Suspicous Listing

[green1]

I think their MO is to find legit car listings, scrape the details, then republish them later so that things seem to check out. So, I suspect that the car in the listing is real and exists somewhere, but they may not have it.
They also seem to make a "casual background check" seem legit with a web site, pictures, fax #, street address (which they don't occupy), & copied testimonials, so that more people start to feel comfortable enough to send money. Since this seems to be happening over and over, I think one should avoid any transaction where:

#1: The dealer # is a pre-paid cellphone.
and/or
#2: They will give you a reason why you can never see the car in person.
and/or
#3: They request you wire deposit money without having seen the vehicle.
and/or
#4: They refuse to consider money brokering services and expect direct funds transfer.
and/or
#5: Any indication that they are "out of the country" for whatever reason.
and/or
#6: Any deal that just seems impossibly too good to be true.


I have seen similar things done with deposit money for rental properly too. Exercise the same cautions even if you see interior pictures, street address, and other details.
It is too easy to copy someone else's eBay or Craigslist posting and just republish it with new contact info for someone else that doesn't own the property in question.

Maybe it's a US thing, but in Canada there'd be no way of knowing #1, #4 is likely to be true of many reputable business as well. #5 is difficult as well, a website hosted out of country is normal for a large number of businesses, and an accent means nothing. #6 is also quite subjective (a legitimate P85 sold recently in Canada for significantly less than expected)

That said, #2 and #3 are huge. Never deal with anyone who won't let you see the vehicle in person (or make similar arrangements, such as a reputable shop inspecting it, etc) before you give them money. My interpretation of the original post in this thread was that the buyer asked to do an out of state transaction sight unseen, nothing suspicious on the seller's part there, however if the seller won't let you see the car, regardless of excuses, that's HUGE red flags!

(That said, I've bought my last 2 vehicles from overseas based solely on pictures online without ever meeting the seller, or seeing the vehicle in person before handing over money. In both cases though I had conversations with several previous customers of those sellers before doing business with them.)

 

[swegman]

How can a person tell whether a "dealer phone number" is a pre-paid cell number?

 

[AudubonB]

I once didn't buy a snowmachine I realllllly wanted...because it was in northern Louisiana! All was going swimmingly for the scam-seller (so he thought), until I let him know that later that week I'd be visiting a friend in Memphis TN, and so could see the machine first-hand at no trouble to me. Boy, did everything go dead silent after that.

 

[jamieb]

How can a person tell whether a "dealer phone number" is a pre-paid cell number?

Apparently you can't: Investigation of Pre-paid Cell Phones | Crime Time

 

[TEG]

Sometimes Googling the phone # will let you know what kind of line. In any case I would trust a "landline" more than cellphone.

It sucks that we have to be careful detectives to figure out if a listing is a scam or not.

It is helpful if you can find a yellowpages type listing where the phone # goes to the same address as listed on the web site.
And if street view shows signage that matches the business name.
And if car pictures in the listings have signage in the background that also matches the same business name.
Sometimes they copy pictures from real web sites and you can find the wrong business name in signage in the background to tip off the scam.
Also if it looks like pictures of cars in their listings are from different areas (different types of trees, etc) it is another warning sign.
Ideally all of their cars were photographed in the same place with the dealer name showing in the background.

I suppose another thing you could do is like "please take a picture of (some particular part of the car) and send it to me." as a double check that they actually have the vehicle listed.

 

[TEG]

It looks like (probably fake site) Action Auto Everett
took their images from here:
Used Cars Marion | King Motor Company | Marion Car Dealership

Images for 1993 DODGE VIPER RT-10 Photo Gallery - K & D AUTO DEALERS
seem to be coming from here:
1993 Dodge Viper CT12348 - Foreign Cars Italia

 

[Rifleman]

It looks like the *******s listed the exact same scam again, under a different name

http://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/detail/612699638/overview/

 

[ecarfan]

@Rifleman, that cars.com listing is gone.

The internet is full of fake car ads. Caveat emptor.

 

[Rifleman]

@Rifleman, that cars.com listing is gone.

The internet is full of fake car ads. Caveat emptor.

It's gone because I submitted it to them as a scam. They emailed back a few minutes latter to say that they removed it

 

[ecarfan]

Good work!

 

[Zzzz...]

Someone in our office found the listing on cars.com, from there my boss wanted to inquire more so he had his secretary email them. The sent pictures via email. Car looked great, then I came into play when boss had to leave to go to convention. I spoke to a "Jeffrey" and he had all the right answers, so we negotiated a price (should have been the first clue), price was to good to be true. But not knowing to much about tesla I went ahead and did as I was asked and wired the money. I personally take for ever to buy any vehicle for myself and I wouldn't ever buy online without touching the car, but my owner has done this before with other classic valuable vehicles, so I didn't think anything of it. Until yesterday when we were suppose to receive the vehicle @12:00 then when it got to 2:00 I started calling. "Jeffrey" called back and said sorry someone else purchased the vehicle for a higher price and they were returning the vehicle back to Oregon. Then I knew something was wrong, and well it really was not easy to sleep last night. This is by far one of the most embarrassing things that can happen to someone. I have a lot of resources involved now, but i think we need to try and find this vehicle first, maybe that can lead to something

Could be too late, but first thing to do is to call the bank that received funds. If money is on the account bank could freeze it. And then work with FBI and hire local lawyers to get funds back. But if money were cashed out there is virtually no hope to get them back. Criminals use real passports that are stolen or simply pay homeless person to get one, to open an account.

 

[TEG]

Same Model S was listed here:
2013 Tesla S 85 Kwh 265 Miles Charge Range Tech Package Air Suspension 4k Miles - Used Tesla S for sale in Portland, Oregon | Autos-Cars.com

 

[patrick40363]

Ad is back up and running on auto trader.

 

[Seven7]

Same Model S was listed here:
2013 Tesla S 85 Kwh 265 Miles Charge Range Tech Package Air Suspension 4k Miles - Used Tesla S for sale in Portland, Oregon | Autos-Cars.com

The "contact seller" links to an E-bay ad for seller "Vitaly100" who seems to have good feedback, maybe his account was hacked or someone spent alot of time making a fake account look good, anyone else have any ideas?

LOL. just did a search on cars.com for Teslas, same car is listed twice (Two different ads, two different prices, phone numbers, locations,) Seller listed as "Alex" in both ads.

 

[karmamule]

Anyone buying a used Tesla from any entity other than Tesla itself has to follow one simple rule: see it in person first. That's not just smart for preventing scams. Even used you're paying lots of money and will want to make sure it's in the condition described.

 

[Seven7]

Anyone buying a used Tesla from any entity other than Tesla itself has to follow one simple rule: see it in person first. That's not just smart for preventing scams. Even used you're paying lots of money and will want to make sure it's in the condition described.

Agreed!! Just add all other brands of cars, boats, airplanes, motor homes, houses for sale or rent, and pretty much anything advertised on the internet...sigh