ADVICE - READ THIS!

Advice to Sellers and Buyers

First, trust no one. I hate to put it like that, but that’s the way it is, unfortunately. When money is involved, some (but obviously not all) people practice avarice, greed, and deception. Even an inexpensive car costs a lot of money. Even though most people are honest, upright citizens, assume someone is working an angle on you until you know otherwise. Here are some other tips:

Autosavant.net is not involved in any transaction in any way – we don’t offer escrow services, guarantees, buyer protection services, payment processing, vehicle inspection services, etc. If someone claims that we are involved in your vehicle sale or purchase, they are lying. If they send you an official-looking email with our name on it, or our name in the email reply requesting payment or funds or personal information, you are getting set up.

You can avoid almost all fraud attempts simply by only doing business with people you meet in person. The last thing a fraud perpetrator wants is someone who can positively ID him or her. Be especially wary of overseas buyers that say that they are in a hurry to do the transaction.

NEVER give out personal or financial information like your S.S. #, your bank account numbers, etc.

NEVER wire money via any wire service (Western Union, MoneyGram, etc.) to anyone for anything – payment, a “refundable deposit” to hold a vehicle, a “good faith” deposit, a down payment, etc. You’re getting scammed.

NEVER assume that you are receiving a truthful description of a vehicle that you are interested in purchasing. Verify condition and mileage. Be aware that services like CarFax are not privy to all title and accident damage in all states. There may be huge gaps in the vehicle’s history on their “clean” reports. Be aware that not all “certified” used or pre-owned program cars from dealers have an accident-free history. Most dealers will not sell cars with salvage titles or cars that they know are “swimmers” (flood cars, i.e. Katrina), "clickers" (odometers rolled back) "smokers" (fire-damaged cars), etc. but some private sellers or small used car lots (i.e., tote-the-note, buy here, pay here) have no hesitation in offering these types of cars for sale.

Fake certified funds instruments, bank drafts, money orders and cashier checks are now very common. Not only will you be out the money you thought were receiving, but your bank or credit union will hold you responsible for the funds they didn’t receive when they tried to redeem the payment instrument. The time between when you deposit the fake and when the bank finds out its fake could be weeks, and BTW, there’s a good chance that you’ll be arrested and booked as an accessory to fraud for depositing that fake payment instrument. You won’t be convicted after everything gets sorted out, but getting arrested in the lobby of your local bank is embarrassing, to say the least. And, you’ll still be out the money.

Any transaction that involves a shipping or escrow service as an integral part of the deal is probably bogus. Fraud perpetrators often offer to “warranty” or “guarantee” a transaction through an escrow company. The service itself is usually a sham company set up by the perpetrator in order to assist in the fraud.

BEWARE of anyone that offers you more than the purchase price via certified check or money order, etc. and says he “trusts you” to send him the difference. The certified check or money order is a fake. You will not get those funds and you will lose whatever additional money you send regarding the difference or the overage.

FINALLY, I realize dealers have a bad reputation among a lot of consumers, but much of the previously-described bad stuff that happens to individuals in vehicle transactions just doesn't happen with dealerships. They're real businesses, registered in whatever state they're in, regulated by that state, and are very unlikely to put their business at risk or open to legal liability by practicing fraud like the kinds described above. It just doesn't usually happen with a dealer. I am not acting as their booster or their apologist as you certainly need to be aware that every dealer wishes to sell every car for as much as possible - but this nothing new, and I believe just about everyone is cognizant of this reality. What I'm saying is that these types of brazen, outright fraud I describe above are not something you need to be overly concerned with when you're conducting a transaction with a dealer.
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If you think that you have been a victim or intended victim of fraud, you should contact as many of the following as you deem necessary:

Local police department (non-emergency number)
Local district attorney’s office or state’s attorney office
FTC toll free hotline: 877-FTC-HELP (877-382-4357)
FTC online complaint form (http://www.ftc.gov/)
Internet Fraud Complaint Center (www.ic3.gov/)

Additionally, if you suspect fraud regarding a ‘for sale’ post on Autosavant.net, please notify us immediately by emailing us at abuse@autosavant.net. Include the URL of the post so we can find it.

Brendan Moore – Autosavant.net