Lost Porsche 356

[Rob Green]

Guys,

Unfortunately this is an example of the pitfalls that confront the whole collector car community. The internet gives and takes, we must be aware that there are people like this out there. Having bought and sold many vintage cars over time, I see the internet as an asset if we exercise due diligence. If the car is valuable in price or value to you either see it yourself, or have someone trustworthy evaluate the car. KTF

Rob

64 C coupe 129333
67 Mini Cooper S
67 VW type one sunroof
67 M.G. Midget
68 Land Rover "Bug Eye"

[george batho]

"you either see it yourself, or have someone trustworthy evaluate the car."

this does not help when the seller sells it to more than one party or does not deliver the car once paid for...as are both the case here...

[Thomas Sottile]

I have made it a habit to pay for the car and pick it up at the same time. Yes I know sometimes it is imposable those times I miss the deal, but I have never bought a car that I did not take home. Stay well Tom

[Rob Green]

George,

My advice applies to the car itself, not the individual selling (or swindling) the car. Those issues regarding the seller must also be taken into consideration. This would be the "due diligence" I speak of. Unfortunately some of these swindlers are well versed in deception. Searching commentary on the business he claims to represent would definitely be advised. Individual sellers are harder, but not impossible, to research. For our 356 cars this forum is a good source of such information. My best to you in resolving this unfortunate situation.

Rob

[george batho]

I have no roll in resolving the issues with this car....I simply helped out the "owner" to find it.

further, my point is that no amount of "due diligence" will help you if the seller is smart and determined to rip you off. only afterward, and through forums like this, can the word be spread about who these characters are.

I know of many cases like this, including where the buyers are smart and have over 40 years in the business. They were still victimized by a seller who was determined to be dis-honest.

everyone be careful out there...

[Rob Green]

As both George and Charlie White indicated in the first posts on this subject: A little bit of looking would have yielded enough red flags for a parade...........
Rob

[Pierre-Emmanuel WOLFF]

Hi everybody,

In my message posted last month, I was expected that my "bad story" with Frederic Ballot, President of European Vintage Car Company would end in a positive way. To be honest, I was very doubtful about the sincerity of Frederic Ballot. I can tell you now that he has not respected one of his commitments and I have decided to communicate the way that Mr. Ballot does business by a few messages on this 356 talk.

My goal is not to do a smear campaign against Frederic Ballot but just to prevent people to buy a car to Frederic Ballot until he refunds me back my money. And if some 356 Registry readers have some good ideas to help me in a way or in another (like Geoff for instance), I am ready to study all of them.

First of all, I can tell you that I am not a rich guy. I have been a Porsche fan for a long time (since I was a 10 years old child) and I always worked hard after my studies in order to offer some good life conditions to my 3 children and my wife and to be able to buy the car of my dreams i.e a Porsche 356 A.

After having spared one $ after one $ over the last 15 years, I decided to look for the car of my dreams. Last April 2012, I found a nice Porsche A 1957 on the website of European Vintage Car Company. Frederic Ballot and I concluded the sale end of May 2012 and I wired the full amount of money mid-June 2012 in order to organize the shipping.

But the shipping has never been organized !

During summer 2012, I tried to call Frederic Ballot almost 10 times a day without having any answer. I have sent so many mails asking some news but he never answered. Finally, early September, he answered to my call and said to me that he could not ship because he did not have the original Certificate of Title of the car. He told me that the owner was in South Korea, working for the US government, and he could not be reached. By the way, before signing the sale contract, Mr. Ballot wrote me that he was the official owner of the car, so he should have been able to provide me with the Certificate of Title. Very strange !!

I did not like at all the way Frederic Ballot considered me as his client so I decided to inquiry by my own trying to get some information on internet. After some emails, I found a very nice person in UK, David Barnett, who purchased a car to Frederic Ballot some years ago and lived the same story as me : car paid but not delivered. He told me how he succeeded in getting his car and he gave the name of one of his friend, George Batho, who helped me a lot in my inquiry. I take the opportunity to thank warmly George for his help.

Story to be continued shortly !

[Bob Forman]

If you check dirtsearch.org you'll see Frederic Ballot of Arizona has a score of 80. There is other info on his court activity but being a novice to that site I can't vouch for that or what the score means. If I had an 80 in anything in school I'd have been proud, but I don't think that syncs in this case. There is also a photo of him on mylife.com and shows his age as 52. Unknown if it's the same person but he's the only Frederic Ballot that comes up in Arizona.

[george batho]

posted at the request of David Barnett:

"I've worked with, bought and sold, restored, raced and rallied classic and vintage cars for over 45 years. During that time I've met a few villains, crooks and con artists. But I can honestly say I've never met anybody as bad as Frederic. He is the ultimate con artist and I'm not surprised he did what he has to Pierre-Emanuel. When I was pursuing Frederic Ballot for my son's Jaguar XK120 he gave me all sorts of excuses, he was very plausible, he was always very talkative, he would have stayed on the phone day and night talking to you. He is the most cunning person I've ever met and it does not suprise me he manages to dupe so many people.

The only treatment he does not like is to put his name out there, and expose him on as many forums as possible. He does react to that.

Spare no mercy because he really does ruin a lot of lives". David Barnett, Scotland.

[Bob Forman]

It is painfully obvious this guy is an international swindler via mail, internet and phone line. Has anyone reported him to the FBI? I think with the amount of money involved they would be at least casually interested in him. And prosecution would seem to be a slam-dunk.

[Pierre-Emmanuel WOLFF]

Hi Bob,

I have already contacted the Phoenix police end of last year and I gave all the elements to a Detective who built a case and gave him to the attorney a couple months ago, it seems that the case is under study. By the way, having a 356 lover lawyer pushing the case would help a lot !

Regarding your idea to contact the FBI, I am ready to do it but I do not have any name / email address / phone N°.

PEW

[Ron LaDow]

Hi Bob,
Regarding your idea to contact the FBI, I am ready to do it but I do not have any name / email address / phone N°.
PEW

FBI — Phoenix
phoenix.fbi.gov/‎
FBI Phoenix building small, 21711 N. 7th Street Phoenix, AZ 85024. Phone: (623) 466-1999. Fax: (623) 466-1108. E-mail: phoenix@ic.fbi.gov ...
http://www.google.com/search?site=&sour ... RAsDXrEfR4

[george batho]

It is painfully obvious this guy is an international swindler via mail, internet and phone line. Has anyone reported him to the FBI? I think with the amount of money involved they would be at least casually interested in him. And prosecution would seem to be a slam-dunk.

and yet in the latest news....the District attorney decided not to prosecute the case and Frederic Ballot remains free of any consequences.

apparently committing crimes is without consequence in the USA.

not the first case like this I have heard of....

[Larry Brooks]

Internet fraud is running rampant because there is little interest on the part of the legal system in bringing the people to justice.

I just had someone try to pull the bogus Cashiers Check scam on me. The one where they send you a check that is for $2000 too much with instructions to pay his shipper the excess for some "other items he's shipping for him". Of course the check is phony. I knew his game from the first time he contacted me so I strung him along as long as I could. He wasted about $50 on sending three checks (by saying I hadn't received a check yet), all different and all fake. He also spent a lot of time trying to contact me. I figured all of the time and resources he spent on me was time and money that he wasn't using to scam other people who might fall for it.

He wasn't particularly bright and in the process I got 2 addresses and 3 phone numbers for him and people working with him. They were all in Ft. Worth, Texas so I contacted the police there who told me I had to contact the FBI. The FBI told me that I had to contact my local Police. My local police said to contact the FBI and gave me a "special" phone number for internet fraud there. I called that number and was told that unless there was at least 2 more zeros on the check they weren't interested, and even then it sounded like they would just be filling a report.

I put a note with the phone numbers and addresses in a Priority envelope, along with the checks and sent it to the Ft. Worth Police. I figured that maybe they might catch these guys for something else and maybe that info could put another nail in their coffin. But I am not optimistic that anything will ever come of it.

[Bob Forman]

Larry, the exact same scenario played out with a friend involving two GMC diesel marine engines that were supposedly on their way here from Australia. This time it was $20,000 up front....no engines materialized. Seattle (where the scam artist operates and lives) police said, "since you learned about the dealer on the internet, it's the FBI's case." The FBI wasn't interested because it wasn't big enough and said it ought to be handled by the locals. This is altogether too comforting for the crooks who are probably laughing all the way to the bank.