fraud.

Definitely, beware!