How can I tell ?

[Primitive_ty]

Originally Posted by cjm41

Okay... By doing a simple Whois So I was able to connect Victory Auto and Oak Imports to:

Registrant Name: Rick Wilson
Registrant Organization: Dealer Car Search
Registrant Street: 12912 Shelbyville Rd
Registrant City: Louisville
Registrant State/Province: Kentucky
Registrant Postal Code: 40243
Registrant Country: US
Registrant Phone: +1.5023268413

Registrant Email: philip.redmon@dealercarsearch.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-wilson-77b05b45/

Dealercarsearch.com is a website provider for car dealerships. Okay- so, somewhat understandable the two might be related because they share a web development service, which sucks at SEO, by the way.

But why do they share Google Reviews?

A quick look at Rick Wilson seems like a normal dude running a web development company with about 3200 clients, Alphabetically, from 2ndchanceautonc.com to zoomsellscars.com, across a handful of IPs starting with 69.2.203.2.....

So- lets try to find a relationship between Victory and Oak without the web developer.

Victory has a valid active business filing in CT dating back to 1984. The owner's name is JOHN PICARAZZI. I pulled up his personal home address on Google Street View, looks modest enough, there is a ~10 year old Audi in the driveway. There's also a story in their local paper about him involved in a bad deal with another local dealership where he was the victim of a couple bad checks. Also- there are no open court cases where he's the defendant, or closed court cases where he was convicted of anything.

The owner seems to check out. Long business history, not really hiding or involved in strange crap.

Oak Imports... Appears to have gone out of business, or never was in business. While I do see a car lot at the address, there is no business filing or DBA for Oak Imports (or variants of) in GA, DE, or NV (if you're not familiar with the reason I mention DE or NV, it's because there are tax benefits to filing in those states and you don't have to actually operate in those states).

I'll take one last jab at that connection... One of the Dealer Car Search services is reputation management. I'm willing to bet one of two things... 1. The web developer/marketing company that served both of these clients got a line crossed somewhere, or 2. Was engaging in activity that violates Google policy by creating fake profiles and reviews. This is, of course, highly unethical and I'd be furious if my marketing company was making fake reviews for my company... because now... look what we're doing, we're questioning the dealership's credibility and I'm doing creepy shit like checking out the dude's home address on Google Street View.

Lets put the review blame on Rick and his company Dealer Car Search and go ahead and remove Oak Imports from our little game of "poking holes in this dealership's offering".

The cars on the website clearly don't match the cars at the dealership. Let's look at a few:

The Lambo on the site is actually at Boardwalk Auto Group in Plano, TX:

https://www.boardwalkautogroup.com/u...8be054c009.htm

The rest of the cars... appear to only show from for sale from Victory Auto. Still not buying it.... something is weird.

Boardwalk Auto Group has a different web developer, different IP address, developer is Dealer Dot Com Inc. The Lambo appears to be an anomaly, but it's worth noting that we've verified a car advertised that is not in his inventory.

Everything else checks out. I just can't connect the super high-end cars with the low-end look of their dealership on Google Street View. Plus- there are only 51,271 people in Milford, CT with an average household income of $61k. While that's higher than a lot of the country- it's not particularly high. Not high enough to have inventory suited for Miami or Los Angeles.

All of this to say... I couldn't sleep and was bored so I spent about 30-45 mins digging and digging. Nothing strange came up. I would consider proceeding with caution. Ask questions, do not give them anymore money, but don't necessarily rule them out. JUST BE CAREFUL. I can assure you $28k is way too low for that car, $38k is way too low for that car. $45k is probably closer, if not still too low for that car... it has FIVE THOUSAND MILES on it.

Anyway- My final thoughts on the situation...

It may be a website where he's brokering deals, having cars shipped, and taking a cut or referral fee. He may have partnerships with other dealerships... but if that's the case why the joe schmo cars on his lot in Google Street View, and why aren't those cars advertised. Is the 100k in inventory across 15-20 shitty cars a front for an online luxury car scam? Do those 2007 camrys and 2002 dodge caravans sit there so passers-by and family and friends don't ask questions? Has he changed his business model in the last couple years and that's a 5 year old Street View and there are 100k AMG cars with gullwing doors sitting in that shitty little lot right now? We don't know.


Last week someone was looking for a car on here and we dug up the car had been seized from someone in some kind of fraudulent scheme who was now in prison. I don't know if that dude bought the car or not.

I tried to dig up more info. I kept hitting brick walls, but at least I didn't find out dealership owner is a 4-time car-export ring kingpin or registered sex offender. But... now- you have to keep us posted!

That's amazing!!

A deal like that way to good to be true! Thank you for your research you definitely saved me the pain of getting scammed

[spazzyfry123]

You guys are nuts. Bravo.

So where did the $200 go?

[Primitive_ty]

Originally Posted by DBLANCO

Definitely too good to be true. I just did a Google Image Reverse search on the images for that listing...

Look at what I found...

https://lotusvancouver.com/listings/2012-bmw-m3-coupe/

Crazy!

Thanks for the research guys! Truly appreciate it

[Transfer]

Originally Posted by DBLANCO

Definitely too good to be true. I just did a Google Image Reverse search on the images for that listing...

Look at what I found...

https://lotusvancouver.com/listings/2012-bmw-m3-coupe/

Oh shit!

And it's mineral white lol

[Primitive_ty]

Originally Posted by cjm41

Okay... By doing a simple Whois So I was able to connect Victory Auto and Oak Imports to:

Registrant Name: Rick Wilson
Registrant Organization: Dealer Car Search
Registrant Street: 12912 Shelbyville Rd
Registrant City: Louisville
Registrant State/Province: Kentucky
Registrant Postal Code: 40243
Registrant Country: US
Registrant Phone: +1.5023268413

Registrant Email: philip.redmon@dealercarsearch.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-wilson-77b05b45/

Dealercarsearch.com is a website provider for car dealerships. Okay- so, somewhat understandable the two might be related because they share a web development service, which sucks at SEO, by the way.

But why do they share Google Reviews?

A quick look at Rick Wilson seems like a normal dude running a web development company with about 3200 clients, Alphabetically, from 2ndchanceautonc.com to zoomsellscars.com, across a handful of IPs starting with 69.2.203.2.....

So- lets try to find a relationship between Victory and Oak without the web developer.

Victory has a valid active business filing in CT dating back to 1984. The owner's name is JOHN PICARAZZI. I pulled up his personal home address on Google Street View, looks modest enough, there is a ~10 year old Audi in the driveway. There's also a story in their local paper about him involved in a bad deal with another local dealership where he was the victim of a couple bad checks. Also- there are no open court cases where he's the defendant, or closed court cases where he was convicted of anything.

The owner seems to check out. Long business history, not really hiding or involved in strange crap.

Oak Imports... Appears to have gone out of business, or never was in business. While I do see a car lot at the address, there is no business filing or DBA for Oak Imports (or variants of) in GA, DE, or NV (if you're not familiar with the reason I mention DE or NV, it's because there are tax benefits to filing in those states and you don't have to actually operate in those states).

I'll take one last jab at that connection... One of the Dealer Car Search services is reputation management. I'm willing to bet one of two things... 1. The web developer/marketing company that served both of these clients got a line crossed somewhere, or 2. Was engaging in activity that violates Google policy by creating fake profiles and reviews. This is, of course, highly unethical and I'd be furious if my marketing company was making fake reviews for my company... because now... look what we're doing, we're questioning the dealership's credibility and I'm doing creepy shit like checking out the dude's home address on Google Street View.

Lets put the review blame on Rick and his company Dealer Car Search and go ahead and remove Oak Imports from our little game of "poking holes in this dealership's offering".

The cars on the website clearly don't match the cars at the dealership. Let's look at a few:

The Lambo on the site is actually at Boardwalk Auto Group in Plano, TX:

https://www.boardwalkautogroup.com/u...8be054c009.htm

The rest of the cars... appear to only show from for sale from Victory Auto. Still not buying it.... something is weird.

Boardwalk Auto Group has a different web developer, different IP address, developer is Dealer Dot Com Inc. The Lambo appears to be an anomaly, but it's worth noting that we've verified a car advertised that is not in his inventory.

Everything else checks out. I just can't connect the super high-end cars with the low-end look of their dealership on Google Street View. Plus- there are only 51,271 people in Milford, CT with an average household income of $61k. While that's higher than a lot of the country- it's not particularly high. Not high enough to have inventory suited for Miami or Los Angeles.

All of this to say... I couldn't sleep and was bored so I spent about 30-45 mins digging and digging. Nothing strange came up. I would consider proceeding with caution. Ask questions, do not give them anymore money, but don't necessarily rule them out. JUST BE CAREFUL. I can assure you $28k is way too low for that car, $38k is way too low for that car. $45k is probably closer, if not still too low for that car... it has FIVE THOUSAND MILES on it.

Anyway- My final thoughts on the situation...

It may be a website where he's brokering deals, having cars shipped, and taking a cut or referral fee. He may have partnerships with other dealerships... but if that's the case why the joe schmo cars on his lot in Google Street View, and why aren't those cars advertised. Is the 100k in inventory across 15-20 shitty cars a front for an online luxury car scam? Do those 2007 camrys and 2002 dodge caravans sit there so passers-by and family and friends don't ask questions? Has he changed his business model in the last couple years and that's a 5 year old Street View and there are 100k AMG cars with gullwing doors sitting in that shitty little lot right now? We don't know.


Last week someone was looking for a car on here and we dug up the car had been seized from someone in some kind of fraudulent scheme who was now in prison. I don't know if that dude bought the car or not.

I tried to dig up more info. I kept hitting brick walls, but at least I didn't find out dealership owner is a 4-time car-export ring kingpin or registered sex offender. But... now- you have to keep us posted!

Called the dealership this morning when they opened asked them if they could do a FaceTime walk through with the car his response the car was getting a detail and he would when the car was done called back 2 hours later to tell the dealership I had a guy coming in to do a inspection on the car there response was

" ohh we put the car in the warehouse we keep all the nice cars in there so they don't get dirty outside at the dealership it's about 30 minutes away maybe we can get the car out here for the inspection no promises allot of people have been calling on this car"

What a joke.

[osukf09]

Sounds like it's time to walk away...

[Primitive_ty]

Originally Posted by apjr09

Sounds like it's time to walk away...

Yep
Was just calling this morning to see what excuses I could get. when I told him the vin didn't match up He was lost for words.

[Primitive_ty]

Originally Posted by cjm41

Wow.

1. Call your credit card company or PayPal and report.

2. Contact the Milford, CT Police (non-emergency) at 203-878-6551 and report. Be sure to give them:

Owner's name: JOHN PICARAZZI
Business Name: VICTORY AUTO SALES, INC.
Business Address: 360 Naugatuck Ave, Milford, CT 06460

3. Contact the Connecticut BBB at (860) 740-4500. Victory's CT state Business ID: 0156698

4. Contact Dealer Car Search at (502) 326-8413 let them know there is a scam being run from a website they host using images of cars that don't belong to the owner of the website. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 requires the hosting/website provider to take the images down. Even direct them to this forum- it's not worth the headache for them to keep the website up.

#
#
#
#

#### Here are the two owner's info:

## John Picarzzi - President

Home: 4 PATMAR DR., MONROE, CT, 06468

Phone: (203) 261-9182 (maybe could use a robocall bot directed at it)

Facebook 1: https://www.facebook.com/john.picarazzi.3
Facebook 2: https://www.facebook.com/john.picarazzi.9

(I believe 9 might be the son, 3 is the father. One is 64, the other is 33 years old, they have friends in common. It appears the father is the one who owns the business, he's got cars on his FB page).

He's a registered Republican... in case anyone was curious.

Known Relatives:

Anthony M Picarazzi
Chelsea M Picarazzi
Deborah A Picarazzi
Diana Lynne Picarazzi
Guido J Picarazzi
Jean J Picarazzi

## Howard Rosen - Secretary

Home: 232 SUMMERFIELDS GARDENS, SHELTON, CT, 06484

He's 70. No social media presence.

Family members:

Corey D Rosen
Toby R Morris
Marc N Rosen



Because, fuck those guys.

Was given this contact info for the owner

[cjm41]

Originally Posted by Primitive_ty

Was given this contact info for the owner

Robert Findlay is not the legal owner of Victory Auto Sales:

https://www.concord-sots.ct.gov/CONC...nessID=0156698

Looks like he may have owned Victory at some point, but it's unclear.

[wyatth]

Originally Posted by EJT86

ZCP can basically be installed on any car. 359M wheels and lowering springs, done. Passing on a good car just because of ZCP doesn’t make much sense

Of course the shocks are different too, with spring perches designed to retain suspension travel after the drop. To get close to ZCP, you should at least go with Dinan Stage 1 (and if you have EDC, get that coded to ZCP for dynamic sport mode). To suggest that lowering springs on stock shocks equals ZCP suspension is disingenuous at best.

Originally Posted by spazzyfry123

Heck with everyone's issues with EDC, I prefer a non-ZCP. Find the car with the right options and carbon roof and have a blast.

EDC components are quite stout, there are few with any problems. Yes it'll cost more to replace when the time comes, but low-mile purchasers shouldn't worry for a while.

[BOOF-M3]

A little bit lost here. Does the dealer have a vehicle for sale? Have you asked for your deposit back?

[Primitive_ty]

Originally Posted by BOOF-M3

A little bit lost here. Does the dealer have a vehicle for sale? Have you asked for your deposit back?

100% scam

Don't think there was ever a car. I didn't receive my deposit back. Never thought i would see it back. $200 bucks lost over 30+k I'm very happy and very grateful that we had some awesome people in this chat looking out for me

I asked multiple times today for a video walk through of the car and was told the car is at the warehouse getting detailed and 100 other excuses.

The 4th time calling them today they said oh we have someone local who is very interested in the car but I told them we have a deposit holding until further notice they said if they didn't have a wire transfer by today they would sell the car to someone else my response was perfect I will be contacting local police department and hope my 200 bucks goes a long way in your scam guy laughed and hung up the phone

[cjm41]

Sorry to hear this. Glad you only lost $200. Could have been far worse.

I despise scam artists. I might have a little fun at their expense.

[wyatth]

Good stuff, CJM. I just read up on the thread.

[eatsleepboost]

This is quite a story with some deep investigating. This is a good example of a forum doing what it's supposed to. Nice work guys.

[jiggz]

I just ran some of the other BMW VINs in their inventory and none of them match up.

Donnington Gray F85 X5M they have listed comes back as a Black Sapphire F85 X5M.
https://victoryautoct.com/2016-BMW-X...9/Details.aspx

Yas Marina Blue F82 M4 they have listed comes back as a Sakhir Orange F82 M4.
https://victoryautoct.com/2016-BMW-M...4/Details.aspx

Black F82 M4 they have listed comes back as a Mineral White F82 M4.
https://victoryautoct.com/2015-BMW-M...2/Details.aspx

And of course the car in question in this thread. It's too bad places like this exist. We should bombard this dealership via the 'Contact Us' link - mostly for fun, I doubt they'd bother to reply.

[Primitive_ty]

Originally Posted by jiggz

I just ran the other 3 BMW VINs in their inventory and none of them match up.

Donnington Gray F85 X5M they have listed comes back as a Black Sapphire F85 X5M.
https://victoryautoct.com/2016-BMW-X...9/Details.aspx

Yas Marina Blue F82 M4 they have listed comes back as a Sakhir Orange F82 M4.
https://victoryautoct.com/2016-BMW-M...4/Details.aspx

Black F82 M4 they have listed comes back as a Mineral White F82 M4.
https://victoryautoct.com/2015-BMW-M...2/Details.aspx

And of course the car in question in this thread. It's too bad places like this exist. We should bombard this dealership via the 'Contact Us' link - mostly for fun, I doubt they'd bother to reply.

Very happy to have a forum like this because I was ready to wire some money for this car.

Anyone from the CT area and willing to show up to the address listed for the dealership lol

[Primitive_ty]

Originally Posted by jiggz

I just ran some of the other BMW VINs in their inventory and none of them match up.

Donnington Gray F85 X5M they have listed comes back as a Black Sapphire F85 X5M.
https://victoryautoct.com/2016-BMW-X...9/Details.aspx

Yas Marina Blue F82 M4 they have listed comes back as a Sakhir Orange F82 M4.
https://victoryautoct.com/2016-BMW-M...4/Details.aspx

Black F82 M4 they have listed comes back as a Mineral White F82 M4.
https://victoryautoct.com/2015-BMW-M...2/Details.aspx

And of course the car in question in this thread. It's too bad places like this exist. We should bombard this dealership via the 'Contact Us' link - mostly for fun, I doubt they'd bother to reply.

Car is back up for sale on carguru lol

https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/invent...ting=221765603

[BOOF-M3]

Something doesn't add up. A dealership with a building is not going to list faux vehicles online and collect deposits. Im suspecting that the info that has been dug up is accurate for the dealership. But isn't it possible that It is someone else posing as them online and doing these bad deeds? If that is the case then we may need to alert said dealership that their identity has been stolen?

[MyUnicorn]

I sent a message through Car Gurus just to try to mess with them. (Had some free time yesterday). Just got this response today...


CarGurus has removed a listing you inquired about
Inbox
x

CarGurus User Support user_support@cargurus.com via helpscout.net
12:34 PM (1 hour ago)
to user_support

Andrea sent a message
Oct 24, 12:33pm
Hello,

We have removed a listing that you inquired about due to integrity concerns; the vehicle was listed by Winkel Family Automotive between 10/22 and 10/24.

We recommend that you exercise extreme caution if dealing with the seller listing this vehicle.

Your security is important to us, and we will continue to monitor inventory to prevent fraudulent listings from appearing on our site.

Best Regards,

Andrea
Community Support
CarGurus



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[cjm41]

Originally Posted by BOOF-M3

Something doesn't add up. A dealership with a building is not going to list faux vehicles online and collect deposits. Im suspecting that the info that has been dug up is accurate for the dealership. But isn't it possible that It is someone else posing as them online and doing these bad deeds? If that is the case then we may need to alert said dealership that their identity has been stolen?

Yeah I considered this and removed some of my posts where I lambast them.

However- the dealership, if legit, seems to have done an extremely poor job of securing their online identity, almost to a fault where it's hard for me, as a marketer and web developer, to believe they're freely operating with a digital presence unbeknownst to them. And I've seen all kinds of clients who are clueless.

OP: did you speak to anyone with the name or number that came up in my digging?

[BOOF-M3]

Originally Posted by cjm41

Yeah I considered this and removed some of my posts where I lambast them.

However- the dealership, if legit, seems to have done an extremely poor job of securing their online identity, almost to a fault where it's hard for me, as a marketer and web developer, to believe they're freely operating with a digital presence unbeknownst to them. And I've seen all kinds of clients who are clueless.

OP: did you speak to anyone with the name or number that came up in my digging?

I'm in real estate and people regularly take ours and other listings and market them as rentals as if they are the owner. Even so much as breaking into vacant properties and rekeying them. Then taking cash only first, last and security. We then show up eventually on a showing etc... and someone has moved in. Of course the person now residing in the home blames us, wants us to reimburse them. Meanwhile they paid someone with a google number cash, no print out of the ad that they answered. Then have threatened us that they would go online and try to ruin our name. Not saying it's the same. Just saying that it's highly unlikely that a mom and pop shop is actually doing this. Sounds like classic identity theft to me. But damn you are good.