Beware of "2007" Jetta TDIs on Craigslist

[owr084]

There have been a number of postings lately about 2007 Jettas TDIs for sale on Craigslist. People have been posting the ones they found locally.

Well, here's the US-wide scoop. Using the following search in google "2007 Jetta TDI -directory site:craigslist.org" (paste in everything between the quote marks), I found 326 hits. Every hit was nearly identical only varying a couple of dollars from $14000 and the seller contact e-mail numbers were similar. Definite fraud.

For those interested, google (to me) works better than any of those craigslist helper websites. See here http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Search_Every_Craigslist_Site_at_Once or here for hints on how to filter by the posting date http://lifehacker.com/384375/filter-google-results-by-date-with-a-url-trick

 

[Honeydew]

thanks for the excellent search tip!

 

[Steve-o]

Another good tip for craigslist is to hit Select All when you're on the page with the ad. Scroll down if you need to, but you likely will see some gibberish or random text that's there to beat spam filters. If you see the junk, the offer is junk, too. Move on.

I'm also quite wary of craigslist postings which never show license plates on the car (not obliterated plates; no plates); which include no contact information other than a generic (yahoo/gmail/etc.) email address; or which use vague geographical references ("west metro", "suburbs").

 

[billo14]

I search Craigslist for Jeep Wrangler's on occasion (another toy for the mountain cabin) and each time I see a [FONT=&quot]ridiculously[/FONT] low price on a unit with nice pictures that has a suspicious location, contact information, etc., I just flag the listing and it usually comes down pretty quickly. I figure it is just a listing from Nigeria.

 

[Revolutionary_mind]

CL has been totally overrun with spam. Its VERY irritating. I see lots of jetta TDI's, 2.5s, listed for like 4900 dollars, etc. And all sorts of other cars.

 

[velociT]

Who would have guessed a car that wasnt made is a scam?


BTW, I'm also selling a 2004 Camaro and a 2002 Cobra.

 

[Revolutionary_mind]

I know a guy selling an 83 vette!

 

[MichaelP]

There was a 2002 TDI on Autotrader.com for $6000 from Tacoma, WA. One thing I noticed was the palm trees in the background. The phone number posted turned out to be a Fax machine at the WA Supreme Court offices. I finally got an email response from the seller, claiming that the car was "sealed up and packaged for shipping" in California, that she had been suddenly shipped off to Iraq, and that she needed my personal info to quickly complete the transaction. I wanted to play along for a while but didn't have the spare time...

BTW, the VIN she claimed was :
3VWSP69M02M092625

Regards,
Michael Pliska

 

[bayshorecs]

Found one once listed in a small town about 5 miles from me. I wanted to see it and was told that it was on a cargo trailer ready for shipping. Phone number was a california number.

hmm...not too many cargo trailers in the middle of central illinois in a town less than 1000 people.

Never heard back, flagged the listing as fraud and moved on.

Of course, I was told "not to worry. the car will ship after payment".

I wonder if I would have had to pay the shipping charges too