anybody knows this guy? (possible scamer)

[Pascal 29]

hi

i recently found an ad on a german UL marketplace page of a guy who is offering a rotax 912uls with roughly 400hrs tt and 18 smoh in 2011 out of an airplane that had a heavy fuselage damage. the pictures look like they show the front of an avid or maybe a kitfox with that engine on it. he offers the engine plus all accessories even including the whole engine monitoring for 7k € which is a reasonable price i think..

i contacted him with some questions, also asked if this was off an avid since i'm looking for not only the engine but the entire firewall forward kit including mount and cowling.  he confirmed it was actuayll from an avid and he could sell me the whole package.

i asked if he had any paperwork documenting the engine and the overhaul and he replied and told me in order to avoid a long forth and back via email with questions and answers, i should send him 2500€ and he will send me the engine with paperwork and all accessories etc. so i can test fit it to my aircraft and if i'm happy i can pay the rest and keep it.. that's when it started to get a sour taste

googled for one of the images of the engine in the add and found the same add with the same contact details also on a french ul forum. there it also had a phone number.. i googled the phone number and found numerous other ad's in that french forum with the same phone number but different email addresses and names... so that looks even more like a scammer's work ..

since the engine supposedly hung on an avid i thaught maybe there is somehone here who knows the guy and can actually deny that this is just a scam artist trying to rip me off.. i really would like to believe that i've found the entire FWF for an avid flyer to mount a 912 .. that would just be too sweet

so if anyone here knows a guy named christian Roques who lives in calvi (corsica) and owns a crashed Avid flyer, please speak up..

in any case i have offered him to come up with a list of exactly which documents i need and then ask him once for all those documents, so he can send me a scan or photo of thos and once they check out i would fly to corsica, visually inspect the goods and pay him in full and even help him to remove it from the fuselage before i load it and bring it back home.. his answer was "ok" so that gives me hope again  

 i've attached two images of the engine he has in the ad. does that look like an avid flyer to you?

[wypaul 448]

It does look like my MK IV mount except for the radiator mount is slightly different.

[Av8r3400 1178]

Smells like a scam to me.

 

[flywise 169]

Hey Pascal,

when I was looking for a second hand 912 there were 8 engines out of 10 not legit/scam. I found a very effective way to sort out the real vs scammers by saying I was very interested, ask for additional close up pictures. If I got the pictures I would propose to meet in person to pay & pick up the engine (or tell the seller a german friend of yours will meet him) . At that stage I would request the address and personal info. Most scammers will end the communication there!!!!!  If the engine is legit, I would ask the seller to bring it to an engine shop and have the shop take the engine, pay for it (you'll have to send the money to the shop) and crate it to send it out to you. Most shops will do it for a fee. 

 

Hope this helps

 

P.s I found all lower priced 912 engines to be scam!!!

[Pascal 29]

thanks for your numerous and quick repiles.. this board is really awesome! i am not yet one of you happy avid and kitfox pilots but i am considering buying an incomplete model C avid hauler (see my post here http://www.avidfoxflyers.com/index.php?/topic/6574-possible-new-builder/)

anyway.. i was told by some pilots around here (swiss alps) that in order to go skiing our glaciers with the avid i should consider finishing it with a rotax 912 S for better performance up in the alps..

i therefore need a rotax 912 of course, but that's not my main concern, actually i will only be able to afford the engine after selling my current aircraft, and i want to fly that one until the end of the year.. far more interesting in this ad was the fact that it is bolted to what looks like an avid of someone who is giving up on a restoration and most likely there's a cowling for it as well which would be a tremendous time saver, so i was mainly interested in that.

so i kept searching the web and i think i probably found the original source of the pictures and maybe the owner of that avid the numbers of the "original" ad are also more realistic.. here the seller is asking 12k € and claims the engine was just rebuilt last year and had only run for 18h since then (same number as used in the scammer's ad, but he claims the engine was rebuilt back in 2011)..

i've talked to the company that supposedly rebuilt the engine and they only provide warranty for 2 years, and both the scamer and the original ad say, that the engine is under warranty until 2020, which is not possible in the scamer's scenario ..

so let's hope that new ad i've found is actually for real and the guy wants to sell the cowling and mount as well

since i live in switzerland, which borders to france, i will in the end fly or drive to the place where the owner claims to be and look at the parts myself before paying any money. france is a beatyful country to visit on a flying week-end anyway

i also like your idea of asking for further pictures, that seems like a good proof before travelling

[NorthIdahoAvidflyer 374]

I have a B gearbox for sale on FB. I had some guy get a hold of me trying to get me to send it to him because he was needing it as soon as possible. I told him I would mail it to him as soon as whatever funds he sent hit the bank. He acted really put out that I would make him wait. He sent me a picture of a roll of money and said he didn't need my money and that he was a handshake kind of guy. I told him I was not going to send anything of mine without getting paid for it. He was put out that I didn't trust him....which I didn't. He agreed to mail me out a cashiers check the next day. Two weeks later I sent him a message saying I had not seen his funds, He made a bunch of excuses and said that he had just went and got the cashiers check the day before to make me happy......????. I told him I was moving to the next guy that wanted it.......fucking loser!!!

[Buckchop 479]

Man i hate those damm scammers!!! Thieves!!!!! 

[Allen Sutphin 705]

I have found that a lot of the low priced 912's out there for sale are prop strike engines, not all, but a lot of them. And on a 912, a crank flange dial runout test tells you nothing but the prop flange is OK. Its all the other stuff that operates from the crank that is possibly damaged. Automatic teardown at the least.

[Torch 18]

When I flew cargo jets into U.S. bases in Afghanistan and Iraq I would see lots of 912's on pallets from drones. I so badly wanted to take one with me. I asked one of the loadmasters where they go and he said Ramstein then probably Austria for rebuild. They were stacked up like firewood. We all know how expensive they are. Our tax dollars at work.

My favorite scam was a craigslist ad of my Buell Motorcycle for sale. It had several shots of my driveway and workshop in the background.  I played rope-a-dope with the Nigerian prince who advertised it till he figured it out then the ad came down.

[flywise 169]

Hey Pascal,

also look at the latest rotax list of stolen engines.....it is a must when you buy second hand.

 

https://legacy.rotaxowner.com/si_tb_info/serviceletter/sl-912-013.pdf