[BlackBear]

Like every bad story, it starts on Craigslist where I had my M850 listed for sale. It has been sold now, so no need to contact me.

My dashcam recorded the guy pouring the oil at 57 seconds in the video linked below. Before he does, he looks around like he has no good intensions. The second video - linked at the end of the first video - shows the same guy after the test drive pouring more oil directly into the radiator.

I'm the seller, they guy wearing glasses. The other three are the crooks:

THE CAST:

0. Seller, wearing glasses
1. Guy in jean jacket, he poured the oil into my coolant tank at 57 seconds
2. Guy in white jacket
3. Guy wearing a brown hat

When three guys with super bad English show up to buy your high end car it is best to make sure there are also three of you watching them. If you don't, well, then you'll end up getting some super old engine oil poured into your coolant system. They were nice enough though to diagnose the problem for me and tell me that my engine has a blown head gasket and needs to be replaced. Really nice of them.

These guys have done this before. They were way too slick. I'm not the first. You might be next. When you show your car make sure you have one or two friends with you to watch all the guys who showed up, especially if there are two or more of them showing up.

They might be traveling the country with this trick, they called me from two different area codes. I'm sure those were burner phones.

In this case, it is SELLER BEWARE.

I don't know if I can post a link to youtube or if it will get blocked, but here it is:

If the link does not work just do a search for the post title in YouTube.

[overklok]

Did you confront them? Did you call the police?

[Blaqwhole]

Sorry that happened to you. I do have some tips tho.

1 - When more than 1 person shows up to look at something you are selling, keep them all in your line of sight. That might mean maneuvering and constantly shifting your position.

2 - Position yourself so that the vehicle is in your line of sight at all times.

3 - Always address each person individually and as you are speaking, engage each of them and look at each of them as you are talking. That way you know you have their attention and they have your attention as well.

4 - Outright tell them that you will discuss the car with ONE of them and ONLY one of them are allowed near the car. If it is the buyer then fine. If it is the buyer's "mechanic" then fine. Or tell them that you will talk to them all at the same time and you don't want anyone poking around while you're discussing things.

5 - Last but not least, I inform people that my house is always under surveilance and I direct them to the cameras I want them to see. I don't tell them about the hidden cameras. And I tell them in a non-chalant manner. Like over the phone I tell them "oh just let me know when you get here so my cameras don't start sending me multiple intrusion alerts"...lol!!

Always be careful and have a system. It is good you had a cam in the car to catch this. And I hope you reported this. These guys probably have done this many times to many people.

[Seaford]

All good advice - easy to let the defences down when you are keen to sell something.

Personally I would have no problem in letting a prospective buyer know that I will want proof of identification when they turn up before letting them anywhere near whatever I am selling. Genuine buyers will understand, scrotes will move on.

[fmzip]

wow...thanks for posting. Glad you bagged them!

[snowbimmer]

How much of a discount from your asking price were they looking for?

Asshats. JFC.

[M8Bimmer]

I'm so glad you caught these fucks. I hope you were able to make trouble for them somehow. Imagine these assholes running around out there somewhere.
Thanks for letting us know . I've never heard of this before so you did help others.
I'm about up to here with crime. Nothing would make me happier than to commit a crime on assholes like that.

[hersh67]

Post a scam alert on craigslist with pics and video. and of course, forward to your local police station.

[Da_BatMann_]

So what happened after? Details man details!

[BlackBear]

I have been advised to remove the videos from YouTube because of potential physical repercussions.

I knew what they did right when they showed me the super black oil in the coolant tank. Initially I thought that I would need a coolant flush.

In the end I bought a pump and sucked out the oil. Oil always floats on top of water, at least when the engine does not run. If I had started the engine again and the thermostat had opened the oil would have mixed with the water.

After suchink out the floating oil I I filled up with distilled water and pumped that out. I repeated that countless times until no more tiny oil bubbles were in the removed water.

Car is ok. I have checked the coolant again after 100 miles and there are no tiny oil bubbles in it.

[Da_BatMann_]

Yea I could tell you noticed something was up as soon as you saw the drops of oil on the engine cover. Glad it didn't cause any damage to your car.

[M8Bimmer]

Are you saying they directly threatened you? How did they know they were on youtube?

[mjr24]

Really.....odd.....thread.

[Beemer5to3]

Originally Posted by M8Bimmer

Are you saying they directly threatened you? How did they know they were on youtube?

I assume it’s been advice from the police