By Frank Ling
If you want to buy a car through the Internet, you can find great deals out there if you look and search hard enough. But buying a used car online can be a little intimidating because you’re negotiating with complete strangers.
You can usually recognize car scam artists by the extremely low prices they are offering when compared to going prices found on reference sites such as Kelley Blue Book, Edmunds.com, and others.
If the potential seller asks you to wire or transfer the money directly to his account Western Union, or direct deposit, run for the hills because you may never see your money again. There are other tip offs you should watch out for too.
Too Many Details
Sometimes car scam artists will resort to gaining your trust by writing a lengthy story on why they want to sell their car. Some of these storylines may sound familiar to you such as:
- Moving away soon! Must sell car fast!
- Going overseas to Iraq and must sell car fast.
- Need money to pay for medical bills.
- Must pay off tuition and need to sell car.
- Just bought a new house and need to make payments.
There are hundreds of variations on these topics and if the story is a long one, chances are that it’s bogus.
Too Much Urgency
Scam artists want to put pressure on you to buy the car and run off with your money. So if you encounter any aggressive behavior by the seller to buy the car quickly, move on to someone else. You may be in a scam.
Too Many Photos
Photos of the car for sale are good but too many may be a red flag that says it’s a car scam. The reason why too many photos indicate a scam is because the scam artist is trying to convince you that the sale is legit. Often they’re too lazy to take real pictures, so they’ll just find them on the Internet and paste them into the ad.
If you suspect you’re being scammed, ask to see more photos that have to do with specific views such as the dashboard, open trunk, and anything that can't be faked by cut and paste.
Common Sense
It boils down to this: If it sounds too good to be true, take caution.