There's a lesson to be learned from this story - if it sounds to be good to be true, it is. A Wallingford, CT woman was scammed out of $4000 trying to buy a 2009 Mustang with 1,908 miles for just $7,196. According to HartfordBusiness.com, "A scam artist ... stole the identity of a Michigan auto dealer and cheated a Wallingford woman and 19 car buyers out of thousands of dollars."
According to a press release from Jerry Farrell, CT commissioner of consumer protection, "Last month, the owner of Summit Auto Sales in Pontiac, Michigan discovered that an online scam artist had stolen his business name and street address as the basis for a phony web site. The fraudulent site used the Summit Auto Sales name and Michigan address to scam unsuspecting customers into buying cars online.
"The site claimed its unbelievable prices were because it was selling repossessed vehicles, and customers were urged to act fast, as the inventory changed rather quickly. None of the claims were true, the cars were never delivered to the consumer, and frustrated buyers found no way to reach a live person through the website. The telephone number provided on the website brought up a voice recording directing callers back to the website to use the online contact form."
Farrell offers some good advice:
- If a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is
- If you must buy online, use a credit card
- If you don't have a credit card, use PayPal for a secure transaction.
There is some advice I want to add: avoid escrow websites except for Escrow.Com. It has a good reputation. Concerned about paying for a used car? I do have some practical advice for you to consider.
Thanks for the information, Keith. Very illuminating article.
Yes, unfortunately, this sort of thing happens a lot. One of the latest places chosen by scammers to pull this sort of thing seems to be Craigslist. Beware too-good-to-be-true classifieds for cars, electronics and what-not, particularly in big cities.
I used to be a car dealer and I’m currently the editor for an online publishing company myself. There are a few things I always tell my readers who are interested in attending repossessed car auctions. I’d like to include a few of them here if you don’t mind:
1- Choose the auction carefully. If you’re new, tech savvy and don’t want to spend too much time on this (let’s say, you’re a college student looking to buy a cheap car), you should probably do well online. Otherwise, I’d go the offline route, where you can more easily inspect the vehicle in person at a safe environment.
2- Whether you choose to go the online or the offline route, you should always attend a few auctions before ever placing a bid. Get familiar with the rules, the environment, etc
3- Also, look for other savvy attendants and study their moves, the cars the tend to bid on, etc.
4- Try to find out what the winning bids where in the past for the kind of vehicle you’re going after.
5- Always look for a car’s VIN and ask for a vehicle’s history report. Some auction sites provide this. If they do not, get it yourself. I prefer Autocheck.com for this, but again, there are others.
6- Choose auction places you trust. If you’re online, ebay would be a good choice, but it’s not the only one. Also, never forget to check the seller’s reputation and past deals, talk to previous customers, ask any questions you may have at the forums, etc. All of this is really easy to do at most online auction sites.
7- Most offline auctions provide a guarantee and you can extend them for a small fee. Consider doing this.
8- In order to find repossessed and government car auctions in your local area, we always recommend a particular site we trust (there are a couple of others which are good too), or you can just go to local papers and look for them.
Here’s and article published by us with some general information, tips and resources on repossessed cars for sale. In any case, even when it is indeed possible to find good deals at these auctions, please always remember to double check everything and learn the ropes before you place your first bid.
I hope these tips are useful for some of you and thanks again Keith for your great article.