Complaint Review: Brian L. Brody

It all started when I found this beautiful 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air on autotraderclassics.com. I looked at the pictures and read through all of the specs and at $9,700 it sounded like a steal, but it was too good to be true. After talking with a man named "Brain L. Brody," he emailed me all of the information that I needed to know and sounded very nice, but something was weird. A few days later, I tried to go back on the listing on auto trader but it was gone. I know from looking at his profile that he was selling two other cars, both inexpensive and in excellent condition. So, I looked up through the search engine the other two cars that he had listed and they were gone too. It was like they were never posted!

I emailed "Brian" and asked him to resend the specifications on the car and pictures (since the listing had been taken down). He wrote, "The car is in perfect driving condition and not a scratch on it." Out of the blue a few hours later, he wrote me back saying that the brake pads urgently need to be replaced and there was a scratch on the bumper. I was confused because this contradicts what he wrote  previously. I asked him about it and he went back and forth saying he would fix it himself or he wanted me too. He kept pushing me to give him my information so that he can fill out the eBay transaction so he could send it to me. He assured me that everything was going to be safe and secure with the eBay protection program and if I didn't like the car, he would ship it back at his expense.

After getting really suspicious, I emailed my classic car pro Uncle to talk with "Brian". My Uncle found out a lot of information about this guy and the car, all of it was very strange. My Uncle asked why he was selling the car and he said that winter was coming and it wasn't a good time for convertibles. He asked if he had another car to drive instead and he said, no, I'll be driving my motorcycle. My Uncle asked if the car began life as a convertible and he admitted that the top had been chopped off and the car had been completely redone. "Brain" said that a local shop had rebuilt the car from the ground up and the only original parts to the car was the frame and the engine block. It was like he was trying to justify why the car was so cheap. My Uncle also asked about why he had pulled the ad on auto trader after only two days and his answer was, "Because Allie was interested in it."

After my Uncle got off the phone, he called me back. He told me all of the information that he found out and told me to walk away from it. The guy had a wierd sense about him and couldn't be trusted, turns out he was right. I forwarded my Uncle the eBay invoice that "Brian" had sent to me and all of the details where I would send the money was his personal bank account, not to eBay. I clicked the "email us" on the eBay invoice and brought me to another window that emails <support@escrow-ebay-vehicle.com>. I looked up the email in google and found dozens of website warning that the email was fraud. Just out of curiosity, I looked up the Vin number that he reluctantly sent to me. Guess what, I found the REAL car! Yes, it was a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air with the same exterior colors but different interior.. priced at $62,000!!! I caught his bluff but I worry that he'll turn around and do the same thing to someone else.  Be careful, make sure that you really get to know the guy who's selling the car and make sure that it's actually his. This guy tried to sell me a car that he never even owned.