Looking for internet P.I.

[sphelps]

Well seller is importing the vehicle, GST, duty & RIV taxes are included in purchase price. All modifications required for Canadian roads will be done by seller along with recall clearance letter. 30 day inspection period begins once car is received and buyer can reject the car for any reason with full refund. Carfax and VIN checkout. Overall difference in price is around $10K.

So yeah sounds pretty much too good to be true, but typically I'd easily find evidence of fraud surrounding the company which doesn't appear to be the case. Ultimately unless someone can point out the obvious scam I'll either fly down or hire someone local to investigate.

[MarkoD]

Seems too good to be true.

Why would someone sell it for 10k less than what it's worth unless something is wrong with it?

Also if its newer, the warranty won't transfer from the states

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by MarkoD

Seems too good to be true.

Why would someone sell it for 10k less than what it's worth unless something is wrong with it?

Also if its newer, the warranty won't transfer from the states

10K less than what you typically see it for here, which I've read is typical for some higher end used models. It's a 2010 so not concerned about warranty although BMW warranty does transfer from US to Canada from what I've been told.

Anyways that all said I'm confident it is a scam Here's the recent pic I asked for, bonus points to those who can spot the obvious

[Ross]

At least they didnt use wingdings for font matching...

[ScubaSteve]

Ran the pic through some ELA software for fun.

Photoshop tag found. Image has been compressed to JPEG twice. Image edited with Adobe Photoshop CS5 Windows

Photo has been modified since it was created. Modified: 2013:08:20 11:21:58

image created 2013:08:20 11:10:07-06:00

Science is fun...

[sphelps]

Yeap clear as day font overlay & Photoshop signature in exif data. The most painfully obvious part was the wrong model number, 535iA instead of 550iA

[Ross]

Originally Posted by ScubaSteve

Photo has been modified since it was created. Modified: 2013:08:20 11:21:58
image created 2013:08:20 11:10:07-06:00
Science is fun...

Simply looking at the black box nearly free of camera noise and the mismatched font style and color where the serial number is.

[brotherd]

I have seen more than a few problems from customers importing vehicles. Some are lucky, most are not. Try finding an electrical current draw that was killing the battery over a couple of days. Source of the problem was a gps transmitter buried deep in the vehicles heat/a/c ductwork. Not the first time either. IMHO you just don't know what you're getting when you import vehicles online or otherwise. Buyer beware definitely applies in all cases. I'm glad you caught it and did not proceed.