Recognizing fraud is not always cut and dry simple. Scam artists are called “artists” for a reason and some are just as good at ripping people off as Kenny Wallace is at racing. Seeing through the smoke and mirrors of a scam, especially internet scams, can be done by knowing a few key facts to online payment transactions. Where you look for used cars online is important. Free listings like Craigslist or bid sites like eBay Motors have the most and purist fraud listings for cars. They will often steal images and information from a real used car listing and re-post them under a fraudulent banner. These sites can’t monitor every post or submission for authenticity, so going through third party agents like Car Trader or our very own One Stop Motors is a good way around that. These businesses are built to sell and because they come with a price, scammers tend to avoid them. Still, doing something as simple as running the VIN # through Google to see if a car is sold or who the title owner is can take two minutes and save a lot of heartache.
Paying is where they always get you, so knowing how to pay online safely is dire. First thing to remember, never, ever pay online using a financial wiring services like Western Union or MoneyGram. No listing site endorses this method because there is no way to protect your money wire. As soon as the money order goes in the mail or over the internet, it’s gone baby gone. The counter to this is escrow. Escrow acts as a bag-man in the transaction of money and products. The buyer sends money through escrow and they hold onto it until both parties confirm their transaction is completed. At that time, escrow releases the money to the seller. Escrow never uses Western Union typed services.
Just because you see escrow in an ad or posting, however, doesn’t mean it is necessarily legitimate. Escrow fraud is a cleaver way to catch buyers off guard. Escrow through eBay, for example, doesn’t exist. Seeing those two words together should raise a flag. Escrow sites will also never have a dash or .ORG in their address (no escrow is non-profit). If you receive an e-mail from escrow during a transaction and it asks for a fax, avoid that as well, because faxes are unsecured channels and by extension never used by an escrow site. Also keep an eye out for the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and escrow, since like eBay, the BBB is not associated with escrow. Most third party sellers have escrow affiliations that handle the payments for you to avoid anything like what we’ve mentioned above.
Let’s say you do go through eBay to find a used car. You have to be cautious what you read or are sent by the eBay user listing the vehicle. Never e-mail responses directly, go through the eBay e-mailing outlet. If in an e-mail the seller suggests paying through Yahoo!, Google, or eBay payment agents this is a scam. None of these mentioned have escrow or provide safe payment streams for used car sales. Also to avoid is eBay second chance offers on cars as these cars have probably been sold already and a scammer is trying to sell it a fictional version to you. Generally, if you want to avoid the hassle of fraud, suggest escrow as a payment plan with the seller. If they suggest other, non-secured methods or claim escrow is untrustworthy, that should be a sign that the seller is the untrustworthy one.
Identifying fraud when on the hunt for a used car can be a backwards affair with a bad decision if you let your guard down. Having companies like OSM to provide the necessary protection for both parties, but refining your search so that you only pick up local vehicles for sale is perhaps the safest way to shop for used cars. Seeing is believing and it’s much harder to hide fraud if the buyer is within driving distance. Still, the world is populated with enough honest people to make buying used an intelligent and valuable option. It’s the rest of the world you have to be keen against.
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