It didn't happen to me thankfully but this happened to a buddy. There was an 04 STI for sale with 89k on it, motor had just been replaced with an OEM shortblock, pictures looked pretty clean, and it had a couple tasteful mods done to it. Well my buddy decided it would be a good idea to not let me know or bring someone mechanically inclined along to take a look at the car. He looked it over and fell in love immediately. Fast forward a month now and he finally got his 500 break - in miles one the car and wanted an oil change. I get the car up and immediately feel very skeptical about how "good" of a condition this car is in. The under side of the the transmission and steering rack is covered in oil. The engine looked fairly clean but cam seals are leaking though. But the worst part is after the oil change and thorough cleaning of the under side we went for a test drive. Car pulled great as we were going through the gears but then he tries to hit fourth and nothing happens. I thought he was just not driving it right so I asked to drive it. I'm going through the gears pretty quick and try to hit fourth and get completely locked out of gear. My buddy then proceeds to tell me that he found a bunch of speeding and street racing tickets in the glove box when he purchased the car. I got the great pleasure of letting him know that he spent $16k on a car with a shit tranny
