anyone buy a car off of a car website?

    • Gold Top Dog

    anyone buy a car off of a car website?

    My friend found a car on autotrader she was looking at she written to the guy and today she tried calling but his phone was out of service the car is list as being in florida but the area code for the number was 203 I told her they could be snowbirds lol, anyway he finally wrote her back with this, she knows nothing about yahoo autos or how it works.

    Does anyone here know how yahoo auto works? Also does this email sound legit? I told her yea there is no dings or damage to the body or inside but what about the parts under the hood lol

     Hello,

    Thanks for your reply, I'm looking to sell the car for  $12,710. It has a clear title and the overall condition is excellent there are no dings, scratches or any kind of damage on the body also the interior is like new no rips, tears or smells (I'm a non-smoker).

    I had a buyer offering $14,000 and I've lost about 2 weeks waiting for him to pay just to find out in the end that his loan wasn't approved. I've lowered the price because I'm in desperate need of cash it's either the car or the house so if you don't need a loan you can have it.
    I'm currently signed up for a protection program offered by Yahoo! Autos and I would like to close the deal through them. If you are not aware of this program you should know that it will allow you to test drive and inspect the car before paying me. You will have a 7-day inspection period to decide whether you want to keep the car or not before they release the funds to me.
    If you are still interested and have cash just send me your Yahoo! Autos id (if you don't have one just go to http://autos.yahoo.com/ and click the sign up link from the top left corner) and I'll ask them to fill you in with the transaction details.

    • Gold Top Dog

    NO NO NO NO NO!!!!

    I had an email from a guy I was looking into a car from a couple years ago, except it was the "ebay auto protection program" but exactly the same as that description!  I contacted Ebay, it's fake and a scam.  I will see if I can find the email from Ebay, it was a couple years ago, but I'll try. 

    You might have your friend contact Yahoo directly to confirm, but it is exactly like the one that told me through ebay

    • Gold Top Dog

    The car is on autotrader, and when she showed me the email I went to yahoo autos and the car isn't on the site, also the car is a Toyota and she wanted the vin # so she could look it up on the Toyota site to make sure it wasn't on recall. As you can see he didn't put the Vin # in the email so she wrote him right back and asked again for the Vin # no email yet. I'm not sure if she wrote that she did not find his car on yahoo autos, I would think if you are going to go through yahoo auto's shouldn't your car be on the site?

    • Gold Top Dog

    I would assume it should be on yahoo.  I would contact yahoo directly and ask, but I found these sites that explain the scam:

    http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080327081858AAuq9mB

    http://forums.beyond.ca/st/290143/attn-fraud-buysell-com-ads/

    http://www.tacticaltechnique.com/vehicle-classifieds/ebay-vehicle-protection-program-scam/

    It says that if you agree, they will send you to a website that looks like Yahoo, but it really isn't.  But check with Yahoo Autos, I know when I got told about the protection program for a car, it was through Ebay, and when I contacted the Ebay rep, they told me there wasn't such a thing and it was a scam.  My email sounded exactly like yours

    • Gold Top Dog

    yep - sounds like a scam to me too!

    • Gold Top Dog

     Well my friend just contacted yahoo but they said the only way to contact yahoo auto's is through email but he did say if the person said yahoo will transfer money they do not wire money.

    glad she didn't go and give her money away, she is pretty pissed that someone would do that. she said she feels sorry for the person who actually goes and sends them the money she is gonna contact autotrader about the ad. should she do anything else?

    thanks for the help

    • Gold Top Dog

    It is very unfortunate that people feel the need to scam other people.  And that scam, I'm sure, nets a lot of people.  It nearly got me.  Luckily I got a little suspicious and contacted ebay, otherwise, I was all ready to send my money.

    I think referring the lister to autotrader will be sufficient  :)

    • Gold Top Dog

    l.michelle

    NO NO NO NO NO!!!!

     

    I'll second all those *NOs* ... I think your friend would be better off checking out used cars at a reputable dealership.  That's a lot of money to pay for something that sounds so iffy.

    Joyce