Sounds fishy.  American mods are more stringent than European, so he should
have no problem.  When I was in the service (USAF) I shipped my Volkswagen
to Germany and had no problems with their inspection..  If it sounds to good
to be true chances are it is.

Step back, take a deep breadth, do you really think
you will get 2002 BMW M3 for $9000?

Sounds a standard scam. But just substitute Western Union for payment -
they're the worst.

PayPal is the 'standard' Ebay way of paying in Europe, IIRC. But it's not
any real protection.

Anything that sounds like a scam usually is. And I can't really think of
anything on a BMW - other than simple things like lights - that are *that*
different between the US and Europe - especially LHD Europe.

SCAM sorry for the yelling but it's a scam. Want to find out for sure?

I inquired about a similar deal on an M5 almost identical story to yours.
Wanted to use a service such as Ebay Square Trade and he gave me the web
link. I went to the site then went to www.whois.net and checked out who
owned the domain and when it was registered, etc... Turns out it was
registered the day before. I then researched a reputable service and told
the seller that I first needed to see/touch the car since the Car and I were
supposedly in the same city and that I would like to use
www.IForgetEscrowService.com instead of his service.

Never heard back from the seller/scammer and oh yes I called him on the
domain info I found. Run do not walk away from this deal. This is a very
common scam and is in line with the emails from your bank/credit card
company notifying you that someone tried to hack your account so please
verify your user name and password by going to this site that looks and
feels like your financial institutions however it's a temp site to
gather/steal your info.

All the best,

FSJ

When something looks too good to be true..

RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!

Right. I had them tell me they were from the US, took their M3 to
England and couldn't drive it 'cause in the UK they drive on the other
side of the road...  Right. I believe that (not.)

Or - had one from Belgrade, who just brought the car over, lost his job
and has to sell it - so he's selling it in the US, will pay for shipping
back, and only wants the money for shipping it, will send it to you.

Right. Not.

Uh... Ebay Square Trade doesn't do money transfers.

 > Now I have a question, is ebay square trade going to protect me and my

No.

Have you even looked at Ebay? You're an adult right? Some sense of
self-protection might be a good thing.  Square Trade is a program
certifying an Ebay seller. It has nothing to do with transferring money,
and the only protection they provide is $250 against a "Square Trade"
vendor committing fraud.

No and no. It's that simple.

This is a SCAM. Have some fun with them - ask for the VIN and then get
someone to do a CARFAX or CAR-Check on it. You'll probably find the car
is already in the US, and is owned by someone in the US - and likely was
bought via an Ebay auction (at a lot more than $9,000) a few months ago.
The scammers like to steal photos and VIN's and descriptions from
completed Ebay auctions.

Then you can pretend you're REALLY interested, and you have a friend in
Europe who will go inspect the car for you. You'll suddenly find them
not communicating (I had one DEMAND I send money RIGHT NOW..)

Or - just pretend to be interested and wait for the next step in the
scam. That's where you're supposed to send some money via some means and
they will ship the car to you via UPS or some other service (I checked -
 UPS does ship vehicles, but an M3 from Europe to the east-coast of the
USA costs MORE than they were asking for the car - and they were going
to pay shipping.. right.)

RUN AWAY RUN AWAY!! If it quacks like a duck, sh.ts like a duck and
smells like a duck - it's probably not a chicken.

This is obviously a scam.

-Fred W

On the surface, this sounds like a scam.

There is a scam that goes something like this, I have 1.5 million in an
account that I can't get to because there are regulatory issues. I only need
$5000 to get through the regulations and get to my 1.5 mil. If you give me
the $5000, when I get through the regulations, I'll repay you $25,000 for
letting me use your money.

A variation on this scam might go something like this, I am in France with
an American car, and I can't get the car to pass the rules here, so I am
going to sell it at a loss just to get over it. The trouble is, I can only
take cash ...

This is about the third variation of this scam I've heard.

I can't believe anyone would be so foolish as to fall for it.

I guess it is true that "you can't cheat an honest man"

Think about it - most scams play on your greed...

You MUST be a freaking idiot to even imagine that this ISN'T a scam.

This scam has been around so long, and discussed so widely, that it's hard
to believe there is anyone in the world who would fall for it.

DS

let me know what you think. this robert weissbach guy has a 199
toyota supra on yahoo and autotrader for $6000. he replies to a
e-mail from  me from 2  different e-mails stating that he had som
problems with his computer and also thar the car is in a garage i
ny, but he is now in the uk and he's having financial problems.
then receive an e-mail from square trade stating that i have unti
the 22nd to pay the full amount, but this guy wanted me to wire th
money asap through western union to the uk and also say that it '
for a friend to avoid taxes. on top of that, i have not been able t
get through to square trade on the phone. so i tell this guy that
want the vin#: he sends me a copy of the title. the vin# and th
square trade number are legit, but i still get the feeling that i
might be a case of stolen identity. i'm so glad that i read the post
on this site before i wired that money; i was very close. now i'
wiser and i hope that his can help others