I’ve been looking for a 97 Blue/White Dodge Viper as my next toy/garage queen car, and I finally found the one I want. The car is completely stock, and only has 6,300 miles on it! It has been sitting in a heated garage for it’s entire life, pampered. Exactly what I want The price is right too. I’m located in VA, and the car is located halfway across the country.

So I’ve been talking to the owner over the phone (an older gentleman), and part of my offer to him was that I would pay for the car in cash. What I meant by that was something like a wire transfer. So when he finally accepted my offer, it was based on it being a cash one. When I brought up a wire transfer, he said that would be impossible because he does not have a bank account. Who doesn’t have a bank account?? The possible scam alerts went off, but everything else seemed right. I posted in the Viper forums to get their thoughts, and many said to be very careful, others said they didn’t see a big deal…he may actually have an account, but wants cash to protect himself against a scam. I know for a fact that my roommate who buys/sells cars requests cash as well (although he would still figure something out with alternative methods).

I obtained a few vital pieces of information from the seller:

• His full name
• His address
• He stated that he purchased the car brand new (also a good thing to look for when buying a car), so I found out the dealership he purchased it from
• The dealership he does the cars maintenance at
• The VIN # for the Viper

So I spent a good part of yesterday and today doing some follow up research to see if everything else checks out:

• I called Bernie over at BJ Motors in Richmond, VA for his advice. Bernie owns a higher end used car dealership, that also specializes in Vipers.
• I checked the VIN with Carfax. Everything checked out just fine.
• I called Chuck Tator over at Tator’s Dodge in NY. Chuck Tator owns the dealership, and he is known as the Viper Wizard. He has been extremely friendly and helpful with me in the past with my other Viper, even with questions that do not benefit himself in any way. He ran the VIN # for me and gave me a full history of the car. The VIN checked out as the correct car, and was purchased by the same seller’s name in the same city that the seller is located. It had a number of maintenance done to it at certain times through the 11 years it has been in existence. These were then verified by calling the seller and asking about them. He also verified it was purchased at the same dealership in which the seller said he purchased it from.
• I called the dealership in which the seller said he purchased it from, and I verified with them that that was in fact the case.

This was half the battle. The other half the battle was trying to figure out a way to get him cash without putting myself in potential danger, giving some sort of paper trail, and not getting on a plane with a bag full of money. My first big idea was to find a bank located in the sellers state, as well as my state…open an account, transfer money there, and then pull it out at the bank when picking the car up. The only potential was Bank of America, but after making some phone calls, I found out that the bank that was considered BOA, was actually purchased by them but not migrated over yet. Damn.

Luckily, I have a good friend that goes to law school about 20 minutes away from where the car is located! I gave her a call, and we worked everything out so that I will do a wire transfer of the cash into her account. We will then go to the bank with the seller, the car, and the title and she will get a cashiers check in the seller’s name. In the memo she will make sure to remit the payment from me and write that it is for the car (the paper trail!). The seller will then be handed the check, and immediately hand it back to the bank (after providing 2 forms of ID and filling out a federal form since it’s over $10,000) to cash it out. I feel safe in this situation, he got his cash, I got the car, and everybody should be happy. Keep in mind that I also have to set this up with the bank about a week ahead of time so they can place an order to have that amount of cash on-hand for that day. Much to many people’s surprise, banks don’t have much money they can just hand out. They will easily take your money, but it’s much harder to take it out.

Knowing all of this information, do you think I should feel comfortable with the transaction? Or do you feel it’s a scam somehow? If you still think I am somehow getting scammed, definitely let me know how, so I can look further into it.

Hopefully I’ll have a pristine Viper sitting in the garage in the next two weeks! Anybody want to buy a perfect fully loaded 6-speed 97 C5 red Corvette with 36,000 miles for $19,999 :)? E-mail me!