How can I tell ?

[Primitive_ty]

Originally Posted by roastbeef

something is wrong. use caution.

100%
calling my local bmw dealership tomorrow to see if they can give me the correct paint code and get to the bottom of the vin.

Car is advertised with 5,800 miles and in the low 30k price range so deal might be a little to good to be true

[Montaver]

Great spec if its legit. I wouldn't mark it down for not having the competition pack.

[IB M]

Who did u send $200 to for the PPI? Hopefully not the listing dealer. I called on a Toyota truck last year with a too good to be true price and condition and it was a scam. Be careful.

[Primitive_ty]

Originally Posted by IB M

Who did u send $200 to for the PPI? Hopefully not the listing dealer. I called on a Toyota truck last year with a too good to be true price and condition and it was a scam. Be careful.

Sent 200 for the hold on the car. They gave me 4 business days to get a ppi done.

The ppi is 150 so in all I could be out $350 but think it would be well worth it if the car is scam.

Idk if they gave me the wrong car fax with a different vin or the vin coder is off ..

Guess we will find out tomorrow stay tuned ..

[IB M]

Originally Posted by Primitive_ty

Sent 200 for the hold on the car. They gave me 4 business days to get a ppi done.

The ppi is 150 so in all I could be out $350 but think it would be well worth it if the car is scam.

Idk if they gave me the wrong car fax with a different vin or the vin coder is off ..

Guess we will find out tomorrow stay tuned ..

Yes - $150 PPI worth it just send your guy and not anyone they recommend.

[cjm41]

I just found the car online. $28,600 for a 5k mile 2012 at a dealership with no website or social media presence. I can feel the alarms blaring... Don't buy this car sight unseen.

[Primitive_ty]

Originally Posted by cjm41

I just found the car online. $28,600 for a 5k mile 2012 at a dealership with no website or social media presence. I can feel the alarms blaring... Don't buy this car sight unseen.

Yeah they actually raised the price to 32k since allot of people were calling they do have a online website. Idk if the price was to bring people in but when I called they told me they were rising the price to 32.5

I have the ppi tomorrow on the car. Hopefully things work out if not I'm out $350 allot better then 30+k

This is the website

https://victoryautoct.com

[cjm41]

Also- found their website- it has Lamborghinis, audi R8s, M cars, merc G class trucks, Aston Martins.

Google Street View their address- this is what you see. Far cry from what their website advertises.

[Primitive_ty]

Originally Posted by cjm41

Also- found their website- it has Lamborghinis, audi R8s, M cars, merc G class trucks, Aston Martins.

Google Street View their address- this is what you see. Far cry from what their website advertises.

That's exactly what I said!! Idk something seems off but we won't know fully tomorrow. Anyone from the Milford CT Area ?

[cjm41]

Three of their four google reviews look fake. So I looked at those people's other reviews, they also also, coincidentally, reviewed a place called "Oak Imports" — so I googled Oak Imports...

The non-dual reviews look like this

The plot thickens....

[Primitive_ty]

Originally Posted by cjm41

Three of their four google reviews look fake. So I looked at those people's other reviews, they also also, coincidentally reviewed a place called "Oak Imports" — so I googled Oak Imports...

The plot thickens....

Yeah starting to believe this car was to good to be true.

[Transfer]

Dayum. Who do you notify for fraud like this? FBI? Well I guess we'll see how it shakes out.

[Primitive_ty]

Originally Posted by Transfer

Dayum. Who do you notify for fraud like this? FBI? Well I guess we'll see how it shakes out.

Calling dealership first thing in the morning. Want them to do a FaceTime walk through with the car and actual footage of the vin before I send the guy out to the ppi tomorrow.

Glad I decided to make this post!

[Primitive_ty]

Originally Posted by Transfer

Dayum. Who do you notify for fraud like this? FBI? Well I guess we'll see how it shakes out.

Throughout the whole time they haven't been on my ass for money or a time frame saying people want the car they have been extremely nice but not overly nice to think it's a scam or something every question I have asked I have gotten a straight answer so it's a little hard to determine what's going on but something does feel off
Guess we will see when I call tomorrow

I have been looking for so long thought this was the one!

[Law]

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) is a good place to start for reporting fraudulent business activity.
https://www.bbb.org/scamtracker/us/reportscam


Then there's the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) Bureau of Consumer Protection
https://www.ftc.gov/about-ftc/bureau...mer-protection


In either case, I wouldn't count on immediate action, but at least if there's a record of reported fraud/scam, then future reports or past reports will be further validated and may prompt some sort of action or at least, awareness.

[jiggz]

I wouldn't spend the $ for that PPI until the VIN discrepancy is cleared up. Could be a waste of $150.

[Primitive_ty]

Originally Posted by jiggz

I wouldn't spend the $ for that PPI until the VIN discrepancy is cleared up. Could be a waste of $150.

Yeah 100%
Calling them first thing in the morning and hopefully there was a mistake with the vin but something seems off.

Glad there is a forum like this where I could vent it all out lol

[roastbeef]

Just go the other way and forget about them. Don't spend any more money. Too many red flags... unless you're trying to have fun.

[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!

[Mvy]

Primitive, I think you owe CJM lunch.....That was some Sherlock Gnomes shit.

[IB M]

Cjm41
That's an amazing write-up and research. Very impressive work.

If this is a scam perhaps the phone number and wherever money was sent could be better traced than typical email scams.

[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/